HIGH PIT WILMA

Ovalteeny,nivvor struggle,or gaan ti other sources,while deciphering,aalwis ask me aan aal oblige!! A dinna gaan on deliberately,a just write like a taak!......."[...........aye.....wi knaa Dad......non-stop....!!....[[sarky young bugga's]]..!"] Wat aa waant ti knaa is,wheor's aal thi otha aad pitmen? The Lone Ranger used ti cum on,but he canna remember me as a laddie working wi him,in 1960,at Choppington High Pit! Sadly,a load of me aad Marra's have passed away,some at an early age,and that's why Aa believe in keeping wor heritage alive if a can,cos not many pitmen left,from the early days of hand-filling and coal-cutting etc,are still able ti remember those days. Doon the Wansbeck riverside yistidi,me Wife and Me were taaking ti a lovely old fella,he will be 90years old next week,but looked aboot my age!! He started Ashington pit,many many years ago,a think before WW2,then went into the forces during thi war,then started back doon the pit after thi war ended. He told me he was "a Pan-puller" on the longwall faces,with a chain face conveyor belt. When a sed ti him he wud be using thi aad-fashioned finger-nipper....thi "Sylvester"[pulling device with a toothed sword,and a ratchet-block assembly],he looked blankly at me,didn't knaa wat a was on aboot,yet he remembered thi actual job itself! Thi mind is a strange thing..!!

Heh heh!! Many thenks folks! It's amazing hoo many o' me aad Marra's from thi pits a worked in,have said thi syem thing!....and THEY worked with me in the same conditions,at thi syem time,in thi 1960's- till thi pits aal closed. Sum of the unlikeliest of lads have said.."aal buy ya byeuk Wilma,a expect aam in it mind!..."! Ye knaa,a canna mind wat a did yistidi,or wat thi weather was like,a hae ti ask wor lass,but reminiscing is like rewinding a videotape and replaying it! Aav got one gud aad Marra,who once listened ti me recalling a story aboot a car a once had ,yeors ago,[mind this was in thi 1970's],amang aal thi lads,while we were gettin wor baits. When a finished me story,he said,"Wilma..yi divven't tell lees" A sed "hoos that like?...[indignantly...cos a DIVVENT tell lees!] He sed "yi telt me that syem story two yeors ago,word for word,and if yi telt lees,it wudda been different in places,cos yi gotta hae a gud memory ti tell lees,and ye hev an atrocious memory!!!!" We aal had a gud laff cos Bill is such a character,and HE figures a lot,in my recollections,but a havn't gettn that far in me byeuk,yit! Hopefully a will. Proplem is,naebody wud publish it,cos a wadn't have it edited,not one word,a wud want it published EXACTLY as it is written!!

I cud star as thi aad gamekeeper wi me little black Jess!!....or an old storyteller in the village school!

Hi folks,it's a real joy to have somebody appreciate my recollections,which are straight from brain to keyboard instantly, as i type, with not a second to think what to say,and not a word taken from any other source except my memories. I'm so used to my family taking the mick good-naturedly,["here we go again....pitwork!...."],cos they have heard lots of my stories repeatedly when I have been talking to old Marra's in the street,and we get on reminiscing! Only last week my Wife and me were in Blyth,shopping,and we bumped into "Six-o-clock-Geordie",one of my old Marra's from Bates Pit. It's been quite a while since we have seen him,[my Wife knows a lot of my old Marra's],and in seconds,he was relating a story to us,reminding me of the time when we first drove the roadways down to the 3/4 seam,at a 1-in-4,and a 1-in-6 gradients,[two main proving roads],with water coming through the strata in sheets,not buckets,so bad you couldn't see through the torrents any more than about twenty yards.[miserably depressing working absolutely drenched and frozen,cos underground water is colder than seawater!!] This time it was HE who had the chair,and every word he was telling my Wife,confirmed what she already knew from me.! In some strange way,it is satisfying to me that other marra's tell tales of the pit like this,cos it bears out what I have told my family over the years. It's also good for me,cos he was mentioning old marra's like "Scrapper",and "Fishy",and the "Womble",[now deceased,sadly.R.I.P. Stevie.] Marra's who had lapsed from my memory,and were brought back again,after our natter about pit-work. I started writing my life story,[for my Family only],about four years ago,and finished Book one,[from my earliest memories as a child]. Book two is in progress,and has been for the last two years or more,starting with my first days underground as a 15 year old laddie. I can only write with my pen for a little while,and have to put it to one side,for months in between sometimes. I have never had to sit and think what to write,it just flows out like water from the tap!! At least if I never get it finished,for any reason,then there's a few recollections to be had on here[don't know for how long,mind!!] Some nights I say I am gonna write a few chapters,then I switch on here,then it's domino!!....the hours fly by when you type as slow as me!! Mind,I write like I talk,or I should have said,...I TALK like I write!!...your ears would be ringing if I ever bump into you in the street! At least I like to be sociable...not a bad thing methinks! Cheers Folks!,and thanks again!

One thing I forgot to say,Canny Lass,was,if your cap-lamp went out,and you were in total blackness,and I mean totally devoid of any light at all,you would hang onto your pony's collar,irrespective of where you were,either intake or return,and tell him to "hauld-up"..[meaning 'go'],and he would take you straight outbye to the stables![.....left left...right...left ...right.......he knew it all!]

Aye,canny lass,there was one secret for survival...the air flow! O.k. in a mine with good ventilation,throw a handful of dust up,and watch it's direction of movement......[depending whether you are in a main road,or a tailgate roadway.!!] In a Mothergate,[or Main intake roadway],following the the air-flow will take you further into the mine. In a Tailgate,[or"Back-road"...or "Narrow Bord"...etc],it will take you out of the mine...not in a straight line,may I add!! You would work your way out by taking numerous left and right turns on the way...a bit like going from Central station to the Hancock Museum.....via Chinatown etc.....! Now!!,in a mine with non-existent ventilation,like Choppington High Pit,the theory collapses! Whenever the barometer fell sharply the whole pit used to be "Styphed-oot",completely filled with deadly gases,which would normally be kept in check by high barometer states.[pushed back into the "Goaf"...or waste areas where coal had been extracted.] The old-timers used ti say.."Whenever that wind comes from a certain direction...we knaa she's ganna be styphed oot.." Us new kids listened and found it to be true. Until 1971,when I went on to the Mine Deputy's course,at Ashington Technical College,[as it was then],and did lessons in mining science and physics. It's great what a little bit of education does for the brain!! I found out then,that it didn't matter a chut,which direction the wind came from!!....it was the dramatic fall in atmospheric pressure which gassed the mine out![ a fall in air pressure causes a rise in gas pressure..allowing it to percolate into the general body of the air flow] Sometimes it was only old workings which were full of styth..[a mixture of mainly CO2 ...Carbon Dioxide,Nitrogen,maybe a bit or a lot of Methane,and gases like H2S ....Hydrogen Sulphide...absolutely deadly lethal even in small quantities..!] Sometimes the whole pit was full,and gases coming up the shaft [the downcast shaft!]cos the ventilation was so feeble..and it was like that from birth to death of the pit...never changed! It was cheaper to send the whole workforce home on full day's pay,now and then,than to install a more powerfull ventilation fan! I'm talking 1965 -6 closure of the pit. Now at Bates,where the Plessey seam workings reached more than 12,000 metres inbye,under the North Sea,they installed huge booster fans halfway inbye,[about 6 miles in],in the main roadway. As you approached them,the noise became so loud,and of a particular frequency,it made you feel like vomiting,and it wasn't only me that felt this way,lots of other lads told me the same story about themselves,as they passed through the air-lock doors at the side of the fan enclosure. Those workings had direction signs put up at every directional change of the roadways,whether they were intake or return airways,for visitors,but mainly for Emergency Rescue workers if ever needed. To be fair to the old N.C.B.,they were the best employers in the country,they kept jobs for those who were regarded as having mental health problems. ,such as conveyor belt transfer points,with simple but very important responsibilities,the odd ones who fell foul of the law and did prison sentences for theft,etc,they came back to their jobs,with a lot of ribbing and serious warnings from marra's to keep their nose clean or else!!....ye knaa wat a mean, lots of other employers wouldn't give these people half a chance in life even back in those days! You are right,Canny Lass,about it being a colourless world,it was a black and grey,and rusty world!!

Heh heh..thanks Canny Lass! We live and learn every day don't we. It's funny ye knaa,but underground,ye had ti learn the geography of a pit,noo it was hard enough when ye were just a laddie of 15,and new to aal the mining terminology,and you would think it would get easier as you went from pit to pit,over the years,but it got harder,cos pits got bigger and bigger,all with different terms,and different methods of working. When I started Bedlington A pit,in 1965,after the Choppington High Pit closed,I was sent to the High Main Seam,which was worked Bord and Pillar. I was lost![not just me,but all my Marra's who were transferred there at the same time] It was like a rabbit warren!...if you went to the Harvey Seam for a week,[longwall faces-total extraction],then you went back up to the High Main..... it was like starting all over again! Bord and Pillar involved driving two main roads,60 yards apart,with intersecting roads being driven every 60 yards,["Bords"]. This meant leaving 60 yard square "Pillars" of solid coal in place,to preserve the integrity of the strata and prevent[ ha ha!!] mining subsidence at the surface,when mining underneath property.[there were dozens of such roadways over a vast area] I digress,all I meant to say was how geography plays it's part underground,as well as up-aheight!! You had to learn where places were and how to get there....and more important.....how to get out!![especially in an emergency!]

Foxy, Iv'e just found oot noo,whey,five minutes ago,the relevance of your comment aboot the I.O.M. TT! It didn't sink in the part where you said you've just been! I didn't know it was on,until just noo,a went ti wat we still caal "WALTER WILSON'S",at thi Station,and the two lads in there were telling me aboot the TT winner being a 14 times'er,and fastest lap on record?[or was it 14 times winner a record?] Anywheh,noo a knaa wat yi mean by mekkin thi others look like part-timers! Am a reet in hearing Bill say it was a Newcastle rider who won?[aam haaf-deef in one lug,an canna heor oot thi otha yin!] Aal check it oot on u-tube,tha's boond ti be sum footage on theor. Cheers Foxy,an a canna mind yi working for G. Bell in thi sixties!![me Bro.-in- Law ....."Palance"was telling me!]

Haven't been doon for a month or two,heard aboot it from me next door neighbour,hoo far does it go? It used ti tek yi reet ti the steppy-styens,and my Wife could manage it in her mobility scooter,a few years ago,but of late,it is a total impossibility. Hope the plan is to renew the whole path eventually,mind there's a certain fraternity intent on destruction,and look what they did to the nice picnic tables doon at Cambois,and other places. Aal be up ti me owld childhood haunt in a few days time ,hopefully,and aal check the path oot,for suitability for the scooter. The river Wansbeck path is also restricting to sufferer's of spinal pain,when using scooter's,as the vibration on the rough areas make travelling very difficult,otherwise most of the path is a lovely walk/ride. The Bedlington "Free" woods is,and always was my favorite place to be as a child!

Chinkaplonka Fourgee!! I thought certain words could be taken for key words,with violent connotations,if you know what I mean! I'll let you off this time...Marra! Foxy,I ain't been to I.O.M. TT but would love ti gaan. Excellent U-Tube videos next best thing taken from helmet cams. Haza,hope you get settled wherever you choose,just jokin aboot Morpeth,it's a luvly place an aal,as is the whole Coonty of Northumbria!

Maggie,and Canny Lass,Aav led a sheltered life,undergrund,a divvent even knaa where Bilbao is!!

er.....note to Mods....."Axes",are rock'n'roll for Guitars....!! My last post is awaiting Mod approval....methinks "Axes" struck a bad chord.........[chord......ugh!]

It's different to Morpeth,much better...not so snobby...unless that's what yi waant like!! I lived there for 31 years,moved 8oo yards,put myself over the border,inti Bedlington! I was born and raised in Guidepost,Chopppington,then Bedlington,till I got married,then most of my married life in Stakeford,and it's a great place ti live.The whole area is great,there are plenty good walking areas for doggy-walking,got the welfare football and cricket fields,bowling,snooker hall,the Social club is next door to the welfare.... ...and anyway,us muso's gotta stick tigitha! Strat,Burns,and various other axes!

Chris and Peter together were my childhood hero's in the days when you pulled your jacket collar up and raised youreslf up a bit to look bigger...... ......when you were 14 years old.....to get in at the Top-end flicks...."Nea bother man".....[was the braggy crack to ya mates!] Ron and Chris will sadly be missed. R.I.P. Chris and Ron.

Maggie,a shudder to think about that![predictive text etc!!] Probably make D.H.Lawrence look like a Mills and B. writer!! Thanks for your kind words also,very much appreciated! Sym,sorry aboot digressing,a like ti keep the entertainment light sometimes!

Heh heh! Nice one Eggy! Neorly theor noo,wivafewmissinwards! Howw,this is a bit of a hobby thing wi me,this isn't new,yi naa!! A few years ago,me gorgeous young Neice was in the Para's,and stationed in the Falklands..[i think] For a laugh,a sent her a hand-written letter,a few pages lang,on A4,just ti keep in touch,and mek her feel at yem,reading Northumbrian text. Noo!...aboot fower pages were nowt else but unpunctuated pitmatic text,which,at first glance,resembled Egyptian heiroglyphics! Aam not taakin aboot Northumbrian,here noo,..aam taakin aboot true pitmatic,using loads of old ancient pit terminology which pitmen's Wives adopted in their everyday vocabulary![such as some which Eggy didn't twig on in his decoding post......"anaamnoreddaroondyitcosaam....".."I haven't got any housework done yet..."etc. ANYWHEH!,me lovely Neice spent a few neets in,trying ti work it aal oot,which kept her oot o' mischief! THEN,she discreetly posted it up in the mess,on thi notice board. Next thing she knew,was a superior officer holdin' it up in front of ivry bugga,waantin ti knaa who was responsible,and what did it aal mean!! So!,they could decipher enemy signals,send in tornado's heavily armed,blast thi bugga's ti bits,but they cudn't read aad Wilma's twang! [Wilma isn't a pseudo,by thi way,it is so well-knaan a nickname,daft as it is,but will be in archived N.C,B,reports,from High Pit,Choppington,if any still exist,cos even thi Manager didn't knaa me real nyem....in thi late 1950's -60's-70's and on ti thi present day by aad marra's who are still alive!!] ..."Wilma....fined five shillings....throwing bait papers down in the roadway causing the spread of mice......" ...."Wilma....fined two shillings and sixpence for riding thi pit ponies underground"........ Heh heh! Happy days!! P.S.......watwarwitaakinabootaforetheornooathinkaavstrayedawehaweebitagain.......!

Luvly bit o' workmanship, Maggie! ...but you got me beat.....[hope I shouldn't be ashamed for saying that!......].....where is it from?

Fascinating stuff ivrybody! When a was at school prior to leaving at 15 yrs old,I hated history and geography[and P.E.!] I didn't see the point of it all!...I was home-studying electricity and electronics,radio and tv theory and principles,Faraday,Ohm's law etc etc etc! I could read theoretical circuits ["schematics" we call them now],at the age of 14 yrs,and was building circuits using high-voltages with Valves. I now wish I had put a bit more effort into studying History!! Fortunately I can learn from all on this forum,better than I could from my teacher!!,even though I had the best-liked greatest funniest fella for a teacher at Westridge....Mr Abrahart!![We usually couldn't write down his dictation,cos we were laughing so much,he was very theatrical in his dictation,and used to assume the characters such as Napoleon,Disraeli,Gladstone,etc.] Keep it up Canny Lass and all the rest of you! Sorry,apart from Pitwark,a canna contribute ti this one!!.....howld on theor....a just thowt on...... Weren't the Monks actively busy digging smaal bell pits aal owa Northumberland,and a lot in Bedlingtonshire,ti get coal for tha caad drafty abodes?!!

Thanks Keith. If I can find the pic I will try and post it.

Whey,as aan pitman who knaas nowt,except pitwark,aal yi bugga's are leaving me bemused here! A gotta agree wi aad Sym....an' as far as passwards are , nea bugga came on an' deciphired me little love letter ti the forum a while back....[aav forgotten where it is noo...a think it was in thi UKIP thread], but just as a reminder,di yi think even thi Enigma wud get this one........ ......aadbliddywilmasabootnakkaadnooanisgaantibliddykipcositslateanaamnoreddaroondyitsothibuggarillhaetibidetheortithimornnoocosaamowaknaakaadtidaeanymairsoaalsaygudneet, andhappyborthditiyungAdamHogg! Gudneetfowlks!

"....In future...doing nothing for the patient may be the best treatment for them....".....!!! Of course!,and also the best line of trade to be in will always,and more so....be that of those who take care of us after we depart.....!! What a load of politico buzz-words for an old pitman to try and digest at 1-0 am!! Sym,thanks for posting this,I think I fully agree with your fears,but you made a serious mistake by deleting the word "Evil" and B..............ds"!!!!!!!!!!! Freedom of speech is what made this a great country to live in,and I'm from an old ilk who does not have the word "Offended " in my vocabulary. My reasoning is,that if an adult person is going to be "offended",because of some remarks made,they would not have lasted 10 minutes working in an underground environment....grown-up children...still immature...in my mind. We had a saying underground......"Sticks and stones....blaa blaa",so you took any insults with a pinch of salt,and anyone showing just a hint of having a "Lip-on",might as well pick thier bait-bag up and go home! Why not joke about Islam??????...we joke about God,talk openly if we disagree with Christianity,the Royal Family,or Churchill...not to mention thatcher-the-hatcheter.........so what's the difference? Aye,aa say...."When in Rome....blaa blaa...."!!. Aye,Three-gee,in 1980, I had a bad roof-fall accident,while winning out a new coalface,down Bates pit. I was injured and taken to the old Ashington hospital,in the Coal-Board van,which was quicker than waiting for an ambulance,in those days! It was common for injured miners to be taken straight out of the pit,"Black as a craa",meaning "black as a crow",unwashed from being down the mine,in other words. I was lying in a side room,bleeding through bandages put on by my own marra's,as there were no doctor's to be found 180 yards up a three-feet high wet,rough coal-face,at 5-0 0'clock in the morning!![when the roof came down over my head and shoulder's...] A black doctor came to see to me,around nine o clock,and asked me how this had happened,and what time. When I said "5-0 o'clock this morning,doctor..",he was very gruff,and spat out his words as if he had a lip-on..! "Why did you not come to Hospital sooner....."...[like a red rag to a bull!!] I was in a lot of pain,not having had any treatment for so long,since being injured 4 hours beforehand,and tried to explain that there are no doctors and ambulances down a coalmine..........it took over two hours to come off the face,get first-aid,travel outbye,wait for a cage to the surface...etc,then I lay over two hours in the hospital waiting on this bad-mannered man to come and see to me!! THEN he started talking about our proposed pay rise,quoting press reports about us getting 10,000 pounds a year,[in 1980!],which was engineered miner-hating sensationalism!! THEN he said,"You will get more pay than me..." THAT did it!!...I said doctor,di ye not think a deserve as much pay as ye?....hoo many doctors come here haaf-deed through thi middle of thi neet,like me?.....eh?......" He stormed out of the room and left me still bleeding,only with no bandages on. I lay for about ten minutes in agony,when a young doctor came by the room and saw me. When I told him what happened,he quickly saw to my injuries,and told me that that other doctor had a chip on his shoulder,for some reason,and had been nasty with other patients. My own family G.P. was Dr Abbey,an Indian doctor,who was really pleasant and friendly,and who was,I later found out,a brilliant surgeon. Just the opposite,but that was in the days when immigration was not on the scale as it is now,and nobody made a fuss. Ashington Hospital was founded and built,originally,by the Miners of Ashington,who saw the need for a local hospital,in the days when Ashington pit employed 5000 men,and was the biggest single employer in the country. We would have been badly on without it,for all the odd horror stories that surrounded it sometimes!!

Hopefully for them,a gud move,cos they are two hardworking lads who I knew a lot of years,and have dealt with them frequently for spares,as well as washing machine etc. In reality,they may find the local trade loss a disadvantage to business. Pleased I checked out the forum here,cos I didn't know they had moved,it seemed I was only phoning John yesterday!![for parts] Can anybody remember old Tommy,who stripped down all the trade-in machines of all descriptions? He was a real friendly canny fella,always willing to help you out with advice,[when the shop was the old original Forrester's..] Tommy was a pipe-fitter down Choppington High Pit,in the early-mid 1960's,and I used to work with him when I was just a 17-year old skittering young ched wi'a snotty nose!!![he was exactly the same natured fella then,as he was in the shop,many years later!] I wish Forresters aal thi best in the future for their business.

Hi Orlof! Thanks for that info. I will post the pic if I come across it in my albums. What puzzled me was why anyone would want to throw out old family photographs!

Forgot to say thanks Maggie,for your kind comments,I love sharing my experiences,as much as I enjoy hearing about other people's. Talking about Whin,["Blue-Whin..i.e.],when our Sons were just little bairns,we were on a touring caravan weekend,just over at Bellingham. One day we walked along the embankment of the old railway track,[then a lovely grassy walkway]. As usual,I was talking about how we blasted out through solid Whinstone Dykes,after picking pieces of Whin ballast up. My oldest Son [who was about 11years old..around 1979..]],was always interested in my stories. I explained to him about the smells of gases released from the stone after it was fired down,and we proceeded to try and break smaller bits of the Whin ballast,by hitting them with larger pieces. We succeeded a few times,probably because the small bits were fractured to start with. The interesting thing was,even after lying out on a rail track,in the fresh air,for God know many years,the same pungent rotten-egg smell could be detected!! [H2s-Hydrogen Sulphide..a deadly gas...but safe in the open air.!] Next time you are out walking,bring a small bit of road ballast home and crack it with a hammer..[with safety goggles and totally wrapped up around the face and neck...fine pieces fly off like red hot bullets!!],and see if you find the same thing. That gas was trapped in the stone,about 200 million years ago,when the Whin was molten Lava from an erupting volcano!! Fascinating stuff man!!

Maggie,I never thought of that! You are probably spot-on about what families throw out after a bereavement has subsided. When Ashington pit closed in 1987,I became a re-trained furniture/cabinet/maker. As workshops closed I didn't sit on the dole,long,[days...never mind weeks!!] I got on at the Wansbeck Council Depot,for a few weeks here and there,relief work. One time I was on one of the litter-picking teams for a few weeks,and this day we were at the tip,over at Ashington,just past the old Workshops,to tip our wagon. While we were waiting our turn to tip,I was standing not far from the bulldozer,watching it flatten out all the refuse from the other lorries. It was a breezy day,and out of one of the lorries,came a load of old photographs and newspapers. Well,they were blowing about,and this great big dozer was practically running my toes over as I tried to rescue some of the pics. I only managed to get one pic,and it was an old black-and-white one,of a Lorry,with the occupants barely in view,it was so old.On the side of the lorry was the company name.......? and? DODDS,BEDLINGTON! They were in Bedlington for donkey's years,and I remember the lorries as a child. Wonder if any of the family are still with us? This pic might have been taken in the late 1940's early '50's