HIGH PIT WILMA

A hated history when a was 12-15 years old,more interested in electronics,and old valve radios and tv's!! NOO,a find aal this stuff really fascinating,and would love ti spend hours reading up on it....but equally fascinated by the Egyptians,and the Space projects which are all happening noo.....where can a find a few spare hours in a day?................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks,Merc,and Pil,keep posting!

Hi folks! Checked out above publisher,now thinking about self-publishing. Sym,do you know about Grosvenor House Press? £795 flat fee gives you 5 professionally bound copies,retain all your rights,publicity on Amazon,etc......so they say!![looks a good deal.....but any catches....I wonder!] Any advice welcome from anyboody,bearing in mind I am a LONG LONG way from being finished my book!

What religion were the Anglo-Saxons?,and why did they build the first stone church there?.....the original Saxon Chancel arch still takes you up to the Altar...even to this day....and the Saxons came in the 600-A.D.'s

Whey,aav just been owa ti see John in Forresters,at thier new unit,and it is great,plenty of stock,very well laid oot,and brightly lit,and it gaans withoot saying,great friendly service from John and his family who help him to run the business! It was the best move he has made!

Thanks Maggie! ....and Sym,ye bugga,ye leave me stannin' when it cums ti wit! A cudn't hae worked that one oot in a month o' Sundays......aam too much doon ti earth ti think like that....nice one!![..mind...aam still just a bairn when it cums ti wor royalty's history,a divven't knaa whoo's hoo!!] Aam ganna get in contact with a local Publisher tomorrow,who a was advised ti hae a crack with. "Ticketyboo press" is the name,so a might be a bit wiser after speaking ti this lad,who is local,apparently!

Hi Millbank! The Chivers family lived in Hollymount square,2 doors from the cut into Cornwall Crescent/Haig/Beattie Roads.[adjacent to old Hollymount hall] That wasn't the Park cut,the Park cut was along from there leading from the "new hooses" [as we kids called them],which faced over to the Whitley school,and Knoxy's Field.It led straight onto the tennis courts area,with a short walk left ti the swings,and continuing through ti the main road and the Whitley School. Old Frankie Latimer lived right on the cut at the right side,and he always chased us kids if we even showed our faces,not even daeing owt wrang!! My earliest memory of little Billy[?] Chivers,was him hitting me,when I was aboot four yrs old,not yet at school.and me faatha gaan aroond wi me,and telling me ti hit him back harder or HE would belt me!! I vividly remember that traumatic day,having to run down and hit thi kid back,which was totally against my grain,cos I wasn't a fighter then,and I've never been a fighter in my life since....am aal for a peaceful life!! I don't think they lived there very long after that incident. My Parents were given number 13 Hollymount Square,as soon as it was completed being built,and the wall plaster was still not dried oot!! In aboot 1948,as it was,there was nae waalpaper !!....aad-fashioned distemper stippled onti aal thi waals when they finally dried. Ye taak aboot giving families chest complaints!!...thi new hoose was damper than Aad Storey's Buildings at Willow Bridge,in Choppington. We had the end hoose,of the first half of the building programme,and they were still pulling the old colliery hooses doon,in Bell's Place,to allow for the completion of the square,a year or two later.

Howw,eez lot!!,ya ganna wear me aad bones oot heor thi way ya taakin!! No,a really DO appreciate all your kind words of encouragement on the subject of my life story!! This past week,I have been proof-reading books one and two,and believe me,I have been unable to put them down!! Naturally,after not reading them since they were started in 2009,it's been a nostalgia trip,stirring up more memories for me to write about!! Considering book one is about my life from earliest childhood.....just over two years old,[i can remember my little brown leather and sheepskin reins!!],and includes silly little things like us laddies playing bays wi the lassies.....etc......rambling over the fields and woods,plus loads of stories you have already read about on here.......would it REALLY be interesting to the wider uninformed reader? [not forgetting I try to write as dramatically as possible without exaggerating or distorting facts]. Each book has 200 pages,[A4 size],and in book three,I am just covering my first years down Choppington High Pit,with as many interesting facts,and events that I can clearly and vividly recall,and still have my life at Bedlington A pit,Bates Pit,[including my 7 years as a Pit Deputy/Acting Overman...on occasions],my visits down Lynemouth Pit,Ashington Workshops,and a coach outing to Craster Bay,to see the geological aspects of the Whin Sill,and it's effects upon the adjacent strata,as part of my Deputy training course,and finally,Ashington Pit,whereby my Mining career came to an end!.....[to be re-trained as a skilled Master-Craftsman making very expensive hand-made furniture..the old-fashioned way!] How am I possibly gonna sell all that?.....it's gonna be thicker than a stack of encyclopaedia's! Heh heh,every time I meet any of my aad Marra's from aal thi pits,and tell them about my book,they aal ask thi same question!.....["a expect AAM in ya byeuk Wilma,mind!!",followed up with....."get it done,and AAL buy a copy.."!]. Whey , folks,Little Black Jess is staring at me with those appealing big brown eyes,[waakies],but a hae a stack o' dishes ti wesh and dry and put away,so if ye dinna hear from me for a day or two,ye'll knaa that aam cracking on as best as a can wi me clerkin' !! Once again, a big thanks for your kind support,wi sum gud ideas![mind,Sym,aam lost on Betty Saxe and Co.....?? !!]

Thanks Folks! Yesterday I went for me bread at what used to be Walter Willson's,at Bedlington Station,and one of the smashing lads who own the shop now,was telling me that a regular customer who comes in often,is a publisher,with many books to his credit. Bill,[one of the Brothers who run the business],said he would ask this guy for his number,and pass it to me,with a view to getting a bit first-hand advice as well. I will keep you posted. Last night I started to Proof-read book one,which charts my entire childhood in detail,my birth-place,the things I got up to as a laddie growing up in the post-war years of austerity,in a coalmining close-knit community. I started to write book one in 2009!,and it has lain a long time,while I have been writing book three,[book two also having lain finished for a few years.] The amazing thing was,I got carried away reading it,from about 11-0pm,and next time I looked at the clock,it was 1-0 am!! I found it so interesting,it was as if someone else had written it about me!! I got halfway through and had to reluctantly put it down and go to bed shattered! How crazy is that! My Wife has suggested that it might be better to try and get the three books published separately, as a trilogy so to speak,rather than put all my eggs in one basket. Each book has over two hundred pages,and I have only just started on my life actually underground!![you have already read a lot of my memoirs on this site.....!!] My Wife thinks I will never ever get it finished,cos I spend what little bit of spare time I have, on me beloved Bedltn Com. site!!,[instead of just pressing on with me book!]

Aye Vic,Ashington pit was the same. Nearly every road was on a slant due to floor heave. Unless me memory is playing tricks with me,I am nearly sure that parts of Netherton pit was also the same.It's interesting to see how roof pressure or floor pressure exerts itself. It's all down to what is known as "De-stressed zones",where,originally,both roof and floor pressure was equal,[before the coal was extracted]. Once you remove the coal,the area becomes a de-stressed zone,and the pressure is diverted to the sides of the roadway,[Pressure-arch theory] It's mighty hard work,travelling any distance through a floor-heaved roadway underground! Your's is an extreme case,Vic,I haven't seen any heave that was as bad as that,usually the floor breaks up at one side of the roadway,and pushes up a few feet. There is a pic somewhere on Flickr,of an old working,with the rails still down,and tubs being pulled along at about 30 degrees! Mind,the tubs used to run like that doon Ashington pit as well!! Nice ti hear from you Vic,gie me luv ti thi boss..as usual!

Maggie,did ye twig on wat a meant by the bloke saying we would evolve with only thumbs and no fingers?[...think.......walking down the street....seeing everybody around you...on buses...even riding cycles on the road,kids going to and from school,or just ambling along,at bus stops,in shops.... ....even actually whilst driving vehicles on our main roads!......two thumbs going like the clappers!!....eyes staring down at the small screens.....!] Yep!....thi bloke was probably right!

Sym,a forgot to mention that most underground roadways will have deteriorated badly,due to being flooded,and with a lack of maintenace,crushing will have occurred. This is where investment would be needed most,re-modelling the access roads,which,at Bates,went inbye 12 miles under the North Sea. When pits were working,they always had sets of "Back-bye", or "Back-Caunch"-men,whose job it was to ridd falls of roof-stone,repair the roadways,put new supports in,or,like Bates pit,and Choppington High Pit,turn bent [straight] girders upside down,and re-install them,with bent side up-over! .....rather than put new girders in! Basic house-keeping,but very necessary,to keep roadways in good shape.

Right Sym! Firstly,I would have liked to have seen that programme,as my youngest Son often goes mine exploring in Weardale,but they are old mines from the 1700's which were all either Galenite,[Lead],or Fluorspar,or Fluorite,and other minerals. He and his explorer mates took me down one mine,[as a birthday present!],and it freaked me out as soon as I went in. The mine went in from a hillside "Addit",[entrance point],through waist-deep water,freezing,like it always was in the coalmines,but what freaked me out was the total absence of any supports in the roadways!...just a bare roadway carved by hand out of limestone strata! Occasionally,a weak point might have been encountered ,and a single prop put in to support a roof break,but it was very rare! The fascinating thing was that some roadways were totally lined with dressed stone,which had been mined,and re-used to save on labour costs of transporting it out of the mine,and tipping it over the countryside below.[cos it was minerals what paid...not stones!] Beautiful compound junctions which would have graced any church,were it to have been situated in them instead of being underground!! They had to be seen to be believed! Crystalline structures which have taken hundreds of millions of years to form,glistened under our caplamps,while some parts of the roads looked like brown soft jelly oozing out of the roof,they were hard as diamond crystals! There were no drillers and explosives in those days,just bloody hard graft! The mineral veins all run vertical,as opposed to coal seams,which are usually in a horizontally orientated state. Therefore,the miners of old,had to drive up hundreds of feet in all directions,like the branches of a tree,follwing the vein wherever it coursed. This meant laying down artificial floors,made by setting battens in to the sides of the road,laying more battens down ,then covering the battens with a thick layer of small crushed stones,upon which they ran small "Kibbles"..[the fore-runner of pit tubs]...to bring out the mined minerals. This was a visit to be forever remembered![trouble was knowing when you were on an artificial floor....you had to tread very lightly,cos if it gave way,there was a hundred foot drop in places!] I noted that you said all the tackle was still left underground,in that silica mine on the programme.....just like all our coalmines! Secondly......re..abandoned shafts.........some were filled in and concreted over,where they posed a danger to surrounding property,in the case of possible subsidence caused by the shaft walls eventually caving in,but some were capped with steel ,and kept ventilated,due to the presence of noxious or flammable gases,such as Methane. Bates pit shaft is one example,pumps are going full time to keep the mine water level at a safe point,due to property surrounding the shaft. Residents nearby are worried about this,in case the pumps fail and the water levels rise and threaten them with floods. In the distant future,if needed,Bates pit could be pumped out,and with a lot of investment,coalmining could begin again,cos the shaft was only sunk in the mid-fifties,so will be in good condition,as opposed to most of the older pits,where shaft walls will have started to deteriorate with lack of maintenance.[which were sunk in the early 1800's]. It puzzles me as to how residents homes could be flooded,when they are higher than the ground where the pit shaft is,and the shaft was sunk not a couple of hundred yards,[if that],from the river Blyth! Water finds it's own level,and when the pit was working,the pit car park,AND the pit canteen,were sometimes under four feet of stinking river,and raw sewage water.....yes,the canteen!! It took a day or two to mop the canteen up,after the high tide water subsided,and it was back to baking meat pasties and boiling tetties for dinners again![nae H AND S in the aad days!!],but the shaft and railway sidings never flooded,all the water used to come up from the drain gulleys,as it did in Blyth town centre for donkeys years,before they installed a huge undergound pumping station to control spring tide water and strong easterly gales from pushing water back up the storm drains. Hope you understand me ramblings Sym!! Cheers Marra!

Hi Sym! Many thanks for your PM and advice. I have been researching different articles such as self-publishing also,as well as the the one you mentioned in London. Certainly got me inspired to try and get on with my book and finish it. After reading a lot about ghost-writing,and it's history,including things about Mozart writing for wealthy patrons,who labelled his work as thier own,it strikes me as being fraudulent,with no disrespect to Merc,for offering genuinely to help me,which I truly appreciate! My thinking is,no-one could possibly put into words,all my experiences,with the sense of actually being in a situation underground,the noises,the smells,the creaking of timbers ,the sound of a hydraulic chock leg bursting under thousands of tons pressure....right in front of you,spraying you with hydraulic fluids under 4000 pounds per square inch,and hitting you like a bullet from a rifle.....with cancer-causing agents within.... ....roadways actually being crushed before your very eyes,girders twisting and buckling like bits of tin...noises like that of thunder as the strata eases down and grinds and crushes everything in it's path.........then settles after a while......leaving a ghostly silence in it's wake....yep,you had to be there to experience all this,to be able to describe it as it was,without exaggeration. Trouble is,even though my memory is vivid,arthritis is beginning to show in my hands,and especially since the bad car smash we had at Easter Sunday night,which has left me with whiplash to my cervical spine,and awful pain and headaches,worsened by holding my head too long in a stooped or lowered position,such as when I am typing here. Think I better pop the pills and get the pen in my hand,a little each night,and see what progress I can make. Any way,Sym,I am looking forward to more tales of YOUR childhood!!....they are more fascinating than pitwork....to me that is!!

Hi Sym! I quote some lines from that article you posted..."Once a pit closes ALL THE EQUIPMENT IS REMOVED".......blaa blaa...!! Whey,aal aa can say is that the bloke who wrote that is living in cookoo land.......no...that ain't right,the poor bloke is only reporting what he has been told by lying sods in the government! EVERY PIT that I worked at,including the little tetty-pit caaled Choppington B pit [the High Pit],left EVERYTHING underground,machines,masses amount of 200-yards long heavy shearer cables,miles and miles,[hundreds of miles] of high-voltage armoured cables,massive transformers and electrical switchgear,pipes,railes,girders,locomotives and all the mine-cars,Dosco road-headers,Joy Continous Miners,gathering-arm loaders,In-seam miners,dint-headers,Transporter machines,Miles and miles oof conveyor belts and huge drive-heads with big motors and gearboxes,with loads of precious metals,I could go on and on,but I think I have made my point! The pit cage ropes were ordered by thatcher-the-hatcheter to be cut immediately the men were brought out of the pit,leaving hundreds of millions of clean coal through-out of the British coal-fields,to bring ships from China,where Children still work,and get killed and maimed by continous accidents due to lack of safety rules...........cos it's CHEAPER! ....and I want to swear about it,I'm getting wound up,so I better tek little Jess for her walkies.......!

HEH HEH! I have just been re-capping over my comments here,and noticed I said that I was 72 years old this year!! Having been born in 1944,it doesn't take a college education to figure out my mistake!! I turned 71 in July,and I'm NOO heading for another year older and deeper in debt!....[an old song!!!] Sym,how do I get in touch with a literary agent that I could trust not to pirate my book? The world is such that now,with cameras and voice recorders on every phone,[except mine,which is an old Motorola c520!! brick!],nothing is sacred anymore. My Son in London has his own recording studio,and he is ,[i'm sure!] a re-incarnation of Joe Meek,of "Telstar" fame,who produced many other hits in the 60's,and was known for his vivid imagination and creativity. He had a wealth of unique techniques to create the weirdest sounds,and jealously guarded his secrets. Well,My Son has exactly the same creativity,and uses everyday objects on his recordings,to create unusual sounds,the only difference nowadays,is that,when he is recording a track,say rhythm guitar,or backing vocals,the other band members hang around in his studio,behind his back,taking clandestine video and still pictures of all his studio effects and other vintage [some 1940's and 50's] gear,then loading it up on Facebook within minutes,without his knowledge. THIS is what would concern me about trusting my book to someone to have it published. Am I being too obsessive about this do you think? Has anybody had any experience with the publishing industry to guide me here? Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!

Howeh folks!! Hae yi forgotten hoo we pitmen used ti slang ivrythin? Of course thi aad pitmen of bygone days wi nae ,[or very little] education,knew the proppa nyem for tha lamps was Calcium Carbide.....but they just slanged it ti Carbine fo' daftness!!.................... A bet tha's nea bugga on thi planet who knaa's hoo it was forst slanged! Hae yi aal seen me pics on Flickr,of Bates pit,where aav posted a pic of me Father taken in 1929-ish,when he was a fourteen yr old putter,wi his pony,and he has he's soft cloth Putter's cap on,and he's Carbine lamp....yi can just see the glow of the flame above thi photo-flash.[Tekkin doon Choppington High Pit] Aav got an aad leather "Master-shifter's" cap,complete wi bracket on thi front,ti hang thi carbine headlamp onto..it shud be in Woodhorn Museum cum ti think! Aye,Maggie,Binksy's little sweet shop next ti thi Whitley School used ti sell aal the pitmen's filler's and stonemen's shovels,[shuul's!],picks,axes,[ayxes's],an carbine,as well as black powder to use ti fire the coal and stone!! Pitmen had ti buy aal this gear in thi aad days!! A ten-year-aad kid cud buy thi carbine,by sayin it was fo' he's Faatha,or Granda,or anybody else![a knaa cos a used ti gaan in wi me friend,and he used tell porky's ti buy it for us ti play wi,and aa once bought some ti mek a makeshift lamp,purely for experimentin wi.....at 12 years aad!!....nearly blew wor coal-hoose door off one day!] A put a teaspoonful in a metal sweet tin,poked a smaal hole in one end,carefully put sum water in,separately of course!,kept the tin tilted to keep the components apart,laid it gently on a wooden stick,lit sum paper next ti the tin,ran behind the coal-hoose door,poked thi tin wi a lang broom-shank,so the water and powder mixed,thinking a wud get thi equivalent of a carbine lamp wi thi flame shooting from the smaal hole.....innocently!... ..............the bugga went BANG!..and blew the tin apart.....thi door flew against me..and a thowt the hoose was ganna faal doon!! Everybody came oot ti see wat med the loud bang...naebody saw me for smoke in the through-passage[typical cooncil hoose wi wash-hoose and coal hoose joined,and adjacent ti the hoose wi a passage between.]! End of me experimenting wi carbine!! Kids nooadays divvent knaa thi haaf of hoo ti be proppa kids!

Just afore ye went doon thi pit at the start of ya shift,ye wud see aal the lads hevin tha last "draa" afore putting them oot,cos nae tabs and matches allowed doon underground,and yit the "Doctor pit" in Bedlington,was a naked light mine,where the men still had "Carbine" [Acetylene] caplamps! ....and they wud aal be sittin' on tha hunkaas! If ye went ti thi bus stop nooadays,and yi saa blokes sittin on tha hunkaas,yi wud think they were on glue or summik!

Heh heh!..not nitpicking,maybe just a regional variation in dialect,but in old Choppington,and Bedlington,we said,[and still do say...].."Hunkaas". ...."a was sittin' on me hunkaas,when a greet bliddy clemmy dropped oot atween thi gordaa's....mind,it sartinly med is cowp me creels ti get oot thi way...!!" Yi knaa wat, folks?,aad age teks it toll,cos noo a canna sit on me hunkaas for a minute,or even on me knees like a wad in a low seam,if a dae, a canna get back up!.....PAINS.....AAAAHHHHGGGGG!!!

Many thanks for your kind comments,Canny Lass and Maggie! I'm pleased you don't find my ramblings boring. You will get a clearer picture of what I am trying to explain,if you visit my Bates Pit Photostream on "Flickr"[unless you already have!] If you study the Photo of "10's Tailgate",that was my last place of work,at Bates Pit,before it closed. The roadway is a dead-end,until we drilled about 50-60 9-foot-long holes into the strata,[on the level this one]. The holes we drilled,were placed in a definite pattern,over the whole face of the strata,the pattern being termed a "Wedge Cut". Sometimes we used a different pattern called a "Burn-Cut",but that was used in a solid stone drivage,in the abscence of a coal seam,such as "Drifting". If you google these mining terms,you will probably find diagrams explaining them clearer. These patterns were used,to gain the most effective "Pull",or advance of the drivage,by blasting out the most efficient way possible. It would be useless drilling all the holes,9 feet deep,and all parallel,cos the explosives would be fighting against each other,so we drilled the centre part of the "Face",in a wedge shaped pattern,with each pair of holes gradually going away from a wedge to being straight forward,and by the time we drilled the holes at the sides of the face,they would actually be pointing outwards slightly,to make clearance for the arched girder legs to fit in. It's hard to believe that this method was used in the old days,and we were still using them till the day we were ordered to "Switch off and pull out",by thatcher..,yet,at the same pit,at the same time precisely,in the Plessey seam,two long-standing drivages were being done using the most up-to-date "Dosco Roadheader" machines,which were about 30 feet long massively powered,with a huge boom on the end and a cone-shaped revolving cutting head,which could sink straight into the hardest of strata,and chew it,and spit it onto a chain conveyor belt,in pieces like the size of small pebbles! Now when we pulled out,in the Three-quarter seam,we left our ancient windy drillers,and mechanical shovels,when the lads in the Plessey seam pulled out,they left TWO DOSCO ROAD-HEADERS WHICH COST OVER THIRTY MILLION POUNDS EACH! They got paid much much much...more than we did,cos they had a higher advance rate....stands to reason!! We'll leave that alone,and keep the entertainment light eh?! Noo,hoo did a get on aboot aal that?.........!!

You see,you don't find this sort of thing out in your average coalmining books......whey,not in detail!

Hi folks,one thing I must add,the strings were used AFTER the Surveyors initially struck off a new drivage with the Theodolite and measuring bar. That's the small precision optical instrument mounted on a tripod,like a little telescope,that you see on new building sites,roads etc. On the surface,the surveyor levelled up his instrument using the built-in spirit-level,and created a datum line above the ground to work from.Down a mine,the surveyor hung a plumb bob from a metal plug which he drilled into the roof,and fixed securely. The point on the plumb bob was centred exactly over the centre mark on the Theodolite. All of this would be happening at specified intervals as the roadway advanced,[between using the strings described above],and every time a roadway had to change direction. What always intrigued me was the fact that,starting from the exact centre of the mineshaft,the surveyors created an imaginary datum line,which was 60 feet above the MEAN sea-level,and every measurement and calculation of projected developments,whether a rise or dip in the workings was planned,etc,was taken from the datum line. These lads had to have a bit up-aheight......if ye knaa wat a mean!![in the brains dept.] Noo when we started to drive a "Drift",[inclined or anti-clined roadway,]the surveyors would put our centre overhead line on the girders,AND the roof strata...in case girders were crushed and moved off-line through sheer pressure. They also painted a side "grade" line,which was usually about four feet from the base of the first installed girders. If you visualise each arched girder being set 4 feet from the last one,held by steel locking struts,and also wood struts ,the girder set to the centre line, then also set up,[or down,as the case may be],by the amount required to maintain a distance of 4 feet from the grade line to the foot of the arch,you can see how the road would take shape and start to follow the intended grade of the road. When a roadway was intended to "Hole" into another seam,far above where you started,like we did at Bates,when we drove from the 3/4 seam up to the Beaumont seam,the surveyors would strike a mark,on the actual face of the drivage,about three feet from the floor,and in the centre,then the Borers would come in with special drilling gear,set their drill unit up,and bore a hole,about 4" diameter,exactly matching the grade we were following. This was done when we were maybe 20 or 30 yards away from the "Holing-in " point. The idea was that we would drill our holes, [sometimes 50 or more],all at the same angle,ensuring that each time we blasted out the strata,the bore-hole would be our guide,as to whether we had drifted slightly off-line one way or another...we kept the bore-hole the set distance from the ground level,and in the centre. It's simple doing things on the surface when you can see what you are doing clearly,in sunshine,but when you are lliterally driving through solid strata,you are virtually blind,and these lines and guide bore-holes were our only means of keeping on an even keel! Most drifts were usually about 1-in-6,or 1-in-4,which is pretty steep,but the one I mentioned before,at Bates,was 1-in-2.....now That was almost vertical!! No concrete steps down there!....just water teeming in and running down the roadway,over rough-shot out stony ground. We had a hemp rope tied to the girders at the side,to pull yourself up on,while you were carrying a 50lb [25kgs] box of Polar Ajax,explosive,[33% nitro-glycerine!],compressed air drillers and air hoses,girders etc!! Your cap-lamp and battery weighed 9lb,self-rescuer [bean-can],about 5lb,helmet,boots,and the amount of water it takes to soak you through to the skin,[at 9lb per gallon!]....all added up to a fair bit of weight! No wonder we were all strong as oxes,and are now all buggered in our old age.....the human body wasn't designed to take the punishment ours took. Working soaking wet all day means it doesn't matter how hard you worked,you were cold as hell,and muscles shouldn't be worked when cold....footballers don't just run from the bench onto the pitch..do they? Well,I just looked at the kitchen clock.....2-0am....again!! Gotta go folks....nite nite!! Just thought,try and figure out why we also had a short length of string,a minaiture spirit-level,which hung on the taut string,and a piece of white chalk!!

Hi Sym! The two strings from the previous visit by the "Linesmen",[the lads who came down the pit from the planning office],would originally have been at the entrance to a new drivage,whether roadway,or coalface. "Look through two,to see three",was the saying about dropping strings to sight through. Each string hung onto the girders,[or wood timbers],on the centre line,with a small stone tied to the string to keep it taut. The third[new] string would be held on the tip of the Linesmen's thumb,and held against the estimated centre of the newest supports which had just been put in,with a lighted safety lamp,["GLENNIE"]tied to the string. The Linesman who was sighting through,would ask us all to "Scone our lamps"[put our electric caplamps out],and HE would take his caplamp from his pit helmet,and hold it at waist level,whilst shining it sort of up the two strings,to highlight them. His Marra would hold the new string and "Glennie",up to the roof,so the Sighter could see the small oil-lamp flame as a bright spot.,this would be as near to the dead-end of the workings as possible,usually on the last girder erected. When the sighter could see the flame,maybe 50 yds away,he would signal to his marra to move the glennie string,either left,or right,till it was spot onto the centre,so he could "see three" strings. His marra would put a mark on the new girder to indicate the centre,then he would put a centre-pop into the strata using a hand held rawl- drill and hammer. As we advanced the roadway,we sometimes put our own new lines on,in the abscence of the linesmen. It was more interesting setting girders to a gradient,such as drifting up to a new seam,at maybe 1-in-4, or even 1- in 2 !![nearly vertical!!] Another story,another time......doggy needs walkies!!

Taakin aboot Planner's,we wudda been absoloutley lost withoot them underground! A taak aboot driving a drift from one seam ti anotha like it was an everyday thing.......! The strata is solid....no indications of where yi are. The Planners and Linesmen used ti cum doon and paint a white guide line on the roof,in a level road,and a side line as well as a roof line,on an inclined,[or an anti-clined road...gaan doonwards that is!]. They used to hang two strings aboot 6ft apart,from the roof centre line,and sight through them to see another string maybe 50 yards away,where the line would be extended up to.,as near to the Caunch[ripping-lip],as possible. That's aal we had,ti guide us when we were blasting oot the strata to drive new roadways. Sum clever geometry was used when we had drive a bend in the road.....like they wud give yi the first six feet of painted line,at the planned angle from the straight,90 degrees from the main roadway.[maybe 35 degrees to the left..E.G.] Ye had ti visualise that line as a Chord..[ a line striking through part of a circle but not going through the centre of the circle..] Ya first arched girder wud be on centre,the second one wud be ,say, 6inches to the right of centre,[on a left-hand curve],with the left side of the girder spaced,and fixed with struts,about 2feet from the first one,while the right side of the second arch wud be three feet from the first one. The next maybe, 10 or fifteen ,arches wud follow this pattern,but each successive arch wud be further to the right of the Chord line,by fixed amounts, say,No 3 arch=9" to the right of the line,No 4=12" to right ,No 5 = 15" to right,and so on,until you reached the half-way point in the curve,as shown in the Draughtsman's plan,which you had posted up at the entrance to the new roadway. By now you could actually walk around this section of the curve..even though it was queer seeing your driving line move over to the side of the new road when you normally strive to keep it in the centre..! Once you reached the half-way point,you reversed the procedure,by setting the arches over to the left by the same increments,until you start strutting the arches equally at each side,and driving straight ahead once more. At this stage,you have a graceful curve in the roadway,totally unnoticed,and unappreciated by all and sundry,who walked around it,cos it was just another stinking wet road in a stinking wet hole caaled a Pit....!!!!

Gotta keep things reet here! A divvent mean the Planners at the pit's, Aam referring ti "High-up" Planning Dept,Teems Valley and higher...they were the culprits.

Hi Pilgrim! Soonds aboot reet ti me,cos even in the latter years before they aal closed doon,Bedlington A Pit [thi "aad"pit],worked up towards the Bedlington Doctor Pit,[ the "D" pit],and took coal oot wat the Doctor pit left.Similarly,the Aad pit also tuk oot coal from the Bomarsund pit...[wat we caaled the "Boomar Road"....."BURMA ROAD"....get it?....from WW2] . Noo that was in thi 1960's late on,when thi Aad pit was scratching aroond for coal ti survive. Not long before Bates pit closed,in 1986,they drove a road across ti Newbiggin,caaled the "Newbiggin Drift",which was an inclined roadway rising from the Plessey Seam up ti thi Brass Thill,if me memory serves me correct,but apologise if aav got the seam names wrang,[a think aam reet like!]. They got a fair whack of coal from Newbiggin,so this aal begs a question!! Why were aal these pits shut doon,in the 1960's,when they still had coal ti get?[and this was a Labour Government,not Tory buggers!] A knaa it wasn't "Stealing" coal,as in your comments,but it might as well have been,and we were probably owa the boundaries even when the other pits were still open,like Choppington High Pit did,except up there ,we were risking being hit on the head by turnips,and tripping owa rabbits! Some funny things went on in the planner's offices methinks!