HIGH PIT WILMA

Bit late in catching up,Tony,a canna place any of these lads at aal!

The Heron Family were a lovely set of neighbours to have,young Frankie,and Jackie,pictured her,were two fine lads,Frankie always had his camera oot in the street recording family and Community life as it was in the late 940's and through the 1950's.We have him to thank,as well as recently deceased Billy Wright,our next door neighbour,for our family photographs as well as all our young friends playing together on warm summer nights in Hollymount Square!

A wudn't mind betting either Billy Wright took this pic,or Frankie gave his camera to somebody else to take it with him on it!

Aaah!,I'm afraid I am a bit too young[!!],for this yin!!

It looks like a Charabanc tip oot,aal the cheps hae tha queer coats wi one button fastened at the top,and it looks like a tent at the left hand side..wudn't mind betting it was a beer tent!!

A boozy trip,they used ti caal i in the aad days,even when aa was a bairn!

The neighbourhood would aal pay a few coppers a week,ti the one who organised trips ,usually ti Blackpool,once a year..!

My guess wud be aroond the 1940's for this one,maybe a bit earlier.

Picnic Day,in the mid-late 1950's,possibly very early 1960's,the Bailey Bridge over the road down Bedlington Bank was supported by two sets of pillars constructed from concrete drainage pipe sections filled with re-enforcing rods and solid concrete infills.

The pillars were about three or four feet in diameter,and us kids watched the crews building these bridges [the river one also..on Greenheart wood Trestles..].

You can see Hunter's Farm house ,it's actually on the left side of the road,but perspective makes it look like it is on the right!..the field in the foreground,is Hunter's field,taken from the near top of Bedlington Bank.

The Rostrum in the picnic field can just be seen over the built-up  opencast road,and the white pillar under the bridge is what I have just described.

The main road is out of sight ,and is to the right of the pic,and winds down to go under the Bailey bridge and over the river Blyth.

C'mon, li'l bill15,get ya wings gannin! Eager to see mair pics like this yin!!

Thanks a lot for posting this'un..!!

Hi Folks! Just caught up,been off due to health issues with both myself and my Wife! I reckon this pic dates back to the early-mid 1950's.

The foreground field is where we used to walk through to get to a break in the hedge along the side of the picnic field,in the days long before it became Attlee Park,and before the concrete rostrum was built.

The Council used to clear the cows out of the field,mow it,and build a temporary rostrum with scaffolding poles,and I think it was before steel poles came into use..they used wood poles lashed with ropes for the new Council House building programmes after the War,and I am sure they used the same method to put the speech platform up on picnic days.

The Canopies are just visible in the left side in the mid-ground of the pic.

The foreground field is now the tarmac'd car park at the bottom right of Bedlington Bank.

Hunter's Farm and field was on the left side of the road,where the lovely house now stands ,opposite the field shown here.

We kids were terrified of old Hunter,the Farmer,cos the older lads told us he had a Jelly gun,and would shoot you with it if he caught you in his field,and you couldn't get the jelly off your body!!

Notice how lovely and thick the old free woods were before the thinning out programme started,in order to create the park and woodwalks.

I spent me Childhood  down this Field,and the woods,from Five years old!! 

We used to walk down the Bedlington Bank from Hollymount Square,no traffic,or very sparing traffic,at the least,mostly horse and cart traffic in those days...1949-- on!!

Happy Days!! 

This was after I left Westridge School,Mr Abrahart left the school around 1958[?]..ish,and went to West Moor at Gosforth.

A few years ago,not that many!,My Barber was cutting my hair,and as usual,the chat always went around to our days at Westridge,and he told me that Mr  Abrahart left the school after a lot of harrassment from the Headmaster,Mr Hemming,who all the pupils I knew,including myself,thought the world of!! When Mr Hemming left,Mr Abrahart came back,so I am wondering if this Photo was taken during his return..which would have been after 1959 at the very least,cos that is when I left,to work down the Coalmines.

Mr Abrahart was the best,zaniest crackerjack of a teacher,on History,but he made you remember your work though his animations during Dictation lessons!!He used to take on the parts of Disraeli,Napoleon,and others during the lesson,and stomp back and forward across the floor,like Basil Fawlty!!..Can you remember ,Canny Lass,being unable to write,cos you had to hold your ribs and stomach,cos they were sore with laughing!!

The lasses cried when he left,and a can tell ye noo...the lads were haading it back...as ye did when ye were a tough kid!! Ha ha! Sorry,Alan,I digress again...! 

Cheers Folks! Bill.

They are leaning against the "Modern"[!!] MC3 Gathering-Arm Joy Loader. This Machine made mincemeat of loading out a 14'x10' arched roadway full shot lasted out of the solid strata.

In my Bates' gallery there is a pic of me in an Eimco 625 Mechanical Shovel loader..loading a full shot onto a conveyor belt. I had to continuously drive in,track back,skew,then empty the bucket onto the belt.

With the Gathering Arm Loader,you just swept in at the left side,driving in inchy pinchy,and the floor was cleaned up,all you had to do next was track back,skew, drive in at the right side,and the arms on the spade at the front,just gathered like a human being would,and lifted tons of stones onto the belt in an hour! The machine was about 6 feet wide,so it was a very efficient machine. It became out-dated when they brought in the Joy Continuous Miner [JCM],Hence the bracketed ! mark in my comment at the start!

Bob McGregor was my good friend and Neighbour for a lot of years at West Terrace at Stakeford..lovely family!

This one brings back a lot of memories of my childhood! If you zoom in,you will notice people all aroond. Thi pic on thi left shows a lot of light-coloured stuff lying on thi ground at the base of the chimney. For those who might not knaa owt aboot felling this chimney,aal explain hoo they did it.

The light-coloured stuff in the left pic is piles of old lime mortar,and broken bricks taken from the base of the chimney,as the demolition men carved a huge hole out of the base,and supported the area where bricks were removed with Telegraph Pole-sized wood props,just as we would support the roof underground. The men created an absoloute cavern,in the side of the chimney,and calculated exactly where to remove the brickwork.

Once they had removed a considerable and sufficient amount of brickwork,and had a whole whack of huge props supporting the chimney,they poured either Deisel,or Petrol,all over the props.

On the day of demolition,they cleared the immediate area of personell,and the public,then they set fire to the props that supported the chimney.

It didn't take long,and as soon as enough wood had burned away,the weight of the now insufficient support of the chimney,made it lean exactly in the intended direction,then,in a suspense-filled few minutes,she crashed down..exactly on time,and neatly between the Pit buildings and the Rail Line...NO EXPLOSIVES!!..that's why people are standing all around so close to watch!

The smoke at the base is from the burning wood props. If I hadn't witnessed the men taking out the brickwork,as a kid,and asked what they were doing,[to other Mineworkers standing there also,] I would have found it hard to believe such a basic primitive method was used to bring down a tall chimney like this one,I think it was 180 feet high,but stand to be corrected on that one. But I have a vivid memory of the days when all this happened,standing watching the men creating this huge hole,and propping it up...seems incredible when they could have gotten Fred Dibnah up ti sort it oot in his fashion!!..cud he hae done it any mair precise?! I hope I have enlightened at least one person,and hopefully more!

Very interesting piece of history.

Those were thi days! Owa 100,000 people visited Bedlington for the Picnic Day!

THE CUNDY!!! THAT'S a blast from thi past.James!

Ye can just see the Concrete entrance ,lower left of the pic,and yes,when thi lights were oot in the Cundy,and there was a lot of rainwaata collected in the swalley inside there,we used to dare new kids ti gaan through by thasell's!

James,wud ya initials be JH,by any chance?,a hae thi feeling a knaa ye ,or knew ye,very well!!

In some seams,thi coal was like diamond,hard as hell! At Bates,there was a lot of Iron Pyrites,["Brass"..Fools Gold..!],and if you hit some of this,it used to take the Tungsten Carbide Tips off the Drill Bits!...Noo THAT is HARD!.

Noo wat's gaanin on,A posted the first one earlier,then when a came back ti see the rest of the set,me post had gone,and a was thinking that a hadn't actually posted it,and it was deleted.SO, a sat for a quarter of an hoor and typed the same comments again,only ti find when a posted THIS one,the first one has appeared!! Nivvor mind,they are great pics!

Shud be a Bracket after "Bank"..!!

Andy would have been a "Putter".Here he is "Putting" [or Taking],a "Fullun" [Full Tub of Coal],outbye to a Landing area,where he would leave it coupled to a set of other Fulluns,usually making up a set of six,whereby another Miner,[called a "Driver"] and Horse would  take the set of six tubs right outbye to the shaft bottom,to be taken in the Pit Cages to the surface..["Bank". This was the procedure with Putters and Drivers,before Conveyor Belts were installed,which then carried all the coal from the  faces directly to the Loader -end near the Shaft Bottom. This Pony has the wrong size Yem-Sticks on his Collar! Andy has a wooden "Dreg" [piece of wood],inserted in the rear wheels to control the speed of the tub,indicating they are going down a slight gradient. Notice,no fat on the Miners like Andy!..all blood sweat and...sometimes....tears,but naebugga wud ivvor knaa!

James,not nitpicking,but only for correctness ,when I was transferred from Choppington B pit,to Bedlington A Pit,in 1965,the pit was already 140 years old,and that's when dumping the stone waste started. I was three in 1947,when my Parents moved into the newly built Hollymount Square,and I remember my older Brother [Three years older,born on the same date], telling me to look out of our bedroom window,to see the flames roaring up on a really strong wind blowing. The whole of the top of the mountain was ablaze,but that was normal,they just kept fire hoses running hopelessly in vain,to try and control the fires. For years it was always burning,but one night there was a Hurricane force wind,and she lit up more than ever in the past,and the heat was so intense it melted and twisted the heavy rails that the Bogie ran on which carried the stones up to the top of the heap,by means of a rope hauler. We played up on that as kids 10 years old,but knew where to go,and where not to go,by the colour of the slag we were walking across.In places where it was cold on the ground,the colour would change from Slaty Grey/Black,to Orange/Red/White. If we threw a big stone into those areas,it would sink like quicksand,and it would throw a plume of red hot fumes [Sulphrous],and dust and smoke. You were ok if you played along the Rabbit tracks and Burrows,of which there  hundreds!! But my ain point was,in 1947-on,that heap was a mountain,and yes,that's what the Washery was built for,to clean the oal,but all the stones from the screens went straight into Railway trucks underneath the screens and unloaded into the Bogie Hopper,and away she would go!!

...and when the wind got up and she was truly alight...the Sulphrous fumes and smoke were overpowering,it was an accepted part of life..no mass demonstrations to have dumping banned....in the 1960's it cost dearly in Aberfan...

In the confines of a coalface,sometimes you couldn't start with a 6-0' drill straight off,so you had to start with a 3-0' drill,then change to the 6-0' one when you had drilled right in with the shorter one.That's why he has one lying beside him.

Noo THAT!..was one hell of a job,doon the pit,the Bulls'sHead..["BULL'SHEED"],Driller was a canny weight,so with a Nine foot drill in,and drilling into solid stone...ye needed arms like Garth,[a pit saying!],that's hoo Dinper has arms like this in the pic!![He is drilling into the Coal Seam on this Pic.]A  "fast"  [Stuck!] drill has caused many a broken arm or shoulder,when reverse torque spun the machine out of your hands and twisted your arms etc!

Andy is "Putting" or taking the tub outbye to a landing,where several full tubs would be coupled up,usually a set of six,where a "Driver" with a bigger horse would pull the set outbye from the landing to the shaft bottom,to be sent to Bank in the cages.Andy is going downhill when the pic was taken,as he has a wooden "Dreg" in the rear wheels to help slow the tub from over running the horse,even though the Limbers,["Limma's"] used to control the tub ,also the "Backstrap" on the Horse's Gears,around his rear end and fastened to his Bellyband...that pushed up against the Horse's rear flanks,and when he felt the pressure,he automatically pushed back against it and set his legs ..another great pic!

One of my Neighbours at Hollymount Square,in the early 1950's  was a fella called "Aad Singer Dixon" ,and he was one of the Horsekeeper's from the year Dot,they used to say..and this guy looks like him to my mind..I was only three years old when we moved there,but I grew up with the Dixons,until I got Married in 1967,but Singer had sadly Passed away by then. I remember his Grandson Brian visiting every other night,with his Parents,and through the windows at night we used to hear Old Singer shouting ,as he waved his family off for the night ..."Gudneet,see ye thi morn!"..I can hear his voice noo as a type!! The horse's Collar and Yemsicks can just be seen at the right side hanging on the hook. Great Pic! Cheers Bill.

Note their pants!!.."Fustons"...indestructible thick warm material,most Miners wore Fustons,it was like ...what else wud ye wear doon a black hole?...not ya Wedding Suit! See the Steel corrugated Straps,[or "Planks"] holding the roof up? They were 6' long and canny heavy! Aboot three or four years ago,me and LBJ [me wee Lab x Dog],were waaking back from owa the Bomar fields ahent wor hoose,and a got me eye on summick familiar,sticking oot the thick bushes,next ti the Farmer's fence.A howked on and pulled it oot,it was one of these steel straps,bent at right angles,wi the weight of the roof underground,and it came from the Bomar pit heaps when they levelled it oot..noo hoo it ended up where it was owa the field a divvent knaa,but a fetched it yem on me shoulder,and mind,a was knackered when a got back yem!A hae it at the bottom of me garden as a feature,next ti me fence!! Just a little reminder of when a was strong enough ti lift them with one hand up ti the roof,and put a Lazy-Man prop in ti haad it there,so ye cud knock a prop in at each end to support the roof.[When a was in me Twenties - Forties...!] The Dr Pit was a "Naked Lamp Mine",under the M n Q Act 1954, so Willie Ward was ok using a Flashgun doon the pit,but wadn't hae been allowed doon any other "Flame Safety Regs " Pit.

Aye,James,the metal canister held 5 lbs of Explosive Cartridges,what we ,[the miners] referred to as "Sticks o' Pooda"..[Powder]. That was the Legal limit that a miner was allowed to carry,under the "Mines and Quarries Act 1954"..of course,like any other Industry,rules were made to be broken! Down the Three-Quarter seam,at Bates,in the early 1970's,I used to be hurrying inbye to fire  the Solid Drivage Maingate or Tailgate,or Back Drift,[1-in-4 gradient!],carrying a 50 lb Box of Polar Ajax,[33% Nitro-Glycerine..],under one arm,another 50lb Box on the other shoulder,and TWO - 10LB Packs ,one each side inside of my Overalls!! So I was carrying 120 lbs of High Explosives,with my Glennie on my belt,my Self-rescuer,also on my belt,my Caplamp and Battery,which weighed 9lbs...Heh heh...I was only in my Thirties,and strong as an Ox!! Noo,aam nearly 77 yrs aad,and a canna lift me aan shadow! Four feet of lovely clean coal here,maybe 4' -6" ,and great dry conditions,gud hard laminated Sandy Post Stone..with a wee bit of Blue on top of the Seam. A great pic of times gone by! Thanks for posting it! Bill.