HIGH PIT WILMA

Er!,just to clarify,by "Modernising",that refers to knocking the old ootside "Netty" [toilet!] and "Coal-hoose" doon,and extending the existing kitchen and bathroom doon the yard to provide a nice bathroom suite,at last!! A tuk photo's of the ootside netty,afore we pulled it doon,if a can find them,a shud post them up here!![complete wi the obligatory hurricane lamp ti help the pipes oot in the winter!]

Hi Haffy!!!!! Welcome to the best forums on the planet! As a young miner with a family of one 2-year-old Son,back in 1970,and having lived in post-war newly -built houses both at home,and later with my Mother-in-law,in Bedlington,it came as a huge culture-shock to acquire my first property! This was a three bedroom,[huge!] terraced house in Stakeford,on the main road,in a street called West Terrace, Bomarsund. It had stood empty for over a year,was a filthy hovel of a place,totally neglected by the N.C.B.,who owned the property,and had to be stripped totally,to re-decorate,after repairing huge areas of [early 1900's] horse-hair and lime plaster,which dropped off each time you went to pull wallpaper off.[not to mention sliding sash draughty,rattly windows,and an antiquated ootside toilet..[[netty!]],which used ti freeze up in the bad winters we used to have back then!]. It had a huge "Triplex" range fireplace,[ coal oven..] and Adams cast iron fireplaces upstairs in the bedrooms. I spent a lot of time replacing all the windows with modern ones which I made myself,at my own cost,and all the doors and frames also.[I had to work loads of weekend shifts to pay for this work] Each time the Coal Board Plasterer's came to repair the walls,the boss wud come over with his little bit of chalk,and mark off a square yard,maybe even two,if you were lucky....talk about being tight!! I had to learn to plaster and brickie,so I could do repairs to my own standards.[mind,I wasn't alone,several of my neighbours had to do the same thing,so we helped each other out where we could.] I repeatedly wrote to the N.C.B Chairmen,in succession,and even Maggie Thatcher,requesting the right to buy the property,on the grounds that the N.C.B were neglecting the property,so if I could buy it,I would go ahead and modernise it. I received nice replies from everybody,even 10 Downing Street!,saying that they were held by ancient long-standing agreements with the Unions,which dictated that the houses were to be kept for families of miners in the future.....[as I said before...nobody wanted them at the finish!...cos they were hovels!] However,in 1984,Thatcher gave the N.C.B. orders to sell the properties it owned,not just houses,but farms and open land as well. So I was the first to accept and buy my house,which,after 14 years of hard slog,working till the middle of the night,as well as a hard shift underground,I had turned into a very well-presented home,which I was proud of.[no thanks to the N.C.B.] Some of my neighbours thought I was crackers,saying they weren't worth buying,as they made their way across the road to go to the "Roughton" club,on a Saturday night!! Once folk saw my house being modernised,they all,one by one,followed suit!! My builder,a relative of my Wife's family,was in the street for over five years doing one house after the other,sometimes a few at a time! SO,in a nutshell,the older pit houses,like those in Bedlington Doctor Pit,and Bedlington A pit [at the "Station"],were demolished,and those such as in Bomarsund,and many other pit villages,were bought by the tenants,where possible,and those that were not purchased outright, were taken over by trusts,formed from Union,and council members,to run and maintain,and also to take over the letting side of things. This remains to this day. Lang-winded reply,but nowt unusual coming from H.P.W.!! [a just like ti paint a clear picture of a situation wherever I can!!] Cheers,Haffie,hope aav med ye happy!

Hi Maggie! Many thanks for your kind greetings!Aam aboot getting back ti normal again,been a rough ride,but aam a fighter when it comes ti illnesses!! Cheers! Hi Eggy!....Can a just say yi are daeing a magnificent job wi me Bates Album! A just hope a lot of folk will appreciate your efforts and see how bad a job we miners had..,and also learn about mining by referencing them. A divven't knaa hoo me story above has been crossed through as many lines,aa haven't done owt wrang!!![it happened once before!]. Adam,if ye are in there,show your aad chep wat Eggy's tasking owa!!

I just realised that there is one thing of interest in my Bates' pic,which Eggy has kindly posted here for us all to refer to,and that is the machine on the right of the pic,where hoses lead from the machine and actually into the coal seam. For those who might not know,the machine is a "Cementation" pump. Holes were drilled into the coal seam,and liquid cement slurry,which was quick-setting,was pumped under very high pressure,into the holes in the coal,therefore grouting and sealing any breaks in the strata which would cause inrushes of Methane,or other noxious gases,or water,which could be lethal to us,as we were very near to breaking through a 36-feet thick Blue Whinstone Dyke,[Igneous Intrusion]. By virtue of the fact that the Whinstone was molten rock,200 million years ago,when it first forced it's way through the strata,by brute force,and extreme temperatures and pressures,it figures that a lot of damage to the surrounding strata occurred,including burning of the coal seam,to cinder coal,on either side of the seam. So that was the purpose of the grouting pump. Last year,My Wife and Myself were walking LBJ,[well my Wife was driving her mobility scooter!],along the riverside walk at Rothbury. Heading along the path,away from the town centre,towards Thropton,about a quarter of a mile,I heard a very familiar sound. Wndy drillers?....out here?....as we got up the source of the noises,it became clear that they were impact percussive drill-rigs,only they were hydraulic,and not compressed-air[windy] drills. Apparently,the substrate beneath the road had began showing signs of movement,and so these contractors were drilling hundreds of very long holes into the strata all the way from the level of the road,down to the level of the path,maybe a difference in height of about 40 feet or so. They had huge "Cementation" pumps similar to that on my pic,and one lad had the sole responsibility of keeping the pump tanks filled with the cement slurry mix. He was constantly humping big bags of cement powder,from the stack,across to the pumps,and then filling the tanks with water.Upon requests from his Marra's,he switched the pumps supply hoses on and off as each hole was filled up. I had a quick chat with him,had a laugh when I told him I was doing this over thirty years ago,and left him to his job. A few weeks went by,and when we walked along again,there was no trace of them ever having been there!...ground landscaped,trees planted,all so-so!! It was the first time I had witnessed Cementation being used anywhere other than down a mine!!....Ignorance is bliss!!

Sym,I have been very fortunate,to have had good assistance and help whenever needed,from Family members,and good Neighbours. Our youngest Son has been looking to excercise LBJ,before going to work in the morning,and at night,and Brother-in-law and Neighbour walked her when My Son couldn't make it. My eldest Son came up from London,and has nursed me,fed me and my Wife,and LBJ,oh!,not forgetting Percy the Gull,who,although he CAN feed himself,always comes and knocks his beak on the glass door to tell you he wants a tin of Sardines,or his more usual dogmeat!!![especially during the frosty days when there is nothing natural for him to find..]. There's more to looking after a wild bird than meets the eye!! He has to have his bathwater changed daily or he won't get in,and bathing is a necessity for his health,especially during the moult,which he is going through as we speak.[ He also needs company,and proves this by coming and settling down after feeding,bathing,and preening,next to us,when we sit out in the garden,or he comes into the conservatory,and plonks down like a little duck!!] So,although I have been through a very rough time,I am forever grateful to all those who came to me and my Wife during our period of need!

Hi Eggy,do you mean to include all the postings on here regarding mining,in with my pics?,surely you will be google-eyed daeing that! I will leave it wi ye to dae wat's quickest and best for the forum,Eggy,if that's o.k. with ye,Marra!! Thanks again!

Hey Eggy,and Andy,because of the fact that I was led to believe that Flickr is just about dead,and not many folk even know about it,[from personal experience when I am out and about cracking on wi folks!],I had thought,if it was possible,to move everything to this site,where we are all in tune!! Maybe a full album,dedicated so that it would be easy to locate by mining-interested members. As far as titling goes,maybe...."High Pit Wilma's Bates' Pit Album",including a full credit to Russel Hogg for enabling me to capture the Pit Surface photo's,without whom it would never have happened. I wouldn't want you to exhaust yourself if this was going to take an excessive amount of your time!! I was just thinking that whenever questions crop up about mining,it would be a handy reference album! I have no idea about the in's and oot's of doing all this,and what's involved,so I am very grateful for your interest and assistance! I am thinking the Flickr ones would remain there just the same and you could copy them,is that correct? Thanks a million, Guys!! P.S. when I took these pics,I also went all around the screening plant,the blending plant and even into the Winding engine house,which wound the cages...then got home to discover I had lost the full roll of 36 exposures on a 35mm film,somewhere around the premises.....SOMEBODY ,somewhere,is bound to have had that film and developed it!!! ...if only I had been more careful!

Whey ye bugga! That's aal fascinating stuff ti me! A had a marra doon the pit in 1965-6 ish,he was transferred ti Bedlington A pit,from Bomasund pit,at the same time as a was transferred from Choppington high pit,ti Bedltn aad pit,and we ended up as close marra's for years after. We both played guitar,so knocked aroond oot thi pit as weel as in the pit. Noo!,one day a went aroond ti his hoose for the first time,and a was gob-smacked at the model pit tubs and rails,Coal-shearers,haulers,gearboxes etc,steam engines...that he had made ,both from imagination,and blueprints.[at a later date,as his hobby progressed] This was a 21 year old lad who had been daeing this for years,wi nae formal training whatsoever,purely from interest. He started off by making model tubs,cut from thin sheet steel,obtained from the tins what the conveyor belt comb fasteners came in,and which were just thrown away doon the pit ti rust. He took some tins oot thi pit, ti mek the models,and one day a sour-faced Overman,who was badly liked by the whole pit workforce,saw him,asked what he was taking the tins for,and when he said he made models from the flattened out tins,the overman took the tins from him and using a pick,proceeded to smash the tins to bits putting loads of holes through them for pure childish spite..[this was when my marra was still at the Bomar pit.] He warned my marra that if he took any more tins oot thi pit he wud be fined and sacked for stealing NCB property. Sorry but I seemed to have drifted off-topic...as usual!

Hi Folks! Fresh oot o' me hospital bed,after a nasty chest infection and pneumonia at the base of me lung![as weel as an acute kidney injury!!] Tired and very weak,but fighting it,and mighty chuffed ti find that Eggy has posted the report from the northern coalfield. A had the dvd for a loan of from a friend a lang time ago,and have since googled it with nae success! A worked with aal three of these lads,but especially John and Alan,real gud Marra's ti hae! Aav nivvor seen a pump like this personally,but just past experience wi loads of different types of pump tells me that this is a single-stage centrifugal pump,definitely not a submersible one,cos the base of the pump has the suction and delivery pipe flanges clearly shown. The suction pipe was always flexible to allow the " Strum-End" [pipe-end with a filter attached],to be lifted out of the water to be cleaned of sludge periodically. The lifting eyes shouldn't need any explanation,given the size of the thing!,but it would have been suspended above the high water mark,on block-and-tackles,to assist maintenance,below the Sump-boards at the shaft bottom. It's marked No 2,cos usually there would be two pumps in the sump. Submersible pumps are self-contained sealed units,with a built-in grill inlet at the bottom of the pump body. Check out my pit pic above,and note the small " upside-doon pail-like thingy",wi the red fire-hose coming oot the side,next ti the strata,noo that's wat we caaled a "Dalek" pump,[for obvious reasons!]. Noo when ye set that little submersible pump away,it pumped full-bore under so much pressure,that a fifteen stone bloke standing on the hose,cudn't even begin ti squash it,the hose was hard as a rock! The waata in the pic is owa a foot deep for aboot sixty or more yards ootbye from the face,and that Dalek pump wud hae the waata doon in aboot an hoor. Of course when we started drilling,the pump had mair work ti dae cos the windy drillers teemed waata oot like a tap running full bore. Modern shaft bottom pumps were massive things,cos they had ti pump water vertically up a thousand-foot deep shaft,[deeper in some pits],through pipes upto a foot diameter!.......that's a hell of a lot of waata!! Eggy,if ye cud put aal me pit pics on here,tha's one taken just as the cage disappeared doon the shaft,from bank,[surface],and ye can get an idea of the size of the pipes coming up the shaft. Hope aav been a bit o' help,although lang-winded.....as usual!!

Thanks Eggy! I just caught up wi things noo,and hevn't seen these great pics, showing the air-raid shelters,where we played "Lops"! Thanks also ti Simon and Foxy for posting them. Brings back many happy memories of my childhood!

Thanks everybody for some interesting information about our history! Pleased Mr Joice took the patent out. I lost out on two inventions of mine underground,wi my big gob!....I was daft enough to tell the Overman about one,and a Deputy on a different face,at a different pit,about the other.....within months,co-incidentally,both devices appeared in the mines,being designed..[supposedly],at S.M.R.E.[Safety in Mines Research Establishment down south..Bretby,I think,but not sure!]. I was only in my early twenties,at the time,and just pleased at least they contributed to the safety of all my pit marra's everywhere in the coalfields! Just thinking,did Mr Joice ever live,or have relatives,living in a small-holding down the "Black Path",which leads to the Furnace Bank,from Beattie Road? As kids we used to raid "Joicie's Pear tree"!

Heh heh! Pilgrim,me oldest sister lives in the bungalows at Woodside,be strange,and not the first time,if an old pit marra lived next door to her! One of the Bates pit lads looked after her for a long time,as a good neighbour,and noo one of the lads from Bedlington A pit,[the "Auld pit"],looks to her in times of need..!! A wud luv ti catch up wi Jackie again,after 50 years oot of touch! A recently bumped into a "stranger",aroond Woodhorn lake,got taaking,wi wor dogs,etc,as ye dae like,recognised summick aboot him,[he's eyes!],then realised he was an aad [young] fitter from Bedlington auld pit,last saw him in 1971 when the pit closed! Caught up aboot thi aad days as quick as a flash! That's pitmen!!

Sym,the only Jack Dixon that aa knew,was a Guitar/Banjo/Mandolin-Banjo....player,but a divvent knaa if he was an Electrician mind,a only knew him as a musician,another great character....a think we discussed him on another thread a while ago.

Heh heh! Thanks Vic for the info on the Pyrotenax!,ye canna whack a bit o' rambling on man!,ye tuk me back a bit there,a can vividly remember working with the Sparky's deaing H.T. cable extensions,as faces advanced,from age 16 yrs on.....winding the dynamo Meggar handle for them as they they did the insulation [pin to earth,and pin to pin...three-phase] tests,and also continuity tests,even stripping back the armouring wires etc ready for putting the new ends on!Sometimes pitwark was a little bit interesting! Pilgrim,When me Wife hurt her back at work,and Paracetomols didn't have any effect,[20 years ago],Dr Carr did private treatment by "cracking"her back! He had her arm behind her back,one leg bent up,lying on the couch,his arm behind and through the space between her arm and her back,and forced her spine to twist,mekking the most horrible cracking sounds....a thought he would break her back altogether,whey,he didn't,and it didn't work,over a 4-weekly session period,it cost £200 then,[20 yrs ago!!],which was paid for from the one and only lottery win she had before she realised [upon my advice],that gambling is a mug's game..... When a worked for Ray Carlisle,mekking sliding mirror door bedroom furniture,kitchens etc,a made the business plaque for his Solicitor Son,which I fitted on the outside of the business premises,in Blyth,was that Son the one you mentioned above? Jack White,[who we at the High pit called "Bet" or "Beth" after his Dad,who also worked at the pit],was a great friendly character,very well-liked by everybody,he was just one of them sort of characters who naebody could dislike.I got on very well with him. If he has a memory like me,then he will remember young Wilma who was on transport with John Dickinson,and John Wardlow,before being face-trained and going on coal-filling.[cos everybody in the pit knew Wilma,in them days,due ti the nature of my job....I went into every part of the pit,and knew all the men on every face.] I remember his bike,Walter Gobin also had a Triumph,[ T110],so did big Harvey Tilbury,we had some great characters at that pit! Give Jack my regards please! Ye fill me up taaking aboot Cathy Secker,we listened to her on Sundays for years,and she used ti answer the phone during playback,ti tek dedications,if Michael wasn't aroond ti tek calls,and she was the most likeable natured lass ti taak ti,nae rush,and would read oot exactly what ye requested,cos a did a few requests for me Wife's Birthdays,wor Anniversary etc.We were shocked when she died.R.I.P. Cathy.

Heh heh!....LBJ,when she looks at me wi them soft brown gorgeous eyes....i'm her slave!! Noo,where was I?....right!,considering that aam just a youngin,this tool might have been afore my time,cos every cable used doon thi pits,were armoured...that right Vic? The abbreviation..."P.I.L.S.D.W.A" ,comes ti mind from my Deputy's training course,[Electrical Engineering ],which stood for .."Paper-insulated,lead-sheathed,double-wire-armoured..",and is a fitting description of the main feed power cables,which used to be covered with pitch-impregnated braided fibre's,loosely referred to as "tarry-toot".[owt wi pitch in was called tarry-toot!This covering was a sod ti peel off,then it was a hacksaw job ti cut through the two layers of wire armour,which was tough stuff!....hacksaw again,ti cut through the lead sheath,then the knife ti cut back the waxed paper insulation which covered each of the three phase conductors. It was more than a two-hour job,underground,for the electrician to cut a Pummel-end,[plug] off the H.T. cable,and put a new one on,inluding the cold-pour pitch which had to be poured into the plug itself,to provide waterproofing capabilities. A can still see aal this,clear as a bell,the sparky,mebbe Eddie Hagerty,or ? Cadwallendar..,or Jimmy Haley,peeling aal thi wire armouring back,aal neatly spaced apart,ti put the gland washers and nuts on,before putting the copper pins in,and boxing the job up....and aam harking back ti when aa was 16 yrs aad![1960] Obviously,the smaller the cable,the armour was appropriately chosen for that cable. The first time a ever heard of Pyrotenax cable,was maybe in the early 1970's,[maybe a bit earlier],when my Brother was helping his good friend,Jimmy Nicholson,who ran the telly/radio shop in the Market place,alang from Carricks,when Jimmy got the contract to re-wire St. Cuthbert's Church,in Bedlington. Me Brother brought a small piece doon ti my hoose ti show me,cos he had nivvor seen any either,and he is three years aulder than me,and worked at the auld pit in Bedlington. A somehoo divvent think it would have complied with the Mines and Quarries act 1954,for underground use,in the presence of a potentially explosive gaseous atmosphere,but that's checkable. Aal aam saying is,in a pit like Choppington High Pit,where they still had machines,conveyor belts,haulers,which were so ancient,they were there in 1929 when my Father was a 14 year old kid!,aal the aad cabling was still in place,including huge variable resistors,to start the big overhead main and tail hauler,and which used to glow red hot,inside the cage they were enclosed in!This was at the shaft-bottom area,and in freezing cold conditions,so the shaft lads and onsetters used to put pies on top of the resistor pack,keep the brakes on the hauler,and switch the hauler onto low start speed..the motor used to hum like hell,and everybody stood aroond the resistor pack ti feel a bit of heat!!!...nea overload safety interlock!![the pack stood aboot 3feet high,and aboot four feet lang,each resistor being aboot as thick as an average thermos flask.] Aam really intrigued aboot the Joystripper,cos it was obviously used for thi job it was invented for,but a can honestly say,never in the four pits that aa worked at,ti my knowledge,mind,that's my disclaimer for being an ignorant aad sod........!...not to my knowledge.! Somebody please enlighten me,maybe they were used in the workshops,at the pit on bank? I used ti trail 100 yard lengths of H.T. cable through rough,wet conditions,using two ponies hung on in front of one another,by hanging their tracing chain hooks into the spaces where the gland bolts secured the pummel-end plug onto the cable,and trailing the cable uphill,undulating,around right-angle bends from one roadway into another,and the armouring and tarry-toot covering used ti hold fast,and never pull the plug off the cable-end,they were so securely fitted in place. Noo flexible rubber armoured coalcutter cables had a different type of armour,which was flexible twisted thin steel wires,surrounding the cores. Aav got a pair of car jump-leads,which a made in 1972-ish[aroond that time...give a year or two!],from the cores of a buggered cutter cable,and mind...ye couldn't buy a set like them!!...Vic will remember how thick and strong they were!! In the latter years,from the '70's,at Bates,we had a main feed of 6'600 volts,knocked doon ti 1100 volts ti run thi shearers,and they used ti shear coal at 200 amps continuous! Noo,if ye saw the cables for the main feeds,we called them "the elephants trunk's",cos they were flexible pvc covered,and aboot six inches thick,and weighed an absoloute TON!! It was every man a yard apart when it came to carrying any of that cable in to the face,periodically,as the face advanced.

Er.....a mistakenly posted this,not realising I was on the previous page,and the topic was about the Doctor's at Choppington! Nivvor mind,as regards the Joystripper,I never heard of it,and can't see how it would have been used on cables underground. All the electricians and fitters I knew,used to carry a heavy duty knife made from a power-hacksaw blade,which WAS heavy-duty! ............ah .....aah,LBJ biting me leg,will continue later!

When my family lived in Storey's Buildings,next to the Willow Bridge,Doctor Hickey's surgery was hardly a hundred yards away up the bank towards Scotland Gate,and all three of the Doctor's,[ie Hickey, Robertson, and Ivory..],would call in noo and again ti see me Parents,and ask if the kids were all right,and we aalwis got a sweetie!! [only sweeties we ever got cos me Mother used ti swap her sweet rations for tea and sugar and bread,etc..]. Even when we moved ti Hollymount Square,they still called in if they were in the vicinity on their rounds. In those days,all these Doctors had to get their caplamps and pit byeuts on and go doon thi pit,ti attend accidents where a doctor was called for,usually an amputation,or a morphia injection,[until the pit Deputies and Overman were trained and authorised in the administration of Morphia,when requested by an accident victim.] Dr Carr,at Blyth,was one of the most respected Docs,being a Miners Compensation Advisor,in disputes between the Coal authority's and the Miner's Union..and also a member of the Blyth Lifeboat crew.[I stand to be corrected on the use of the word "member",at least he frequently went out on rescue missions with the crews]. I forget which Doc it was who had to go down the Bedlingon A pit shaft,to treat a shaftsman who was trapped between the cage and the shaft side,[halfway down the shaft!...a heroic effort...if ye have ever been in a cage half way doon a shaft,at a standstill,ye wud understand,bad enough hanging there,but ti be on TOP of thi cage.....shiver me timbers!!] Aye,thi Docs in them days browt many a bairn inti thi world!

Heh heh ! Hi Orloff!Gud Aad - School craftsman! Whey that's wat aa like ti heor,a divvent mind being wrang sumtimes when a cum across a craftsman like yase'll'! Thi next line gaans summik like....... "...O.k. wat did thi Romans dae for us......."!......[poor joke!] Ye must get me point on average though,Orloff,when a was young,and United double-decker buses went by, full ti standing only,and "duplicates" were put on to cope with the masses,tha wudn't be many folk carrying their log tables yem in tha bait-bags...wud tha?!! Yor trade was a specialised one,and in the last 30 years,aav worked with toolmakers,and aal the other engineering trades,both in heavy engineering,at the Blyth Shipyard buildings,[now the turbine blade test facility],and in the furniture trade,where tools had to be made for CNC machines,but still never saw any such thing as Logs,maybe cos the guys upstairs did the Blueprints....there's a thing noo,wat's fascinated me for years....why "Blueprints"?...a aalwis admired anybody who cud read and work ti them!!....why not simple black and white documents? Aav seen complete blueprints of the last two Warships to be built on the Tyne,deck-plans,the lot,and it just gob-smacked me,hoo Man cud create something so awesome,from a set of drawings like them!! A bit different from blasting oot the strata and shoving girders in ti create a tunnel!! Wud luv ti meet yi for a natter aboot aal things technical,Orloff!! Thanks for ya interesting comments!

Hi Norman,that wud be a gud'n ti see! I didn't go inti thi Remove in the first year,but it wasn't lang after that when a did.[canna mind the exact time,but it was in the middle of a term,,cos a volunteered ti gaan in,and Mr Freeman,took me around all the other classes ,and Mr Hemming's office,ti see if the general opinion was that I was competent enough as a candidate!] Worst thing that I ever did....I was bogged doon wi homework every night,absoloutely terrified of logarithms.....coudn't see the point.....duz anybody on here knaa anybody who ever used Logs,and Antilogs,in their careers?![my Nephew started from school at the bank,and ended up as head of Personell for the whole of the area between Berwick,and Leeds.....thi only logs he used was on he's fire!!]..... Anywheh! Dae ya best Norman,try and get it posted for wi aal! Cheers,Marra!

Eggy,Bob Redpath,[Brian's cousin] lived doon the bottom end of Hollymount Square,beside the "Cut" that led ti Cornwall Crescent,and the roads Beattie,and Haig. Vic,Bob was just three or four doors alang from Maureen,[Doreen's Friend].[probably aroond number 51-ish,as Eggy said..] Brian passed away a few years ago,and I never knew till recently,he was a big lad at five years aad![stands above everybody on the infants pic.] His Dad had the first Radiogram I ever saw,and it was when "All Shook Up" by Elvis,was in the charts,and Brian's Dad had just bought it. Brian took me in to hear it,and I was hooked on Elvis from that day![aroond 1956-7 ish?]...I was 12 or 13 years old. I can still picture the radiogram,like dark walnut veneered,and aboot twenty feet lang.....ti me,as a kid!![aboot 5feet in reality!] I think,[think....mind!!],he probably worked at the Doctor Pit,Vic,can Doreen not mind?,cos her Dad worked there as did most of our side of the square,and the other side of the square were mostly from Netherton pit village. Both Brian,and Bob's Dad's were nice quiet fellas.

A should mention that this pic was taken when we were driving the main roadway into a virgin seam that no pit in the country had ever worked,and was waiting to be opened up at the other side of a 36-foot thick Blue Whinstone Dyke,which we would have been driving through within a few days of this pic been taken. This roadway was 14-feet wide x 10 feet high arched 3-piece girders. 50-odd holes were drilled across the whole of the place ,using a Holman Compressed-air,[windy] driller and a 9 foot long straight [not helix]drillrod,with a "Star" bit on the end of the rod. Sheer brute force of impact,and rotation,drilled the holes,with a deafening noise from the driller,all shift long,for sometimes 12 hours at a time.[with water/oil being thrown all over you constantly] It took 50-60 lbs of "Polar-Ajax" explosives,[33% Nitro-Glycerine],to blast this roadway out,to give a 9' "Pull" [advance],in the roadway. Noo,when ye saw this one after firing,ye had a virtual mountain of shot-down stones to ridd onto a conveyor belt,so in this case we had a small mechanical shovel to shift most of it,but still had to handfill the rest,in order to get the girders in,and prepare the place for bringing the cutter in to cut,and drill again.

Thanks Eggy! Noo,THAT was pitwark..the most depressing place on earth when you get inbye,aboot 1-0am,after riding [cage down] at 12-0midneet,and tek ye claas off,have a five minute snack oot ya bait,while looking inbye at this place from aboot 20yards oot,and keeping one hand owa ya flask cup,ti stop droppers of seawatter from getting amangst it.[just the eerie soond of the droppers splashing in the ground water,in the deathly dark and quietness,was depressing on it's own!] The waata was taken ti the Labs to be analysed,as it was corroding everything in sight in days,which took six months at other pits,and was found to be 6 times saltier than seawaata,and three times more corrosive,and that is a fact!! Electricians and fitters,as well as us mere miners,had ti work every weekend all the way through,running every machine and conveyor belt in the three-quarter seam,to prevent seize-ups on the first Monday shift start.[apart from repairing aal the damage on the face as weel!] A wished a had had the foresight ti tek me camera doon onto the faces what a described above,it would have been better than trying ti describe it,but it was bad enough working in a hell-hole,withoot thinking of tekking photos of it! At thi time,we were just pleased ti gaan yem and get some sleep and forget aboot it,till thi next neet! Just before the pit closed, a was taaking ti aan aad-timer,like me noo,[but 30-odd years ago remember?!],and he said,"Aye,the miners have got it easy nooadays,the machines dae aal thi wark noo!".... Like a red rag ti a bull! A telt him [speaking only for mesell' and me Marras doon thi 3/4 drift],that WE had it WORSE than some of the aad-timers who worked in dry conditions,wi a coalcutter wi a 4'-6" or a 6'-0" jib on,and hand-filling wi a big pan shuul!,back in thi aad days! The usual way ti win a face oot was ti arc oot wi a 6 foot jib,giving 14 feet wide workings,then take a side cut along the newly - won-oot face,with the same size jib on the cutter,ti give 18 feet wide coalface x the length,usually 200 yards long. Wor Undermanager wanted ti save time and money wi aal this double- cutting,so he sent a coalcutter in with a NINE foot long jib,[which is clearly seen on me photo's],which gave a TWENTY-FEET wide arc, so after we cut the place,we had ti drill and blast 2 feet each side of the arc,straight off the solid,ti give a 24-feet wide coalface,ready to install the face installation. The sheer physical effort of cutting,hand-drilling,and hand-filling,an arc off,onto a conveyor belt which was sometimes 20 feet away from you,as you advanced the workings,and you had to "fling" each shovel-ful in one go,onto the belt,and not "double-cast" the coal,was immensly draining to body and soul. It wasn't just coal we had to fill,there was about a foot of "Rammel",[broken-up crushed loose roof-stone],which used to come away with the coal,and which weighed a ton,even small pieces,as it was waterlogged. That's the darker grey part of the strata you can see in my pic above,which was very undulating,and could be six inches in one cut,then two feet thick in the next cut,but averaged aboot a foot overall. The seam shown here is about 4-feet high,but more than a foot is under water! Eh,lad,not a very pleasant place ti spend an evening!

Hi Vic and Eggy,many thanks for taking the time to advise me. I have spent hours googling the specs on the Zafira,Mondeo estate,Skoda Estate,etc,but the hundreds of bad reviews and horror stories have almost changed my mind about the Zafira,which was to be my final choice,for practicality,and a canny performance,cos aam also one who doesn't want be straggling lights and junctions in general.[a wee bit of zip comes in handy sometimes!] I strip my Wife's scooters easily enough,but I carry one small one for shops which easily manouvres in supermarkets hospital corridors etc,and a bigger one [not a road scooter!]..just a bit bigger,with four-wheel sprung suspension,for riverside walks on tarmac etc. So boot space is a necessity,two scooters and a dog in the back!!....my Vauxhall Signum copes,but it's a diesel,and I don't like diesels![hadn't any choice but ti get this one after my last petrol Signum was written off nearly two years ago in the bad hit and run crash we had.] Jonathan ,at Alex Scott's,guidepost has been in touch again,with vehicles being released from Motobility,but none suitable up ti noo. Will keep looking and will check out Davidson's,a long time since I looked in there! Thanks again Lads! P.S. ......."Escape"!....wat a hoot Vic!!

Thanks Canny Lass! Mind,a wasn't ranting at thi lads,they just did their job,it's senior management,and governmental levels my rant was aimed at. Something DID make me smile ti mesel',it was the bit where the guy pointed ti a now defunct and buried-forever £100 million coalface shearer,whey,aam saying £100 million,that's wat a coalface installation cost in the 1970-80's,probably cost that much just for the shearer alone,being that it was a massive monster!.......thi machine had a notice on it saying summik like"Dave's Shearer...bye bye"...[or words to that effect!]. On my Bates pics,I scrawled the words on a plank of wood,which was supporting the "face-caunch"[not strictly correct but pitmen knaa wat we mean]......... ...."10's Tailgate..Abandoned Forever..February 26th 1986"[ it was 30 years ago,and I could check me pics,but a think that was the exact words I wrote,that day...seems like yesterday!] They were probably running six or more faces like this one,but they only needed ti show one,ti press thi point. All this massively expensive machinery lying rusting underground,never to be seen again...in scores of pits all over the country. Like I keep repeating,so the point is never forgotten....probably the equivalent of the Chancellor's purse lying underground. Now that you saw that coal-face,Canny Lass,and how the miner's were strolling around as if it was a Saturday neet on their way to the club,try to picture a coalface in a seam only three feet high,or less,from floor to roof,in which the face supports' canopies,[the part which keeps the roof up over your head],takes away about six inches at least,from the height down the travelling road,which is where those guys are walking about. You had to pull yourself along like a snake,and squeeze your body between falls of roof stone in between each face chock,cos they weren't armour-plated "Chock-shield " supports like in the programme,they were old-fashioned six-legged Dowty chocks,with great gaps between each one,which allowed the roof to break up and cause accidents on piece. In the 3/4 Seam at Bates,sheer roof pressure used to twist and push the whole face chock around until they sometimes turned over onto their sides,which was a mammoth task,and very dangerous,with no cranes underground,to rectify and replace damaged parts.it was all sheer brute force and muscle-power. These conditions were bad enough,but when you have "runners",that is,not droppers!,of freezing cold seawater pouring in over you constantly,you are blinded if you look up into the spray,with the salt from the water,it pours into your ears,runs down your clothes next to your bare skin,carrying fine "curvings"of wet slimy stone and coal,which cuts the skin to ribbons.....and you are lying on your side with a heavy "stone-shovel" desperately trying to "redd" enough of the fall of stone to clear a way through all this mess,so you can let other miners on the face pass through,as well as try to repair the damaged supports. Let me put this all into context. On the programme,I think it was the shift Manager,or another official,who said,"Every minute the face shearer stands,it costs £400....each minute!" So they were worried cos the face stood broken down for about six or seven hours....reckon it up....£400 x 60 [mins] x 6 hours.........! Down the 3/4 Seam at Bates,in 1973-4....ish,the coalfaces used to suffer massive roof -falls which were so severe,that they used to completely flatten the inferior face supports in use at the time,for distances up to 70 yards at a time,sometimes more.[on a 200 yard-long coalface] The devastation caused by this total mismanagement at Area level,used to take up to a MONTH.. of 24-hour, 3-shift working, continuously,to transport new face chocks into thi pit,blast through huge stones on the face,with explosives,to break them up so they could be cleared away to allow face-teams of men like myself to get in there and dismantle the absoloutely -wrecked chocks,,in areas of the face which was now over fifteen feet high,due to the roof falls,and which had to be re-timbered up,a hugely dangerous task,then the new chocks,each weighing over a ton,and costing a million pounds each,[yes!-in the 1970-80's!],had to be man-handled onto the face using hand-operated blocks and tackles,pulled into place and built up in situ,hydraulic hoses all connected up,ready for coalwork again. If you reckon up that seventy of these supports had to replaced at a time,[£70million pounds just for the parts-plus extensive labour charges,overtime payments etc],plus a lot of injuries and accidents associated with the whole affair,and you also consider that for a few years,this fiasco continued on several coalfaces,until bosses took OUR advice,and abandoned the faces and won out new ones further inbye,clear of the faulted strata,then you begin to understand that all the propaganda about Bates being "uneconomical",was totally untrue,cos the pit would have paid for itself many times over,if Archibold,the area director at Teems Valley Headquarters,had authorised "Rev-Lem"face supports,or even "Chock-shield" supports like those in the programme about Kellingley pit. Instead,he kept persevering with inferior cheaper unsuitable face supports which risked all the lives of the lads working on those faces,more than the risks which would normally be part of the job....,and doomed the pit to it's death. The pit Manager told my marra's and myself personally,before it's closure,that Archibold had "a personal vendetta against Bates Colliery". Now I have my own opinions why that would be,and I think it is blatantly obvious![I cannot fathom out how he explained the losses on the books at senior meetings in London]. Canny Lass,I know you are interested in mining,so that's why I have tried to help you picture the scene,and compare a six-hour breakdown,with umpteen face closures lasting months before they were back onto coalwork again! Wish some of the Bates lads would see this subject and come on with their stories!![there's some to tell beleive me!!] Cheers Lass! HPW

Whey,aav just aboot seen ivrythin noo!! A divvent waatch telly,like other people,cos aam busy mornin ti neet,till a cum on heor after midneet usually!! Me Wife "taped" [!] a programme aboot the closure of Kellingly Colliery,the last deep mine ti close,so thi neet a sat and waatched it from 11-0pm -12-0 midneet. A wanted ti switch it off after five minutes into the programme,for a few reasons. A] A rubbish production wi so little content aboot actual mining,i.e.seeing the owamen and shift managers in their offices bantering on,[ "acting"], on camera. B] Absoloute proof of a North/South divide in the mining industry...i.e regard to investment. C] Seething at the thought of the atrocious conditions me and my Marra's worked in,and were blatantly ROBBED of what we had honestly earned,due to a Deputy Manager at Bates Pit scratching out "delays out of our control" as recorded in our Deputy's reports [ Productivity bonus scheme....wat a laugh..]. Kellingly pit had 6-feet [maybe more],high,coal faces,where thi miners didn't need ti wear knee-pads cos they walked up and doon the face! Fluorescent lighting aal thi way doon thi face,water fed dust suppression that worked,on the shearers, massive "Chock-shield" [Reg.T.M.!] face supports,where the whole of the extracted area was totally enclosed in an armour-plated cocoon,so nil chance of anyone being remotely hit by a roof fall of stone,not even a walnut-sized piece wud come doon between these chocks!![and a wudn't any ti either for thi lads' sakes!] Nae waata ti be seen except in the lad's waata bottles,mind,they needed it cos the one thing we didn't hev up here was equatorial temperatures doon theor! Doon the 3/4 Seam at Bates,it was the opposite,the north sea teeming in,frozzen caad,sowked ti thi skin,wat shud have been a 42-inch high seam,was owa 15 feet high on some faces,and that wasn't a pleasant height through choice,it was cos the bliddy roof had so much pressure it used ti flatten the flimsy face chocks ti thi floor and cause roof falls up ti 70 yards lang,and more,reet doon the coal face,absoloutely treacherous. We had ti stand on TOP of the face chocks,[which were supposed to be protecting us!]and build "butts" on top of the chock canopies,till we couldn't reach any higher,so had ti build another platform to stand on,so we cud continue building the butts up thi roof![a "butt" consisted of two 2' x 6" x 6" hardwood beech chocks side by side,with another two on top at 90 degrees with respect,then two more,and two more...etc,tillyou reached the roof!] See my Bates pit pics on Flickr,there's a pic of a high wood butt,aal squashed with roof pressure. Aal thi time we were working like this,it was in completely bare exposed roof conditions,totally against Manager's support rules for the mine,and against Mines and Quarries act 1956.......but with NO alternative,if we wanted to preserve our own lives,we had to take the risks. These lads doon sooth,[mind the lads at the Plessey at Bates,and the lads at Ellington also],didn't knaa haaf of it.and half of the lads I worked with on those faces are long gone noo. Sadly,some died at a very young age,late 30's,early forties,don't suppose the Coal Board wud have an inquiry as to why they all had thing like Leukaemia and cancer-related diseases after working on a Prototype Shearer with a nuclear isotope device mounted on the top of the machine,which was supposed to be "Ultra-Safe!],others became victims ti roof falls and girders being knocked oot,etc.R.I.P aal thi lads that aren't here ti bear me oot. 2-0 am,so will have to close me rant!![till another day!]