HIGH PIT WILMA

My family moved into number 13 Hollymount square in 1948,it was the first building programme after the war ended,by the Bedlington Urban District Council.

Then it must have been after that ,when they started dumping all the ash and household refuse,old prams ,bed frames,old pre-war wireless's etc,at Barrington,which we kids called "Barn't'n tip.When I was about ten years old I used to go down there with the big lads [ my older Brother and his mates]. When I was 12years old I took an interest in electricity,and started going down to the tip,humping massive old pre-war wireless sets,in heavy wooden cabinets with umpteen valves inside,and huge mains transformers,back home to Hollymount Square,with the help of my friends and my Brother. I used to pull the insides out and eventually learn't how to build a two-valve short-wave radio set...[i was about 14 yrs at this advanced stage!! There were fires burning constantly all over,with a characteristic smell.....the place was teeming with rats,ponds with loads of bullrushes,[which were fashionable as ornaments in the sitting room windows at the time,so we risked drowning quite often,to get some for our Mother's.....but they would have killed us if they knew how we got them!] Eeeee.....tek's me back.....!

Aye,Lockey,a realise that,and while a sentimentally agreed aboot protecting the innocent,a canna help but feel it's ALWAYS the perpetrator,or their families that people want to protect,while the victims and their families seem to be ignored and forgotten about. I bet Dennis's family are still hurting,nearly fifty years on..... Nicky caned me a few times as well as all me mates,lads and lassies,for the most trivial things,like being late for school,etc. This was in the mid-fifties.Mr Davidson [Wonk was his nickname!],was a real Fatherly natured teacher,liked by eveverybody,he used to make us laugh during"art" class cos he always had us making things out of nothing!! He showed us how to make a santy out of papier-mache,using a milk bottle to stick newspapers around,in narrow strips,using also what he referred to as "claggum".."staggum".."stuckum"..."tikkt-stuff"....etc..! We used to be howling at his vocabulary!!Wonder if Dot can remember all this ...Vic,have her asked will you please,to prove i'm not romanticising here!

Although I was universally known as Wilma throughout the pit, there was only one miner at Choppington High pit who DIDN'T call me that,and i can't recall his name,,but he was a real canny fella,very warm natured,and he used to greet me during shift changeover with...."Halllllowwwww Bert,are ye still playing that twangy guitar?"!!![mekking thi motion of holding a guitar and swinging his arm up and doon as if he was strumming a guitar!] That was aboot 1962 if my memory is correct,the year a met me Wife at the Clayton Ballroom,only it was on a wednesday neet,and it was a roller-skating neet! So instead of dancing the neet away,we skated thi neet away,and went yem buggaad!

Acorn Bank site was one of our favourite playgrounds when we were kids! Sunday afternoon's,we used to play in the Euclids,when they were parked up on the top of the cut. No security men in those days,weren't heard of..didn't need them. We played in the driving seats,not locked,didn't damage anything,went down the cut and played on the feet of "Bucyrus Erie",which,at that time,in around 1954,[i was ten years old!]was the biggest walking dragline excavator in Europe. At nights,after school at the old Whitley Memorial,we used to go over and lie at the edge of the cut,and look down a 200 foot drop,to watch Bucyrus chewing out the strata like toffee! It looked magnificent,all floodlit up the jib,and around the cab. It was an amazing sight to watch this huge beast,teeter forward on it's feet,the jib slowly bowing down slightly,then lifting it's whole weight,and slowly moving backwards,always backwards,about ten feet at a time.It's feet would then lift on a huge eccentric camshaft ,then they would move backwards and slowly thump down onto the ground,making the dust rise all around it. What a sight 2,500 tons of steel walking as if it was on eggs! Must rank as one of the finest amazing feats of engineering ever done in the world! Yes,we watched the two Bailey bridges being built,over the Bedlington Bank road,and over the River Blyth. We watched as Greenheart timber beams,more than two-feet -square,were sawn by hand,with two men at each end of a huge handsaw,must have been about six feet long. These were to be used to build the trestle-work pillars to support the river bridge. Greenheart is so dense ,it sinks in water! I found this out,still as a kid,when we played down the river after the bridge was finished,and being used to transport coal to Bebside pit. There were loads of bits of wood all lying around,on the river bed![i mean..BIG..bits!] Loads of happy memories there,collecting fossils from the overburden heaps at the top of the picnic field......etc! Getting rides in the Euclids,by canny drivers,who would let you push the lever to tip up the rear of the truck to empty it's load onto a conveyor belt via a hopper....can you imagine it?.....this was before peoples brains were poisoned,and who,nowadays,would think that every canny bloke was a pervert out for young kids...these blokes just knew that THEY were kids a long time ago.......!

Hi Merlin,I left the mines in 1987,after nearly thirty years underground. In 1991,I was getting small jobs over at the council depot at Stakeford,relief work etc. One day,the Supervisor,called me in,and two other lads,and said to take the wagon ,with shovels body suits [paper ones],brushes etc,and go over to Woodhorn Colliery Winderhouse. Our task was to clean out the winderhouse,top to bottom......what a task! We filled seven huge skips in the first week,with pidgeon droppings,which were a foot thick on every surface,dead rats,dead cats,massive pidgeon's nests,bigger than me!,oh,and loads of dead pidgeons,and their eggs...rotten when they got broke...!! When i asked the Supervisor,why we were doing this,he explained that it was going to be a Museum. Later on,we cleaned the other winderhouse out,and actually Pledge-polished every painted surface till it smelt like wor sitting-room after a gud clean-oot! When John,the [then] Warden,showed me the function room upstairs,with all the silverware on the long Wedding table...i couldn't believe it! THIS was a stinking pig-cree of a place,last time i saw it,and now it would match any big hotel for splendour!! Haven't been for years,but i understand that the pictures i took down Bates Pit,in 1986,before it closed,are on the computer over there,for all to see.[High Pit Wilma's photo's] People i have spoken to,thought that the canary dropped dead,so you had to get out,cos there was gas....! I had to tell them that you needed your canary,for your safety,if you were a rescue worker,and you couldn't carry an aviary on your back[!!],so you watched your bird like a hawk,[pun!],and when he started to twitter or squawk excitedly,in the presence of gas,or oxygen depletion,it's time you got out,and tried to improve the ventilation,to disperse the gas,and bring fresh air in. After an explosion or fire,Carbon Monoxide is the greatest danger you face,as it has an affinity for the Haemoglobin of the blood,which is 300 times greater than that of Oxygen,making it a very dangerous gas to encounter. I could,and would love to be a helper over at Woodhorn,Merlin,cos I taak like I write!,but I care for my disabled Wife 24/7,so it's out of the question. When I get wound up on here,I don't know when to stop!!!

I lived in Hollymount Square from age three years,having moved from Choppington. One of the things that sticks in my mind vividly,was that on Sunday mornings,i used to be lying in bed,listening to the sound of pigs squealing,one after the other,with the sound of gunshots in between each set of squeals. After each gunshot there was silence for a few minutes,then squeals again,gunshot,then silence. It was "Hi-Ti",over the road,at the Co-op [store] slaughterhouse,around the back,doing the killing,to provide the weeks meat supply for the bacon counter. One day,when we about Ten years old,we went around to watch Him,as we often did,eagerly waiting for the bladder to make a football with....! He was in the process of cleaning the ..........er....raw tripe...,and boiling them in the open yard on a big "set-pot". I can remember him dropping one of the "bags" onto the ground,cos it was heavy,and just picking it up and chucking it into the boiling water,and me feeling like....ugh...it's been on the ground...and me not even knowing what it was! There was a big full-page spread in the "News of the ....."in the '50s when an inspector prosecuted the Co-op,for breaches of hygiene laws,and he said that on his visit,"the walls of the buildings outside the slaughterhouse,were covered in stale blood ,and literally...shimmering..with maggots.." The joke was,as years went by,"saves you buying bacon..!"[figure it out!] My older sister worked at the Co-op,after leaving school,and often used to be on the bacon counter,with the old hand-slicer....

Heh heh!!....noo THAT'S a blast from the past!....[Play in a day!] R.I.P.Bert. In 1959,I started Choppington high pit,straight from school,aged 15 years. I never had the inclination to want to go drinking,as I had a tyrant for a Father,who treated my Mother really bad in the old days,and during the war,by going away on drinking sessions and gambling his pay away so Mother had nowt to bring us four kids up with. SO,when Duane Eddy released "Rebel-Rouser",on 78 rpm!,and on Shellac!,all i ever wanted to do was to play guitar. Then when Bert Weedon released "Guitar Boogie Shuffle/ Bert's Boogie"..[both sides of the disc],my Brother and Me invented Air Guitar!!! The last straw was when The Shadows released "Apache"....I HAD to get a guitar to play like Hank! Along the way,I bought Bert's "Play in a day" book,[i still have it!],and although I coudn't grasp reading the dots,I learned a lot from it about techniques,tremolo's etc,and also chord shapes. Every guitar hero over the years,incl. Clapton,Knopfler,Brian May,and even Hank Marvin,have all confessed to having bought that little book when they first started to learn to play! 50-odd years later,I still enjoy playing all The Shadows music to backing tracks,and I finally,only recently,nailed the sound of Hank's "rippling" echo ,as on "Wonderful Land" etc. I love plonking away with arthritic hands,that have been ravaged with injuries through nearly thirty years of coalmining! Might sound terrible to the listener,but I don't care two hoots....it's magic to me! Pleased to know that we have a few muso's on here apart from Myself! Be gud if we could all have reet gud jam together wudn't it?!!

Hi Lone Ranger! I'm pleased you have confirmed who you are,cos i already knew when i first saw your comments donkeye's ago!! Didn't you remember that i asked if you still mended watches?,and also i asked if you still had your wee spirit level in your pocket,and did i not ask if you knew that your old marra Bob Keel., passed away?[i was looking for you at Bob's funeral,and thought you musn't have known..] As regards my name,you got it here now!! Wilma was the nickname that everybody at Choppington High Pit knew me by,nobody knew my real name,except the pay office staff![Keith Cooney -deceased..R.I.P. gave me that knickname cos i had long wet straggly hair,doon the pit,and he said i looked like Wilma,off the Flintstones!...and it stuck!] But in latter years,as a young pit Deputy,in 1973,i was driving the backdrift doon ti thi 3/4 seam,where you and Bob K.and me all met up again. My real name is Bill A.....n,and i chucked deputy-work in,just as you went onto the job,so at first,i was in charge of you,then,occasionally,you were in charge of me!! But my vivid and lasting memories of you are,as i already said before,doon thi high pit,when i was only a 16 year-old laddie,on transport,with John Dickinson,and John Wardlow,in stinking conditions, and deaing a heavy ,man's work,for a laddie's pay. You were friendly and learn't me a lot aboot thi ways of pitwark,apart from just general cracking on,aboot cars,bikes,watches,and ivrything else under the sun! It was very daunting for a young laddie ti be thrust from a school desk,inti them conditions,so when thi lads accepted yi inti thi fold,as you,and other lads did,it made the tasks a lot easier ti face! So noo that a naa,aam pleased ti be cracking back wi yi again.....53 yeors lata!! Cheers B.!

Contributors 236 posts Posted 05 June 2013 - 01:14 PM HIGH PIT WILMA, on 05 June 2013 - 12:10 AM, said: Anybody noticed hoo once a get wound up,a tek sum stopping!! A write like a taak.....!Sorry if aav hogged the channel....[C.B.-speak...circa 1981!] Now just listen here Wilma, just keeping getting wound up. There are loads, like 'tonyg' and me, that were turned away from the pits by parents that enjoy the stories. You should move off this Puddlers Raw topic and start a Pit Story page. I have one uncle left alive, born 1937, that worked at the pits, ended up at Bates, but has always lived in Choppington since getting married. Must be loads of good reading. I had a mate at the 'A' pit that they us to say - who's that little lad lad on the end of that cxxk? I just copied and pasted this comment above,and i bet the little lad was either D.B. Senior,or his Son,also D.B. junior! 0 .Back to top

Nae gud me syeing owt...yi aal soond too fancy bay-window twang for me!! Aal agree aboot Keenley's,Joan aalwis greets folk wi a smile,and the two youngins are bikers,so it's gotta be gud...! But aam not havin Sonya's browt doon,cos Marcus and his staff are equally as friendly and helpful,and if he hesn't got wat yi waant,....whey tell him,and he'll try and get for yi!!! [doesn't tek a college education ti figure that one oot noo duz it?.....heh heh!!] Aye,seriously,we hev got a canny place in Bedltn,it's a pity Matty Robinson's isn't theor noo,cos mind....that was a mind-boggling place ti shop in!![and HE knew where ivrything was,in that den!!]

Jukebox?....! Dinna tell me the aad juke is still gaanin strong.......naa....it's gotta be a newer one! Aav got pics of thi juke that was in there,what was tekkin' in thi mid-sixties![mind,it was accidental,that the juke got itsel' in thi pics!] Anybody mind o' big Derek that had thi Wharton in the 'sixties? Am a teetotaller aal me life,but Derek kindly let me and me marra's practice wa repertoire in the big room on neets when it wasn't being used.[in the days when a was a lang-haired rocker from Bedltn!][noo aam a baldy-aad biker from Bedltn.....some things nivvor change......!] A remember it being a cosy little place,and in the days when we were a proper mining community,aal thi pubs and clubs were usually full. A think,the aad juke was a Bel-Ami,but a wud hae ti sort me pics oot ti confirm if aam reet. So what sort is in there noo?

Hi Threegee! Aav just reluctantly passed wat lukked like a fake £2 coin,ti the lass on thi till at me local Supamarket. A say reluctantly,cos a was on me way ti thi bank at Blyth,and a was gaana ask if it WAS a fake,when a pulled it oot me pocket wi other change,and away it went,afore a realised! Like yi say,it was stamped off-centre,rubbish-like,was very sharp-edged,bright yellow,with a distinctly different soond when dropped onti the bench. Only one aav ivvor seen,mind!

Aye,but yi see,why Ian and his team are a massive success,is ,cos when yi gaan in,even just ti browse aroond thi bikes,Ian,or Ron,[if Ian's busy],will treat yi as if YE were thi ownly customer they had.THAT'S the secret ti daeing gud business,aa think,an aaa knaa from porsinal experience! Aam a born-again-er,after being off thi wheels for 46yeors,and BOTH thi lads went oot their way ti mek me feel comfortable in the shop,and on me forst bike,after aal them yeors....[a used ti deal wi Ian's Dad in thi 60's...a lang time ago! So yes,a BIG congratulations ti Ian and aal the staff for putting Bedltn on the biking map,both as a businessman,and a race-winner,alang wi Carl,his Son.

Heh heh! Reminds me when we were kids,we used ti gaan doon Bedltn bank owa the bridge,and up inti the private blackberry hill above the Ha-apenny-wood-hoose,on the bebside side of the bridge. We filled two big Ostermilk tins wi blackies,in an hoor,raced up the bank,selt them aroond wor doors in Hollymoont Square,for usually,thruppence a pund!! Whey each tin might haad aboot three punds o' blackies,so we got rich by the end of the shift! Mind,we might hae picked aboot six tins apiece,so it tuk langer ti sell them,once ya regulars were blackied up! If yi tek inti consideration thi trek doon thi bank,climbing aal aroond the hill [which was aboot 1-in-3 gradient],bak up thi bank,trekking thi street carrying aboot six punds o' blackies,then stryght bak doon again for more,at age ten or eleven years aad......it was hard earned cash for us kids!![nae sign of boredom...the word hadn't been invented!] Noo,aav noticed loads o' places this year,where nae bugga's been at aal!!...not even thi aad timers.....! What's happened?

My Grandmother was one of a team of young girls employed as an assistant to help the shaft sinkers at Ashington pit,in the 1800's.The sinkers drilled and fired the shots,and the young lassies had to fill the buck[kibble...skip...etc]with the loose stones. Check it out John,see if there is any truth in the story,which came from my Mother,and which i don't doubt at all.

Reedy,the name of "Prime" [5 along from the left],reminds me of a little fella called Jimmy Prime,who was a cutterman at High Pit, in the early sixties,and who was crushed by his coalcutter when the "stays"[wood pit props put between the cutter and the roof to control the movement of the cutter,]flew off,allowing the cutter to swing around with the picks in gear,and crush him up against the only hydraulic face chock in sight of him on a newly won-out coalface. The "Desford " face chocks were just being installed on TB23's face at the time. Jimmy was about 60 yards up the face,cutting it,My Marra's and me were at the tailgate end,in the high roadway,[high...!!!...10ft widex8 feet high...!],when we heard a loud shout asking for a stretcher...there was a man fast in the machine. Big Harvey Tilbury,the pit joker,immediately took charge of the situation,and began barking orders out to all the lads..me included...i was 20 years old,not long face trained. Me and Harry Undeldorf [Polish] ran outbye,in stinking,rough wet conditions,slipping all over the place,to seek a stretcher. When we got back up the coalface,Harvey moved the cutter and released Jimmy,who looked like he was dying,his eyes rolling up and disappearing,and his toungue coming out down past his chin..it was a horrible sight to see. We carried him all the way out to the surface,and even though he was about six stones,wet through,he was a ton weight on the stretcher,after about half a mile,in terrible conditions,swallies of water up to the knees etc. We heard that he had only been in Hospital a fortnight,when he was playing hell with the nurses,cos he couldn't get out for a pint!!! Were we pleased when this report reached us at the pit....we had all given him up for dead,he was so badly crushed...... it was a happy ending after all...now this fella in the pic,at Netherton,closely resmbles what memories i have of little Jimmy Prime,he is older on this pic,which would fit...unless it was his Brother......

John,Frankie Barrat was a Deputy when i was at the High Pit,Joe barrat was colliery Overman,Fenwick,["Fen"]Barrat was the ventilation officer,and Ernie Barrat was one of the "Fivers Men"..a team of specialised workers who could go anywhere and do anything that was asked of them.........for £5 a day.."fivers!"...when the coal fillers had an average of £4-5shillings [85 bob]a day!! They were a really good team,and very well respected by everybody,but as i grew older and gained more experience,I became one of those "special" men,who was,at other pits,just an ordinary development..["composite"]worker..... Lone Ranger knows what i mean,cos he was also one of those "Special" Men....and a bloody good one too..am i right Ranger?!!come on,stop keeping me in suspense! I think there was another Brother,also a Deputy,called Danny,but i am not 100% sure on that one,i could be getting mixed up with another fella i have in mind,maybe Ranger might put me right on that one. Fen Barratt's Son,Raymond,sat in front of me all the way through our school years,in the days when you used to move en-block from class to higher class each year,with everyone sitting in the same desk position.[from aged 5 years] He later started down the High pit,but having all his family running the pit,virtually,it was expected that he would be given a "better" job than the other lads like myself,and so he went on "the lines"..his title becoming that of "LINESMAN". His job was to go down the pit about once or twice a week,with a little jar of white paint,and a paintbrush,drop the Surveyor's strings,sight through two strings to mark off the centre line of a roadway,or coalface,about every 50 yards advance in a roadway,to help the caunchmen,or development workers,to drive the roadways straight as possible. The Linesmen also struck off [or marked off..] the centre line for a new roadway,or coal face,which was to be won out. Adam.....if i had nothing else to do in the day,i think i could churn out a book in every month! But with my commitment to being a full-time carer for my disabled Wife,and all the chores involved,it's been very difficult getting my own life story to the point at which it stands now,awaiting further massive entries to get it finished!! Notice what time every one of my comments have been posted!![by the time i sit down at the end of my normal day,it's always approaching midnight!!]

Hi all you kind folks on the site here! Your greetings are really welcomed and appreciated by me!! I am still recovering.and getting better each day,and as i always maintain...there are a lot of people in the world who are much worse off than any of us..so that helps to perk me up a lot,while i have the deepest sympathy, especially for those poor people where disasters have struck across the globe. Noo..!....Lone Ranger,a while back,i had you all but pinned down,and gave a lot of reasons and clues as to how i deduced your name,but you never sort of let me know that i was right! If you check out the Durham mining museum link to fatalities at High Pit,you will find the name of the shunter who was killed at the High Pit in the mid-sixties. I can remember the lad as vividly as if he was standing next to me now.He was a big stocky lad,wore glasses,and the reason i remember him so well was because....unfortunately,i have to be honest here,we didn't get on very well,before he had his terrible accident. His name was Ronald[Ronnie] Hunt,and he didn't have the most pleasant nature or attitude towards a lot of people,but he particularly used to have a go at me every time he saw me. I think it was because i stood out from the crowd with my long hair,and the fact that i was one of those "noisy gew-gaa" players,that was starting to appear in every working men's club in the north-east at that time. A lot of the old-timers really hated the young rock'n'roll kids,with thier "noisy ampleeefiiaas"...[as they used to say..!] When i say a lot,it was still a minority,otherwise how did we get return bookings all the time,if we were so bad?!! Ronnie Hunt was 29 yrs old when he was fatally injured by the truck,but he was an "old man" to us young teenagers,at the time!! Now i am 70 next year,and i am one of those "old men" who cannot stand a lot of the young kids' music nowadays!!! I guess every generation has always been the same throughout times gone by. The only difference is that i like to think i am a bit more tolerant than people like my father was,when was young!

Did anybody sit at the rail sidings,getting handfuls of fine coal dust,and spend ages polishing aad pennies ,and constantly looking to find the elusive 1933 penny,which would have made us rich,if we found it!!![talk about being in cuckoo-land!!...well....we were only aboot 10 years aad![aye,we flattened thruppeny-bits,and made bracelets and aal sorts o things,as wel as flattening 6-inch nails ti mek spear-heads with!!]

Aal try and think on to start a "Wilma's pit blog",if a think on,but aam warning ye's aal.....ye'll gaan back ti watching aad fashioned videos on yer ancient vhs machines...cos aal send ye's aal ti sleep.......!!!

Hi folks,i'm back!! Been very ill in Hospital with multiple blood clots on both lungs,and bad pleurisy,now recovering,so gotta bit o' catching up ti do! Thanks folks,like Eggy and other's who appreciate my late-nite ramblings!![i know i tend to wander off-topic but i write like i talk,so i always go aroond Edinburgh ti get thi toon!] Anyway,i enlarged thi pic of Bedlington A Pit taken from up the heap. When you came out of the"DIRTY END" of the pit baths,to go over the railway lines,[or "sidings" as they were properly referred to..],the pay offices were over to your left,across the sidings,and the pit ponds were adjacent and slightly behind the offices. Further over the sidings and beyond the ponds were the "fitting and blacksmiths shops". Carrying on over the sidings,you walked past the "heapstead" and "screens",and reached the time office,where you picked up your tally from the "timekeeper",and walked through into the lampcabin,where you took your lamp from it's numbered rack space and charger,and your "Glennie"..[Flame safety lamp],if you were authorised to carry one.[As i was.] When the "Buzzer" went off,to signify the start of your shift,you had to climb a steep metal stairway,up to the "Heapstead,which led you over to the shaft top and gates,where the Banksman would search you for "Contraband" [cigarettes matches lighters or any contrivance or device which could ignite Methane gas and cause an explosion underground.] Then he would signal to the Brakesman,[winderman],and also to the Onsetter,[at the shaft bottom..] that men were about to descend the shaft in the cage. Noo!A just said all this,to try and present a mental picture of what the open "Quadrangle" of space looked like. The sidings you walked over,were constantly full of 21-ton or 16-ton coal trucks,in sets of maybe a dozen or more,being shunted up the line,over sets of points,by shunting loco's,[one of which was called "Richard"],and then lowered under the screens by the "shunters",a team of men with skills at handling these huge trucks,who went unrespected,undeservedly,as it was a very dangerous job. [One young shunter slipped on ice ,at the High Pit,in the 1960's,and went under the wheels of a 21-tonner which cut him in half,sadly,fatally injuring him.] Great to see a pic like this,brings memories flooding back!

Anybody noticed hoo once a get wound up,a tek sum stopping!! A write like a taak.....!Sorry if aav hogged the channel....[C.B.-speak...circa 1981!]

Having worked in the most atrocious conditions,at Choppington High Pit,for six years,from age 15years,straight from my school desk,it was a pleasure to find that,generally speaking,conditions weren't too bad at Bedltn Aad pit. The first day doon,we[me high pit marra's and me..6 of us in sets of two's],went in ti thi Harvey Seam, it was a bit damp roond the edges of wor byeut soles,and hellish thick wi dust on the groond in some places. We stopped haaf way in forra blaa,[ a rest..]cos it was very warm,with poor ventilation,making breathing difficult,as the dust was kicked up into the air,by the boots of all the men in front. As we got our breath back,and cooled doon a bit,one of the aad pit men turned to us Choppington men,and said...."Was it as rough as this doon thi High Pit?...!" Me and my marra's all started laughing,and thought he was just winding us up!......He wasn't!! Those men at the aad pit hadn't seen any other pit from them leaving school,so they thought they had bad conditions...... Of course when we said this pit was like a palace,[a weel -used pit term!],compared ti High Pit,we were met with loads of abuse instantly,as you would expect,but it was true. When all thi other pits like North Seaton,Hartford,Hartley,Seaton Delaval,Choppington Low pit,Seghill, closed,the Coal Board transferred small pockets of men from each pit to Choppington High Pit,and every man from every pit said the same!..."They closed thi wrang bliddy pit...this is just a tetty pit,a pig-cree would be better than this......" There were men being hurt or fatally injured very frequently,like i never saw at any other pit i worked at since.....it was so bad. My Father started the High Pit aged 14 years,from school,in 1929,and he told me when i started,that "Ye'll get bliddy killed doon that bugga,it's aal rough and ready.....ya not gaan doon theor,aal see ti that...!" Whey,he didn't see ti that,cos a did gaan doon that bugga,and yes,i did get injured many a time,but fortunately,aam still here ti tell the tales aboot thi pit!

I worked at that pit for six years,and knew most of the 900 men that also worked there,some only by nickname....as lots of the men only knew me by Wilma,i remember all the workings,especially the latter years,cos i was on composite work,[or development work as it was also known as....],and i was on winning out all the new coal faces. Jimmy Gallagher,[sadly Deceased..R.I.P.Jim..],was the fastest winderman at the pit,and when you worked at the shaft bottom,as i did,at times when our cavil was off,you knew without being told!!The cages came down as if the rope had snapped...so fast! This meant that in his shift,he would wind more scores of coal than other windermen,with no disrespect to any of those other lads,cos they knew it was true!....and he only had one eye....smashing lad was Jimmy,also my Neighbour for a lot of years. Sadly missed by all who knew him.