HIGH PIT WILMA

As in the picture,these men aren't strictly "underground"!.....they are shaft-sinkers,in the process of putting the shaft down to the first available and commercially-viable coal seam.

The two men at the right upper part of the pic are drilling a shot-hole,using a ratchet handled drill operated by one man on the left of the drill,while his Marra is holding the top of the drilling "machine"[!],to steady it and keep it vertical...no electric or compressed-air drillers here!...just bloody slavery!

At the centre right top,another two miners are watching,with their hands loosely holding onto their "machine".....machine!!!!!

In the foreground,one man is holding a steel spike,whilst the three others are synchronically hammering it into the ground,using what I judge to be seven-pound "Mels"..[the most used one in our time were 5-pound mels,with a seven-pound,and a  forteen-pound mel,to use for braying in straight steel girder legs at each end of a horizontal roof girder.]

Hard,bloody,HARD work!!

Great pic!  Pity it hasn't been rotated,the uneducated [about mining  that is!],among us will not have a clue what this pic is about!

The roadway size looks like standard... heavy - section 12 feet wide by 8 feet high two-legged arched girders.

Braced with 3 feet long steel struts bolted together to make the roadway rigid and secure against shotfiring blasts,and strata movement.

Top right shows the spirally wound plastic-coated canvas exhaust fan ducting,which ventilates the roadway by the fan which is situated outbye in the fresh-air stream,and which pulls shotfiring fumes and dust out from the working area,as opposed to a forcing fan which pushes air INTO the working area.

In a working environment like this one,and on my Bates pit pics,these systems were  pretty useless,and the men worked in fume and dust - laden air all of the shift...no health and safety as we know it now....we wouldn't have gotten into the cage if H n S inspectors were around in those days!

These bugga's were lucky here though,they are using an electric materials transporter....in the 60's!!

The girder legs on the transporter weigh a ton each...[figure of speech!].....usually a two-man job to handle each one.

At Choppington High Pit,the girder-lads trailed them all the way inbye across rough ground with no rails laid in the Mothergates,using their faithfull ponies.

Where you couldn't get a pony into a low roadway,you had to hump a leg onto your shoulder,by yourself,and walk away inbye, maybe a quarter of a mile,times four legs for the caunchmen to put the two full girders in after ridding the shot of stones.

Every day I used to carry a leg on my shoulder,and carry the two girder-plates with four bolts in,in my free hand,as I had to keep one hand over the top of the girder leg to steady it as I walked.

You had to walk like an Egyptian,and swing your hips to counter-act the swing of the girder  leg,cos if the sway of the girder got out of hand,it would pull you down onto the ground and trap you there!

I had a Marra who only lasted two hours and he had to pack up,after a leg pulled him down and trapped him!

It was a very labour-intensive job,and the average human body wasn't made to lift weights like this..they used a crane on the surface to load them onto trams to send them down the pit...then us silly bugga's had to hump them by hand....but that's the way it always was at Choppington High Pit!!

The coal looks about six feet high,assuming they are winning out at floor level,but they could have been taking a bottom caunch and keeping the seam,[if it is lower],up in the middle of the roadway.

I wish the pic had been a bit clearer,to identify the machine,it could be an early cutter-loader ,which I think it is,judging by the paddle-chain conveyor mounted on it and which is loading onto the rubber main belt...[or an early gathering-arm  MC3 Joy-type loader].

Eggy,would a be in order if a was ti put a list up of every single pupil who sat in my class aal the way through the Whitley and Westridge,even though odd ones either moved away or changed schools at some point?

It might help to jog memories in order to help in identifying subjects on the pics..[mind thas a canny few on the list!!]

Apologies ti Norman,cos a just canna place him at aal,even though we are P.M.'ing at present.

Noo aal them on me list are 100% definite cos a cudn't mek them up if they weren't in me class!!

Vic,aa sat next ti Alan Wilkinson,in the same twin desk,[as they were then],aal me school life till a went inti the Upper Remove at Westridge in aroond late-ish 1957/58-ish.[canna mind exact date]

Doreen sat in the same class as me at the Whitley,ask her if she can remember the times when aad Mouldy-cheese med me sit amang the lasses[directly behind Doreen,for taakin ti Alan in class..[a humiliation exercise on Mouldy's part....unsuccessful seeing as Doreen and a lot of the lasses were me friends and neighbours!!]...

Ask Doreen if she can remember passing a full pack of playing cards to me,in two's and three'ses,[till I had the whole pack],every time Mouldy turned her back to the class!

We were aboot 10 or 11 yrs aad,and she knew we were hard up and we never got pocket money or sweets or toys throughout the year like some of the others did.

[Cue violins.....!!].....Point is,Doreen says she was a year older than this class,but I can count at least sixteen of our Whitley school classmates who went from class to class all the way through.......mind aam not sure if classes were formed from your date of birth,and you could find pupils leaving at different terms in the same year? does that mek sense or aam a taakin stupid....?

Aal a knaa is we were aal the same age give or take a month or two,and a dinna want wor Doreen ti think aam being disrespectful,just trying ti jog her memory,which is one of the great things aboot this site!!

Me like heap big pow-wow any time...noo wheors me tab-leeta and me blanket!!.....[methinks ye are risking a bashing...!!]

Hi Eggy!Thanks for doing that!

Wor lass came inti thi kitchen where me laptop is,and saw Davy Walker before aa sed owt...he's nivvor changed from the infants school...and still a great lad,even though it's a few years between seeing him!

Jim Hardy and me were gud friends aal thi way through school,and even did wor pit training together at Seaton Burn pit in 1959,straight after leaving school at 15 yrs old.

Some of the other pupils are still bugging me!..ye knaa wat it's like when ye knaa sumbody,and just canna get tha nyems!!

Cheers,Eggy,ya still daeing a grand job for aal of us on this site!

Heh heh!...Nice ti see Davy in this pic!!

My Best Man at my Wedding 50 years gone, last week!

Foxy,if you see Jim Hardy again,pass my regards on to him,he  knew me from 5 years old at the infants school![re:infant school class 2 in this gallery]

Tell him Billy Allison's  asking after him!

Eggy...more names!

No 4 John Moore [Ginger!]?

No 5 definately Norman Taylor [deceased at an early age R.I.P. Norman]

No 6 Jim Bradley ?

No 8 Gordon Parmley - definately![nicknamed "Twiggy",older Brother Brian was "Branchy"-a big strong lad likeable but nobody would tassle with him!!]

No 12 Tommy Tyler ?

A bit of doubt in my mind where question marks appear!

Vic,wheors wor Doreen?..and Ronnie Leyland....and Brian Richmond,and a lot of others from wor Whitley class?....ask the boss if she knaas if they aal  left skyeuul at Easter ,in 1959,cos aa left in the start of the Summer holidays,aa was 15 yrs aad in July 1959

Nos 15 and 26 are bugging me..on thi tip of me tongue.....!

Canny Lass...best way ti stop Mr Bebbington's math's lesson was ti suddenly ask him ti wiggle his ears.....and it was domino!!

Quote.."You know,it takes a lot of practice and a certain amount of skill to do this..."...[as he put down his chalk and started the half-hour long demonstration....while we were in fits of laughter!!]

My older Sisters and Brother educated me on this topic long before I went into his class!!

Great seeing these old pics...wonder if Jim Hardy has any more!..

A realised after a logged off it was a book caaled "Pirate Sealer" wat a got for Xmas the same year,where Tubby Fenner was the character,and NOT  Quest of the Bellamy Jewels![not that it matters ti any bugga like....just for correctness!!

Heh heh!

Snap! Aa started there in aroond 1951-2..ish,from the infants school.

When a was aboot eleven years aad,a won a book prize,[the one and only one I ever won!],for what we caaled Scripture,[then Religious instruction,later changed to Religious Education..]

The prize-giving day was at the old Locke Hall,doon Bedlington main street above the store drapery dept.

Me book was called.."The Quest of the Bellamy Jewels",set in the London Docklands,and was a children's crime thriller.

Coming from a mining stock,with not a very sparkling education,I couldn't understand half of what it was on aboot,except that the Engineer on board the "Tilbury Pride" ship,was a big Tynesider called Tubby Fenner!!,[he used ti taak Geordie ti the Cap'n....so a understood that,but wat thi hell was a Chronometer?........!!!]

Aa still hae thi book,wi thi paper cover over the hard back and front,and have read it a few times over the years,a gud interesting book,but far too advanced

for kids like aa was at thi time.!!

Me cousin Michael,lived in London,and when he came up on holidays,ti stay wi us,he used ti try and educate us kids aboot different things...mind,HE knew nowt

aboot  gaan doon thi woods,playing wi catapults,conkers,sheath knives,and northern kids' games!,so he used ti love coming up ti stay.

A think aal google the book noo we  are on the subject!!

Thi aad Whitley!!

One day,me and Alan Wilkinson,Ronnie Leyland,[football team members],and Norman Taylor,aal ran through thi corridor and oot by the main entrance,to the left of thi building,instead of the way we should have cum oot,and aad Nicky the Headmaster,[Mr Nicholson],saw us and called us back inti his office...

....caned three times on both hands...in a very slow,controlled,terrorising fashion,hummin ti hesel',searchin amang aal thi canes he kept hidden from school inspectors,among rolls of maps etc,swishing them in front of our faces,..."too thick....I want one that's really going to hurt,to teach you all a lesson...hmm...too thin.....!!",until we were shaking by then,but none of us wud admit we were scared stiff,even though we had this all before!

We never came oot that door ever again!

Eh whey,larn thi hard way,we knew it was against the rules!!

We were only aboot ten years old......

Aye,aa lived in No 13,which was on the end of the first phase of the development,and wor wesh-hoose had the key-bricks sticking oot ready for the second half of the square to tie into..which happened after a year or so,a was only aboot four years aad then,in 1948- July 1949.

The bricks were like a ladder for us kids ti climb onti the wesh-hoose roof....such adventurous excitement we had in them days......electric leets ye cud switch on and off at thi waal,[nae matches,or leeted bits of newspapers ti leet them!],Hot and caad running waata,at thi torn of a tap...nae pails or jugs ti carry from thi end of thi street!...oh!,and a strictly remember thi massive SIX-PINT,electric kettle [cooncil supplied],that tuk a haaf-oor ti boil if it was full,which,for a family of six,it had ti be!

This was a sad ending to a fine old building and part of Bedlington's history,also for the poor Canaries.

Great to see aal me aad friends and one of the best teachers we ever had.... Mr Davidson!

A sat in the same school desk next ti Alan Wilkinson aal me school life,ivry class reet up ti Westridge,at first,then a volunteered ti be selected for Upper remove,

which ended the long partnership in the classroom,but still went doon thi woods etc after school,although,by that time,[12 yrs aad!]Aa was heavily inti electronics

and experimenting with electricity in wor aad wesh-hoose at Hollymoont Square.....from aroond 1956- on.

Alan was aalwis crazy aboot football,and used ti taak endlessley aboot wanting trials for East Northumberland team,which didn't mean a thing ti me!!!

A hope he can access this site!!

Waatcheor Alan ,if ya in there!!

Thanks Eggy!

Margaret,if you haven't already visited the page,I have posted the class photo with you on,as I explained,see how many you can name!!

Cheers Margaret!

Billy.

Well,Margaret,isn't the internet a smashing thing ti hev....espeshully for bringing aad friends tigitha!!

Can ye mind Mrs Allison across the road from Auntie Peg's?[No 13 Hollymount]..a mean directly opposite?

She had  four of a family when you were nine,and five by the time you/we

were 10 years old.

I am Billy,the youngest of the original four!

My younger sister was born when we were 10 yrs,in 1954?[correct me please!]

On my class 2 photo,taken at the Bedlington village infants school,I have named most of the 43 pupils,starting with myself at the very top left of the back row,all smiling with my little dimple - cheeks!

Now,unless my memory is,for once,letting me down,I have you marked also sitting cutely, smiling, with your little shoulder bag on.!

How I have the photo,is because one of our friends who is on the photo,standing next to me,a lad called Jim Hardy,sent the photo into the "LEADER" free press , a few years ago,so I cut it out and kept it for posterity.[never thinking that some day we would all have computers...!]

I am trying to find out how to post it on here!!

Lovely to hear from you Margaret,Hubby wouldn't be Tommy would he?

[Another friend from around the corner at Hollymount!]

Cheers Margaret!

Billy.

P.S. thanks to Tonyp for alerting me to your posting!!

Aye,Tony,a didn't know them,and having been a tee-totaller all my life,didn't know anybody in clubland,except my next door neighbour,who was the treasurer of Bomarsund club[the"Roughton"],in the 1980's.

Fantastic shot,GGGG!!

Weel done!

It was a wholesaler's shop.

We,as kids,used ti watch them carrying big jars of sweets in,and used ti fantasise aboot them dropping a jar,and us kids scrambling aal owa the ground picking loads of bullets..[sweets!] up!!

We had nowt after the war,rations were on,and seeing stuff like this made us kids drool!

The shop was just past the entrance into Bell's Place,and Hollymoont Square,opposite the Black bull/Locke Hall area.

The frontage is still there ,but a think it's a hoose noo,Tony.

If a knew ya name,a might be able ti tell yi if a knew ya Dad.

Yes,the shop was a vending machine servicing place in latter years,but aam taakin aboot late 1940's/1950's

Big Brian Easton,is my Wife's cousin.

Chek out my thread of Puddlaa's raa',and the Easton family were living near the bottom of the street.

It luks like me Mutha stannin ti the left of Mrs Heron,wi her hands together,typical of her stance,pity the pic isnt a wee bit sharper.Could be someone who looks like her.

The Heron family lived opposite my family in Hollymount Square,and Mrs Heron [Peg] was my Mother's very good friend.

She would give me a thruppeny-bit for gaan up ti Carricks the bakers for a broon fadge and a scrrrrrrribona sammidge cyek!!![emphasis on the rolled "r"'s..!]

Me Mutha wud mek me tek the money bak ti Mrs Heron,sayin if ye canna dae a gud torn for nowt,ye canna dae it at aal!

Noo,who was the young laddie who used ti cum ti see Mr and Mrs Heron in aroond 1950-ish,[give or take year or two either way?]

Was he a grandson or ?

I used ti play with him,cos I lived directly opposite the Heron family in Hollymoont.

We wud have been aboot 5 or 6 years old,but I cannot remember his name!

Did a lovely bonny little lassie called Margaret Thack....

also visit the Heron family?....she was in my class at school.

Just got confirmation from my Sister,that Mrs Heron's first name WAS Peg.

Eh! it doesn't haaf bring back memories when we were kids,and young Frankie always had a camera,we have him to thank for a lot of old pics of us playing in the street...and especially the ONLY one of my little dog who was killed by an opencast coal lorry..[Tulip's wagons..we called them..],on Bedlington main street,with the most callous person as a driver...[another topic..]

Anyway,Frankie,[and Billy W.- my next door neighbour...],would be reported nooadays by aal the poisioned -minded people in this so-caaled "Society"...that we live in..,for tekkin lovely innocent photo's of his neighbours kids playing.

Young Frankie's nickname was "Spanky" Heron,cos he was aalwis dressed immaculately,was a gud-lukkin fella,and had a B.S.A. 350CC

[i think] motorbike,and used ti ride it wi his suit on,jacket flappin' in thi wind!!

Young Jim Prime,has a very unusual name.

I wonder if he is the Son..[i'm trying ti work oot ages and years ,here,Tony,in me heed!]....or  other relative,of Jimmy Prime.,senior,who was really badly injured at the Choppington High Pit,[being crushed up against a newly installed Desford/Gullick ?.... hydraulic face chock,roof support,by his coalcutter machine].

It was a bizzarre accident,cos we were installing a newly-won-out coalface,

with these new-fangled hydraulic chocks,shaped like a giant mushroom,that pressurised the roof with about 20 tons of pressure,and

they were a few yards apart at first,so there was a big gap between them,with wood timbers covering the rest of the roof on the face.

Jimmy was running the cutter picks,I think to jib-in to turn the cutter,which was a very skilled manouvre,with the most vicious and dangerous machine ever invented by man...full stop,and no argument about that!

The picks on the cutter jib struck something hard,and it danced the three-and-a-half-ton machine around like a toy,on the very low coalface,[just over two-feet high],swung the cutter around and crushed Jimmy up agalnst the face chock,nearly killing him.....

He was apparently dying as we reached him on the face,with his lungs and all his internal organs being squashed.

He was very lucky that the picks didn't take him into the machine,or he wouldn't have survived at all.

We stretchered him with great difficulty,off the face,[just over two feet high-remember,]and all the way out of the pit,slipping and stumbling on the rough stony wet downward sloping roadways.

Poor Jimmy got tossed about so much,it was a miracle how he survived the trauma of it all,and after we got him into the Ambulance,we thought he was already gone,his eyes and general appearance said it.

Word came from the Hospital,after about two weeks,and being severely crushed....that he was playing hell with the doctor's cos he wanted to be out to go to the club for a pint with he's Marra's!!!!

Were we pleased to hear that!

After the Pit closed,I only used to see Jimmy up Bedlington main street,on he's way down ti the Market club!!...and you wouldn't have known how near he was,unless he told you,which,of course,he wouldn't!

Sorry for the long story,Tony,I got carried away,re-living it,cos this happened aroond 1963-4..ish...maybe even 1965..not exactly clear,but no later,and no earlier,and it was a very traumatic event for us all who were there.[in really bad mine conditions]

Tony,if you know Jimmy jr,on this pic,could you ask him if Jimmy sr is his

Relation,please.

Cheers.

Bill

My Parents were very gud friends with a Bob Lumsdon and his Wife,who lived at Scotland Gate ,long before I was born,and long after,just opposite Tait's shop,in the cottages. 

Thanks for sharing ,Tony!