Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)

Dr. Drewboy :- i have never heared of 6-legged roof-supports but in germany it was the same with the investments... the miners said "when your mine get's new showers/headgears/whatever it will be closed next year."! germany's biggest headgear in "göttelborn" never really extracted coal. or "schlägel & eisen" shaft 4 got a modern, 70m high headstock which just was in use from 1986 to 1990 and the new coal blending bed was finished in 1987 and also worked until 1990... high pit wilma :- Hi Dr Drewboy! Yeah,in the 1960's,when we first got mechanisation,we had Dowty 5-legged chocks,with adjacent,and full 6-batch control.[that was after using Dowty hydraulic props and face bars..!]. Then we got Gullick 6-legged chocks [4 legs at the back,and 2 at the front,supporting the canopy.Each leg could withstand 100 tons roof pressure,so each face chock was referred to as a "600-ton face chock". Problem was,the goaf used to push the legs forward,and cause the roof to fall,flattening the chocks to the ground,like squashing a beetle,the roof pressure in the 3/4 seam was so great. We got a new design of chock called the "Rev-lem",which had huge,thick armoured bracing plates,at each side,like grasshopper legs,which allowed vertical movement of the chock canopy,but which also prevented lateral movement,so the canopy couldn't be pushed forward by the goaf falling in. One coal face alone,installed with these chocks,made Bates Pit profitable,but when we asked for more,the area director refused us them,and sent us the old style Gullicks,which he,and everybody else, knew,was a risk of human life,to work under. As a result,thatcher,our prime minister,made the excuse we were unprofitable,and closed the pit. It was all contrived from the start,cos she knew,and she actually said it,that if she could break the Miners,she could break the T.U.C,our trade union movement....and she DID!

hoggy03 asked :- Hi Bill, Did the NCB have spares for everything or just a select few things that would be needed ASAP, if they where damaged or broken for the pit to work. high pit wilma reply :- Hi Hoggy! Most spares that were considered essential,were kept,and that, was a lot of spares!! On one aerial photo,i have put notes on,and you can see a complete face installation of hydraulic face chocks,stacked in double rows,which would have cost a million pounds back then......then then there was spare shearers,Dosco Roadheaders [costing £30 million each!].....pumps,conveyor belt driveheads,and structure.....etc etc...! A lot of that stuff was sent down the pit and never used,just to put the costs onto the colliery Manager's budget,and so deeming the pit to be uneconomical.....cos as long as it stood in the pit yard,it was costed to the area plant pool..,but the minute it was put into the cage to go down,the Manager had to account for it. I was talking to a Welsh ex-miner at Beamish museum,a few days ago,same age as me,and he said they did the same thing in all the pits down there,one by one,to deem them "uneconomical",as an excuse to close them. He said they left hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of machinery down there....... .....and he isn't the only one who has told me tales like the ones we already know! Cheers,Hoggy!

No 13 = DAVID KIRKUP.

Foxy's image of the portakabin added to the compilation

Not shown in the image I took of Reedy's dads list they were three more pubs listed and they were :- The Odfellows Arms, The Bridge Inn and The Queens Head. I couldn't find any info on them and thought they might have been pubs outside Bedlington Town. dunlinds, on this site has commented :- 'Re Oddfellows Arms Hotel: My Great great Uncle - Edwin Taylor Dale - took over the hotel in 1867, as per attached snippet from Newcastle Daily Chronicle. This doesn't show the location of the hotel, but I found a photograph from Northumberland archives dated from 1974 which suggests that the 'corner' building was The Oddfellows Arms.' The newspaper snippet + archive photo + google street view 2016 combined :-

No 11 SURR not SURTEES & No 10 COLIN WILSON not CHEESMAN.

I know what you mean about the jumping classes. It was the norm at Barrington. Anyone in class 4 that they thought had the potential to pass the 11+ jumped class 5 to spend 2 years with Mr Hunt in class 6. Mick Young (Waverley Drive) was adamant that in the partial class photo c1958 No 7 was my brother Derek as he was in class 6 with him but our Derek had jumped class 5 and spent two years, one with Mick, in class 6. The No 7 is my other brother, Dennis, that did not jump class 5. Attempting to drag the memory back 50 to 60 years does throw up some interesting results. There is a 1960 Class 6 photo in the album that I stared at for days before I realised No 15 was me! Hopefully there will be more class photos dragged out of old shoe boxes and we can work the memories some more.