HIGH PIT WILMA

It's me as usual man!.....not thier falt......!!!!! Trubble is,Eggy,aa write like a taak...gaan roond the toon ti get ti Bedltn.....![MTH..!] Apologies to all! .....and I am an honourable man....!

Spot on,Webtrekker! We learned the "I" before "E" bit also,Canny Lass,but not the last bit ...."Neighbour and Weigh"....mind,wor English lessons didn't gaan inti sum of these levels that you and others are quoting!....never heard of a "Paradigm" ....for example......or a pnuemanic...or whatever it was..A wuz gud at the level of English we were taught.[ mind....ye wadn't think se'...!]

Heh heh! I thought my last post was topical...didn't realise it was on page one! Nivvor mind,on this subject I always had old cars,[not bangers..just old!],and did all my own repairs and maintenance,from1969 till just a few years ago when ill-health stopped all that! A few times, sometimes in the Scottish highlands away from civilisation, I had to crack an egg into the radiator,in the days when they were mounted at the front,with a direct access filler cap. Rev the engine very gently,and in ten seconds......hard- poached egg blocking the hole....as well as the rest of that section of matrix!! That's what Radweld did also,blocked your system! Thowt nowt of hoying the cylinder heed off and de-coking the top-end....new valve-springs and seals,polish the ports,grind the valves in with a wood dowel and a rubber sucker.......set the twin S.U.'s with a length of rubber hose ti ya ear,and the other end in the carb venturi......ssssssssssssssssssssssss!! Aye,a canna see me battery noo,nivvor mind me engine! Redex was a penny a "Shot",so you got a couple of gallons,and a couple of shots....cud nivvor afford a full tank of juice in them days![Ford Anglia 105E 1961.....but aa got it in 1968..needed new wings and door pillars welding!] The Vauxhall Signum that was written off last year in the hit and run-stolen car-cloned number plates,was 13 years old and still pretty immaculate,all the exposed inner sections were like new![they were ripped away like paper,due to the force of the impact..] Different tale to the Vauxhalls of the 60's!!

Curling tongs used to be heated on the fireplace !! Maggie,the Hurricane Annual pic takes me back! Just the pic,not the book!,as a kid,I was obsessed with drawing helicopters exactly as seen here.... I have old archive material from my childhood days,remnants of sketch pads,with exactly this type of image,drawn by me....circa 1954-0n! It was either a chopper or a speedboat that I sketched...always! My first house was an old colliery house,with wall sockets wired from the lighting circuit,with white twin 12 volt shotfiring cable from the pit! I found out by innocently plugging a dimplex oil-filled radiator into our bedroom wall socket....guess what happened!....[around 1970-ish].

Orloff,it's clear that it didn't sink in to my brain what you have said about "Their"...!!! I still wrote "Their's" !....cos we say "Oh.it's their's"....don't we?...or should we not?! Thinking about my Teachers treating me as an adult,and part of the production,and technical team,at 14yrs old,makes me think....would that happen nowadays? Ye see,in them days,I had Mr Johnson,[War-time radio officer R.A.F.],Mr Hemming,[Headmaster,and ex-R.A.F. Met. Officer,stationed on the Shetland Islands during the war],Mr Dodds at the Whitley,[ex-Army War-time soldier],Mr Davidson[Ditto],Danny Douglas,[ex -Army P.T.instructor war-time ],among some I cannot bring to mind.... ....oh!....shame on me!....Matty Hall,famous old Matty,[ex-Army soldier and boxing champion..and good singer to boot!] NOO!,when ye have experiences from teachers like that passed on ti ye during lessons,and after school-time,in my case,it helps ti bring ye ti maturity quicker! They were all past equivalents of H.P.W.,with all thier stories,of which I was keen to learn from! B.B., sad to hear aboot Rocky passing away,I knew him all my life,he was a Millfielder,and a funny character! R.I.P. Rocky Thornton.

Hi Orloff! Thanks for that,but that isn't the problem,I was just about top for English and grammar,and know my Apostrophe's.....it's always got me when I write "Their's" .....or "Thier's"......it's the placing of the "i"...and "e"...it's the same when I write "Teusday",one minute it's "eu",and the next minute I am writing "ue"! Take notice of any of my long ramblings! I can spell words like "Antidisestablishmentarianism"...fast ,verbally,and straight off the cuff,but.."Tuesday"......!!!!!nivvor mind! ,as lang as aal these canny folk on here understand,it's not the end of the EU....[OH NO!!...Definately NOT intended!] Eggy,B.B. agrees that no1 is Ted Smout..known him all my life,but just thought it could have been a lookalike! Error on no5....SHOULD read "Micky Lucas"..[not Lewis]....he was the Son of the desk Sargeant at Bedlington Top-end Police Station,in the 1950's,[a real nice smashing-natured lad who was 6ft when he was 14 yrs old!]. He was the Soothsayer in the first production.[and a bloody good actor as well!] I was the worst actor that ever disgraced the stage..[a better guitarist in later life but I digress!],my role in this production was one that neither the cast nor the audience ever knew of. I was still in the Hall at ten o' clock at night most nights,along with Mr Johnson,Mr Marley,and ,Mr Freeman,as one of the technical team,wiring high voltage multi-connector plugs,wiring up lighting rig patch-leads,giving opinions,and being accepted as part of the team,as well as being called "Bill"...and not by my surname,as you were in class!! Mr Johnson sent everything over to me during Science class lessons,that the girls used to bring down from the cookery and domestic science classes,that needed electrical repairs doing,like irons,etc That was my enjoyment at school!

Heh heh! Cheers BB!,that's a big chinkaplonka! A was a bit hackley there,cos when a came oot thi pits,a worked wi yungings in factories who had nivvor done a hard days work in tha lives,and when they started wi thi yakka stuff....a had ti .....quiet them doon a bit.cos it wasn't banter...it was slaaver!![even a shop-floor forman tried it on,he was a toonie,and a quietened him doon an aal,he tuk thi huff for a a day or two,then we were aal reet after that.] As a said,me skins like bell metal,nowt,and a mean nowt,offends me personally,but a respect aal the aad ones..[and a lot of young ones] who died doon the pits, including close friends..... Friendly banter is wat kept us gaanin doon the stinking black holes we worked in,comradeship second to none! Just ti clear a point up,a was thinking t'otha neet,oot wi Little Black Jess,[me partner in crime!],aboot Choppington High Pit,the Power Loading Agreement wasn't in place,when aa worked there,they were still on piecework-bargain systems,where the men put in tenders for cutting,drilling ,hand-filling,stonework,etc. Ye wud gaan inti the pit-baths on a Friday afternoon,and see the coalfiller's spokesman,laying oot piles of pound-notes in little heaps,in a line!! They wud be laying oot each of thier marra's pay,from the bulk payment they collected from the pay-office. Can ye imagine that happening noo?! Aa was on a contract system at eighteen years aad,nearly nineteen,humping heavy-section steel girders in to the the whole pit,every roadway,along with the lad who nicknamed me Wilma,[Kieth Cooney...deceased..R.I.P. Kieth..which will be difficult as lang as HPW is knocking aboot.....nivvor a day gaans by withoot ye being taaked aboot,in the aad days!] Back ti Westridge,a saw Derek Wales at the weekend,in Rothbury,with he's Wife,also an old neighbour/friend,who a haven't seen virtually since we both left school,in 1959. It was a pleasure on both sides to see each other again,as we were brought up together from the infant school days,and played together. I mentioned the discussion we are having here,and he said straight out he started in 1956!...and his Wife spoke up also in agreement,cos she started a year or two later,but they grew up together also in my neighbourhood,and remembered clearly,when he left the Whitley!! Until I can access my school reports and other documents,which have been boxed up since moving here in 2000,in the dark loft,alang wi the xmas tree stuff and countless other items of stuff stored there!!!......aam thinking we'll hae ti put it on hold! A think aav even got the programme booklet for Julius Caesar in there as well,that wud be interesting ti lay hands on,wi the full cast on,and names aav forgotten! A said before, that Lynne Hayes played Portia,but after brain-searching,it came to that it was Calpurnia that she played,cos a can see her noo,plain as day,telling Caesar how ,in her bad dream,that.."Ghosts did shriek and squeal about the night..".etc etc. Bobby Cross had the hairs on us other cast members' heads,prickling on the back of our necks,and he had a very rousing standing ovation,rightly deserved,he was better than the Marlon Brando clip which I have seen on u-tube,and which,to me,was pretty bland and his eyes display the fact he is reading off a script-prompter!! I'm referring to his assassination,and burial speeches in particular,he made the audience sit up and take notice,when he screamed out...."Cry HAVOC!..and let slip the dogs of war....."....etc. It was funny,later on,when he was shotfirer in "The Stars Look Down",on the telly,the men had told the Pit-owner that there was water in old workings that they were driving towards,and he ignored their warnings. Bobby fired the shots and a disaster happened...they were all killed,in a roof fall,and inrush of water! His Dad was an Overman at Choppington High Pit,at the time,in the early 1960's,and I always used to be asking how Bobby was getting on. The day after that episode,I saw old Bobby,down the pit,and remarked how good Bobby had acted his part. Old Bobby,replied..."Aa divvent knaa aboot that,cos he fired one bliddy shot and closed the bliddy place!!!" Old Bob's kindly facial expression,as he said it,had me creasing up!! I heard later that young Bobby had went into Journalism,which had been his ambition from aboot 11,or 12 years old,when Mr Davidson quizzed all the class individually,what ambitions they had. I wanted to be a radio engineer,[before we all had telly's],but when it came to our final exams in 1959,HPW was near the top for all the important subjects,English,Technical drawing,Metalwork,....and rock bottom with Maths!! The results were pinned up in the Vestibule,[.....vestibule.....wat's wrang wi bliddy "corridor"?........fancy bliddy nyems..!],anywheh,Hpw had 4% ,no kid!![which gave the bullying gang a reet hoot,with mair bullying in the following days till thi day I left!] I had jumped from long division at the Whitley,to Algebra,Logarithms,simple and compound interest,at Westridge,with such a wide gap,it was impossible for me to catch up. No maths,No radio engineer's job![even though radio engineers generally never use maths!,that's what test gear is for!] So i went doon thi pit! Incidentally,I wasn't "chosen" to go into Upper Remove,me and other friends went in voluntarily,after requesting with Mr Hemming. He took me around all my class teachers,and they all gave me a glowing reference ,so into the Remove I went...halfway through a term syllabus,I didn't half make life difficult for myself!! The only reason I did that,was because the Remove classes had unlimited access to the school library,with two free periods a week from lessons,called "Private study periods". Books on Electronics were hard to get at the Station library,but they had a whack of modern[then!]books which I used to borrow constantl;y,and use my private study periods to bury my head in amongst ECC3,EL84'S,and 12ax7 valve specifications,as well as Short-wave radio circuit diagrams,formulae etc.... What a reason to subject yasell ti torture,bullying,homework,.....etc....etc!! Aye,a was a bit clivvor,on thi one hand,and mighty stupid,on thi other....live and learn eh?!! Maggie,aam sorry a didn't reply to your supporting comments straight away,thanks a lot as always!! BB,any of your escapades or memories wud be well appreciated!! Can ye remember the Dairy farm owa thi road from the school? We watched the whole herd of coos slowly making their way up to be milked,every day,at the same time,in a lang slow line!! Watched one coo give birth beside the road,owa from thi school main gate,one day,caught short,cos they normally kept well away from society,when giving birth,usually at the bottom of the field,in the corner.,but aal the otha coos stood thickly aroond the mother in labour,protecting her and keeping her and the caaf warm.[caaf=calf!]......Mighty powerful is Mother Nature! [on a closing note...I have always had a problem with "Their's"...or is it....."Thier's"?]

HI BB! Thanks for your comments,though I don't see the need to degenerate the discussion by using derogatory terms for the miners[pit-yakka's],who kept the country going through it's worst periods in British history. No offence to me personally cos I have skin like bell-metal!! Anyway,Julius Caesar above,was the second edition....so to speak! We did that in 1958,with Trevor Hale as Brutus,Len Thompson as Cassius,Me as Publius..[with two lines!],Bob Cross as Mark Antony,Lynn Hayes as Portia,Micky Lucas as the Soothsayer...["Beware the Ides of March...."].....and still racking my brain....!!!! Mr Marley was pulling his hair oot,trying ti get HPW [Publius],to use proppa English for my two lines!! ....as the soothsayer approaches Caesar.....my line was...."Sirrah.....give place"....[forcefull...slightly middle-to-upward inflection....] My version......."Sirraa.....give plaaace.."..[typical northumbrian downward threatening inflection!!....not what Mr Marley wanted!!] "Good morrow,Caesar".........[happy bright greeting!] HPW..."Gud morra Ceeza"!!!!!! [dull moronic tone ....being forced ti dae summik a didn't want ti dae!] Mr Marley just had to live wi it,the audience nivvor tuk nae notice of it anyway! Micky Lucas is number 5 above,Derek Goodall is number 3,and a cud be wrang,but number 1 is the spit of Ted Smout,who's Dad had the first bookie's in Bedlington and was an instructor in the training gallery at Bedlington A pit. It wud be the second time for Bob Cross and Micky Lucas,on this photo;Isobel Clough and Me played together as little bairns,and I later worked beside her Dad at Choppington High Pit. Sandra Short was in my class all the way from the infant school at the Market Place in Bedlington. Aal the kids in Middle Remove bar Geoff Cross,and Tom Logan,Rocky Thornton,are unknown to me,as I left in 1959.

I second that one Maggie....let's hope....!!

Ah! NOO! ,wa getting sumwheor! Ye see,aa started when Westridge school opened its doors for the very first day,full stop!......in 1956,after the four weeks school holidays! When ye left school,in 1961,aa was alriddy daeing a man's job,for a man's full pay,doon Choppington High Pit,and had been for two years![nowt proud ti be bragging aboot,just a plain simple true fact!] Thi first pitman who was ever in charge of me for the statutory 20-day period of close personal supervision just happened to be a canny fella caaled Pat..[Patrick] Purcell....who was the Father of one of my Upper Remove classmates,a lovely lass caaled........Pat Purcell! She was a clever lass,and I think she stayed on for her GCE exams..leaving in 1960. Noo a nivvor wanted ti dae this but aam gaana hev ti ti prove me integrity,against all those who must think aa divvent knaa hoo owld I am,and wat day a started a new school! So here we go! Classmates in the remove class..[first the bullying gang who were also good athletes and sportsmen],Trevor Hale,gangleader!,Ian Cambell,Jimmy Scott,Billy Brown,[me Hollymount Square neighbour and friend],......then....Eddie Hedley..[nice lad!],Mickey Lucas,[Seargant Lucas's Son],[gud mate!],Derek McGregor,[ditto],Barry [?]........ ...then me ex-Whitley School mates.....Bob Cross..[brilliant actor and student,had a part as a Shotfirer in a coalmine in a weekly drama called "The Stars Look Down",on TYNE-TEES Television,...his Father was an Overman down Choppington High Pit!],Dennis Green..[his Dad was Engineer in charge of Bedlington A pit],Martin Nicholson,,Myself....[a mr nobody!], a big ginger lad called Len Thompson,[a real nice lad!],.....I think,[may be mistaken mind!],that Councillor Alan Stewart,was also there,[he was in my old infants and Whitley Memorial classes all through school life!].Noo,the lasses were...Pat Purcell,Isobel Bowman,Rosemary Oliver,Lynne Hayes,Joan Hogg,Joan Henderson,Lorna Barker,Joan Holdsworth,........to mention a few,not forgetting my class teacher Mr Marley. Can you never remember one solitary lad who always went into the science Lab at every breaktime,to mess about with old valve pre-war radio sets,and electronic stuff?..that was me!......any stuff from the domestic science classes that needed repairing,such clothes irons,and also the stage multi-plugs etc,for drama productions,all came to me during my science lessons with Mr Johnson,he would tell the girls or whoever,to "take it across to Bill and he will fix it..".......I was about 14 yrs old at the time,and Mr Johnson put his full trust in my skills with Electricity and electronic stuff![and I wish he was still here to bear me out!] One day,when the Grand National ,[or some big Horse race] was on the radio,I was in the science lab during break,as usual,when Trevor Hale and he's gang...[!!!!!!] came and threatened to fill me in if I didn't let them in to the lab,[door was locked by me,on Mr Johnson's orders],cos they wanted me to fix up a radio I was building with Mr Johnson's help.[to listen to the big race,as they had bets on........!] I had to submit,cos they were gonna smash the glass to get in. They came in,I got the radio tuned in,[this was an experimental project...open chassis-valves-high voltages!..and speaker just lying open on the bench.].....and just because his horse lost,Trevor went mental and picked up a big screwdriver,and rammed it repeatedly through the paper cone of the speaker,destroying it completely. When Mr Johnson came back from the common room,after dinner break,and saw the speaker,he asked me wat had happened. I remember being ashamed for saying that I didn't know,cos he had trusted leaving the key in the door for me to lock when he was out. He asked if I had let anyone in and of course I pleaded ignorant.After that,Mr Johnson wouldn't allow me to stay in the lab without his presence,and he was always still very amiable with me,like old mates once the soldering iron was on and we were building projects. I think he knew I was taking the rap for someone else,and as all the years went by,I hoped some day that I would see him,and have a good old man to man with him again..about old times,but sadly,never got the chance. Trev,if you ever come on here ,be a man,give an apology,and let's have a laugh at how stupid we all were when we young! R.I.P. Frank Johnson..my mentor in electronics. Noo,I was nearly top for English,Technical Drawing,Science,Metalwork,Music,.....but bottom,and I mean BOTTOM!,,for Mathematics...with just 4% in the final year exams,so I left in 1959,and went straight down the Pit....following all my Family heritage.["Number Dyslexia" I called it.....just couldn't grasp Logarithms!] The first day at Westridge lasted about an hour,with Mr Hemming telling us [all 500 pupils],that we were being sent home,because the Stationer's had renaged on thier contract,and we had no books,no pens ,no art materials,no registers,......nothing! So we started properly the next day,and just wandered about the whole place to familiarise ourselves with the School's layout. Were you there that day,Barby?.....of course you weren't,cos this was in 1956!!.......NOW!,can we put the matter to bed! Cheers Marra! Let's not forget that buildings and big infrastructure projects,like town relief roads etc,open far in advance of the "Official" opening date,and I think that's how there is a bit confusion about Westridge...but definitaley 1956!

Hi Blue Barby! The school Headmaster,and Mr Platts,[Nothumberland Schools Governer] as well as Mr Freeman,[maths],Mr Johnson,[science],all tried for an hour,in the Headmaster's office,to persuade me to stay on for the extra year,to take G.C.E.'S ,but I was adamant not to,and so left at fifteen,and went down the pit!...that was in 1959. I was an electronics whizzkid,at 14 yrs,but bottom for Maths,which was a compulsory subject,so I left. Plus,a certain element of my class,one of whom was the Northumberland champion Runner [T.H],verbally bullied me for a year or two,and I told no-one...not a soul! Only my classmates knew and they used to encourage me to ignore the lot of the bullies,who,incidentally,were cowards when on thier own!! One of them was a good cricketer,at 14yrs old,[batsman],and I often see the same name in the sports page of the Leader,and wonder if it is his Son who is on the team....[I. CAMBELL] SO after all that,I was pleased to see the back of Westridge,the day I left,in the summer of 1959! I am wondering how you left in 1961,after staying on the extra year? Got me puzzled....typo? Heh heh!,I often wonder how everybody got on in life,and if the bullies had kids who were bullied themselves,what they would be saying to them!

Heh heh! Thanks Maggie! I try !

Number two is the spit of who I think is Morgan Dawson.[Had a younger Brother called Ronnie ] went to the Whitley Memorial School after the Infants School,as we all did.

Noo,thas summik funny happening wi this,cos aa didn't put any different font in,and it was okay when a proof-read it!! Same thing happened t'otha neet,me greet lang story had half of it crossed through with continuous lines! Is it my Laptop,or a glitch on the site ?

Hi Eggy! This is a 1958 photo all right,these lads and lasses are too mature to be 12 years old!,which was the age we started,with 500 pupils gathered from all the senior classes in the towns schools. Some of these pupils are on my Bedlington Village Infants Class 1 of 1950,which I posted somewhere else on the site. No 15 looks like Derek Wales,21 is Lillian Moore [ Sadly Deceased R.I.P.Lillian],30 looks Margaret Thackeray,an old childhood friend of mine. Noo,Westridge had these classes wi [to me anyway!],stupid class names,Aa went into the "Upper Remove",after the first year,which was streaming pupils to sit G.C.E. Aam thinking that this might have been "Middle Remove"...[then there was Lower Remove....],and wat has me puzzled is the presence of Janet Hayes,cos her older Sister [Lynne] is the same age as me and was also in Upper Remove. I said in the original discussions about when Westridge was first opened,in 1956,[remember?],that for the first few weeks,we wandered around the school getting to know the lie of the land,and also it was a long period of trying to get a curriculum organised for 500 pupils,with new teachers,all at once! It seems that this class is a mixed bag of ages,with Lillian,Margaret,and Joan Wilkinson,Derek,and No 25,,all my age. In the beginning,we from the Whitley School were put into the same class en-block. Then as time went by,they started shifting us around,cos I ended up with a mixed class of Guide-post,Council and Whitley pupils. I'm noo thinking the idea was that of integration rather than segregation! I wonder if Vic's better half,and her Friend Maureen,now both in Canada,can remember any of this happening,to bear me out! I can remember 70% of my classmates out of 40-odd of them,where they sat,and who each one sat beside!,mainly cos we all moved up through the classes from the infant school,sitting beside the same mates![at the Whitley i.e.!] Hope the names keep getting added to! Cheers Eggy!

Hope my post above is readable and be able to understand! Lines not my doing...well,....not knowingly!

Thanks Merc for your kind comments,and Canny Lass......,Aa cudn't mek aal these stories up if a tried,noo a shudn't a sed "Stories"..[!],cos every single word aa type is,to the best of my memory,true and correct. One little snippet of info a missed oot,but ye's folks 'll probably knaa aalriddy,regarding lifting tubs back onto thi way,when they become de-railed,was what the lads at the shaft areas had, slotted through the belt haading tha breeks up..!.....an "A**se - Flapper",med oot o' a scrap biit o' aad conveyor belting,shaped like a Grandads old fashioned shirt tail, and placed as suggested......to prevent serious back damage due to lifting and pushing sets of tubs along the way, using thier backsides and legs to push with. Us lads on heavy transport and timber or girder -leading,inbye,never used a flapper,but the shaft lads could be lifting lots of times during a shift,they were dealing with sets of tubs every minute of the day! A pit-term dictionary would probably start with that term!When ye hear aad-timers,[of pit village origin!] sayin'...."Whey,it's time aa was in kip"....or....."Aam not ganna get nae kip wi aal that bliddy racket...".......then read on! "Kip" was the area leading to the shaft,as described above,and was formed by splitting the horizon of the roadway,usually aboot a hundred yards,sometimes less,so that the tubs ran slowly,free-fall,to the shaft ,after being detached from the haulage rope which brought them outbye from the conveyor belt loader-end. The creation of a lang, man-made, swalley,["The dish"],where the chummings could run into,from the shaft-sidings,ready to be coupled up into sets,meant that the "Dish-lad",hanging the sets onto the rope to go inbye,was working below the "Kip-lad",who was "Lousing-off" the sets [from the rope],and occasionally,dregging the tubs,and de-coupling them,so they would be sent singly to the shaft...... SO!...."Kip" refers to a raised area such as that which leads up thi wooden hill to thi bed-shed!.......Phew!,wat a thing ti try and describe to thi lay-person,withoot sending them ti sleep! At Choppington high pit,the kip and dish weren't separated by a great deal,so when you went inbye from the shaft,you were walking past full tubs of coal whizzing past you at approximately shoulder-height.[that was the wheels level with your face!!]. One of my marra's was working in the dish,hingin'-on,[attaching sets to the hauler rope to go inbye to be filled at the loader -end..],when he tripped and instinctively reached out to the kip to save himself from going down,....hand went onto the kip-rails.....tubs came by........fingers off....[have I not already told of that one?.....] That was in 1960-ish....other pits had a false floor laid,completely separating the kip,and the dish,with a small hatch through which the kip-lad would pass the clips........["Jockeys" ..as used in the High-Main at Bedlington A pit],down through the hatch,to the dish-lad. To describe the different types of rope-clips for anybody to understand,would take me a day,going at my pace! For reference,where google might be of assistance,here are some types.........:[1] Hambone [2] Jockey [3] Pigtail [4] Victor Dog-grips [5] Lashing-chain [6] Illegal [!!!] Improvisation....such as a "Belt-hinger" ....[a thin steel stranded wire sling]....or a short length of lighting cable [armoured..and very strong!!] ....or anything you could lay hands on that would work.....even a length of conveyor belt cut into narrow strips and half-hitched around the rope...!!! Howw!!,ya taaking aboot pitmen heor,ye knaa,thas nae cranes doon there ,or shops like lord tool hire......ye had ti get thi job done in stinking conditions,and if ye didn't have the proper gear,ye invented it!! Noo it's just come ti me,come on here, any aad pitmen who can say they remember,or used,the Victor Dog-grips...the most dangerous rope clip ever invented,and they were used on steep gradients ...[every Westerly roadway at Choppington high pit],and never failed to detach themselves and send sets of timber and girders and machinery,......amain![running back doon the bank at ninety miles an hour.....ripping the roadway girders oot and closing the place!!!] Most of the time,in mining,aal these clips were attached to the tubs,and to the haulage rope,[usually 1/2" or 5/8ths " ]....with the rope constantly in motion,so when ye put thi clip on,ye had ti jump oot thi way in a flash,cos the tub wud "click"away,suddenly,from a standstill! Imagine us kids,aged 15 years aad,down the training gallery,at Seaton Burn pit,learning from a supervising instructor,[mostly aad-timers who had health problems and had ti do light work...],hoo ti put a lashing -chain onto a moving steel rope and hing it onto a tub......straight from wor classrooms ye knaa!! Sum of us didn't reach the blokes elbow height!! Anyway....ya standing beside ya tub,ye have the chain ready in ya hands.the chain is heavy,and aboot 3 or 4 feet lang,with a big round link at one end,and an oval-shaped link at thi other end. The links are made from 1/2" steel bar,the moving rope runs on the floor through a deep groove in a wooden sleeper,put there for this purpose. The tub is standing back,aboot three feet from this grooved sleeper. Every now and then ye hear a click,it's okay,it's JUST a loose wire sticking up out of the rope [like barbed-wire!]...catching the wood sleeper. Right!....ye step forward,put ya boot OWA the rope on top of the groove,in effect trapping the rope under ya sole of ya boot.....[H&S....?] The rope is actually rubbing up against ya sole....ye bend doon,IN FRONT OF...ya tub,hold the big link up against ya boot side ti anchor it,slip the rest of the chain under the rope,[avoiding ya leather glove being caught on a loose wire and dragging ye away ....],catch ya chain and dae the same again three times forming loops of chain aroond the rope,which all the while is slipping through the loops up against ya boot.......[hoping all thi while a loose wire doesn't come alang and rip ya boot,and ya foot...!]. Noo!The smart bit,[authorised by Her Majesty's Inspector of Mines,and the Regulations....1954 M&Q Act...]........!! Quickly,ye slip the small oval lnk through the big round link,keeping it loose....mind......!!....then...get ya sheckle,[a "D" link with a threaded pin/bolt],and put it through the oval link and hook it onti thi cruk,[or chain...as the case may be..],of ya tub,keeping the chain slack or else it will click away and pull the tub over you! Once ye have the sheckle bolt in and screwed up tight,ye step back and tek ya foot off the rope and the chain quickly tightens on and yanks the tub set away,with no mercy or forgiveness for any mistakes made!!...[ye had ti quickly learn ti hae ya wits aboot ye!] All during that operation,you are bent double in front of a set of tubs,with a moving rope,and the possibility that other tubs might bump the set from behind ...knocking you under the tub wheels. Which brings me nicely to another old pitmatic saying........"Aye poor owld Billy bumped the set last neet....".....old Billy came into a misfortune of sorts,either in the pit,or even crossing the road.......you know what it means. "Divvent ye **** aroond wi me,son,or else ye'll bump the set.."!....[a different connotation!] Well folks,a ownly came on ti say thanks ti ye's aal!!! Little Black Jess [LBJ],is biting me leg ti gaan waakies.......and luk at thi time.....again!

Heh heh!....it should read "Tubs"....not "Tubes"..!

I wonder if any photos were taken of the whole 500 pupils together in 1956 when the school was [maybe unofficially!!] opened? Maybe as part of a press report?

Only for correctness,Eggy,but I take the phrase .."First Intake" as being the very first to start Westridge School,and,as already covered in another thread,this was in August 1956 ...not 1958! My apologies if I have ignorantly mis-interpreted the phrase! I would be really chuffed if you could find any class photo's of the Upper Remove from the years 1957-8-9..[1959 being the year that I left school..].

My Wife [then 15 yrs old! in 1961] came home on the day she left school....[Friday..],and passed Barnes at the Station..,she saw an advert in the window,and went inside to enquire about the job vacancy on the advert..and the boss of the shop,started my Wife on the following Monday!...no summer holidays for that young lassie! Raisbecks!...one of them,I canna mind if it was Joe,had a unique collection of phrases directed towards passengers....."Howweh then,lowp oot!"......"Ennybody fo' thi boneyard ?!!"....[Westlea Cemetary], amongst them!!

Thanks a lot Maggie,it's always nice to be appreciated by someone!

By the way,as Vic said,these were jobs you did,as you worked your way up to be a coalface worker....Shaft bottom,pulling chummings oot thi cage wi thi Onsetter,and shoving full-uns in.......dish,or kip,loader-end,timber-leading,heavy transport,then face-training.....and onto the face as coal-filler or stoneman on the caunches...etc

Heh heh!Thanks a lot for your very kind comments folks! Ye knaa,it duzn't tek much ti set thi baal rowlin' here wi me!! Can a just tell ye aal this one? Me older Brother and me were born on thi syem day..but exactly three years apart. Our birthdays were just at the end of July,when school was breaking up for the four weeks summer holidays,when aal thi leavers wud be gaan ti thi Labour Exchange.......a fancy govt word for thi Dole Office!.....ti sign on ti seek work. Whey,in them days,it was nowt ti see owa a hundred kids standing in the queue,seeing as class numbers were in the 40's for each class x aal thi schools in Bedlington. So,in1956,[the year aa started Westridge School on thi first day it opened after the holidays...],me Brother started he's first day at Bedlington A Pit training gallery. He finished he's training,and was sent to work in the "Dish",down in the Harvey Seam.[the "Dish" was an area not far from the shaft-bottom,which was a collecting point for all the empty tubs which were sent down in numbers of four at a time....two "chummings" in each deck of the cage.] If you reckon on about 30-40 seconds winding time on coalwork,[fast!],you were getting maybe six tubs a minute,rattling along towards the dish,which was a long dip in the roadway,where the tubs had to be coupled together in sets of a score each time,then "hung" onto a constantly moving endless steel haulage rope,which had no mercy....if you got a hand or even a finger trapped in the "hambone" clips which attached the tub to the rope. The tubs had a "Cruk"[crook] at one end,and a three-link chain at the other end,at tub-axle-height.[very low to the ground!] You had to quickly acquire the skill of holding the chain ready,back bent.. head turned to watch the approaching tubs.......and the split second before the steel capped buffers slammed together with a deafening thud,had to quickly throw the chain over the cruk and get your hand out before it was flattened between the buffers! The cruk had a short piece of steel bar at the top at right-angles,as a means of preventing the chains from uncoupling themselves accidentally. This meant that you had to twist the last link sideways before hoying it owa the cruk.... a bit like trying thi hoop-la the shows! Sorry this is taking so long but it's hard ti explain!! Whey wor youngin,[as we caaled each other,] started alang with another experienced lad for 20 days close personal supervision. After that he was on he's own. One day,I was upstairs,[12 years old still!],and I heard my Mother's voice very loud and almost crying. When I ran downstairs to see what was wrong,I saw my Brother...white-faced..and in an awful state of shock. His hand was bandaged halfway up his arm from his finger-tips......he wasn't fast enough to get his hand out from between the tubs before they smashed into each other,and he got caught between the buffers,which were about seven or eight -inch-square section.......bigger area than an outstretched hand,so not much time to couple on the tubs and keep safe!! When he got his bandages off,his hand and arm were all purple and black,and twice the normal size,and excruciatingly painful for weeks. Mind,it didn't take long to speed up and do the job like an expert,safely,apart from the odd minor finger-end knocks,usually in fore-shift,at three o clock in the morning!! By the time I was 15 yrs old,I knew a lot about pitwork,from his stories,and reading library books on mining methods and machinery. I think most kids paid the price for being too slow on a job they would never have envisaged what the consequences might be!.. It's like I have said a dozen times before....you had to grow and be a man....fast!

Sometimes you didn't need,or want ,to put a dreg in,and would put a wedge,or even a piece of stone,owt ye cud get a haad of,in a hurry!!,UNDER the front wheels,just as a temporary quick measure,to hold a tub or tram in place......easily knocked out to let the vehicles roll again,used at the Kip mostly when handling large numbers of tubes coming outbye from the loader-end.[talking in "scores" of tubs.......my Brother used to be handling sets of up to 30-score of full tubs,at the shaft bottom at Bedlington A pit Harvey seam.]....a "Score" is 20 tubs....and this would be at the end of the shift when the shaft was riding men,[night-shift coming down],and the last of the back-shift coal would be loaded and on it's way out to the shaft bottom.