YORKSHIRE MAIN COLLIERY
AND OTHER LOCAL MINES
Stories and tales from the mines.
From Sam Cairns
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The next story describes the cage at westoe colliery and what it is like to ride in it ,
and what it feel like when it stops in a emergency stop.
Picture of westoe colliery.
Westoe badge.
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Memorial Wheel of Baddesley colliery .
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Littleton colliery.
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From Neil Williams.
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From Yorkshire Main.
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From Gedling pit.
Gedling colliery.
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From Ron Knight, Thorsby and other collieries.
They called me the travelling miner, because i worked down three coal mines and one gold mine.
I had just finished my coal face training at thorsby and i was sent to work on the packing on a face that was about three feet max height.
Dragging my shovel, hammer, pick and my snapbag i got to where the pack wanted doing.
I was a bit green and i asked the bloke next to me to help me with something, he was quite stroppy with me saying that i was face trained and shouldn`t need any help, any way i struggled on with what i was doing, then i heard a voice shouting help me help me, so i looked around to see the same bloke by his pack pinned under a large piece of coal, he was not injured but just pinned down.
Apparently he was using a pushover hydraulic ram to poke down some debris from the edge of the waste, and a big piece of coal gently rested on him, he asked me to use the ram and push the lump off him, so i said, i will think about it, after about five minutes i freed him and after that i was the best thing since sliced bread and he would always go out of his way to help me.
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The next story is from John Foley, ex Bank Hall Colliery , Burnley, and is an excellent description of what life was really like for a young miner.
THE END.
The picture shows John in life after mining, In the forces in the Lebanon.
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The next story is from Ian McDonnell BSc. Hons. (Ex-Miner)
During my teens I spent every summer at my cousins place in Clowne, Derbyshire. His father worked first of all at Southgate Colliery until it flooded with water from Oxcroft and then at Cresswell. My cousin John became a Collier at Cresswell in his 18th year. He worked all his life as a miner, ending upat Markham Main. He recently retired from his second career.........stacking shelves at Tesco.
During my time at Doncaster College as an Apprentice Mine Surveyor I was abit like you. We used to roam the pit in several seams so got to know nearly every workman and gaffer. At college we had folk from collieries in Doncaster/South Yorkshire/North Derbyshire and North Notts.
It was during this time that I met a young man called ........ and I kid you not ....... Roger Moore. He was an Apprentice Mine Surveyor from Shirebrook. At about the same period I also had the priviledge of having another young man from the area in my class at (Tech)........ called Ivan Gent.
In 1954 I moved from rural Kent when I was 8 years of age to Merrill Road, Thurnscoe, within a 5 mile radius of 'Thurny' as my village was known, there were 25 collieries and the second largest cokeing plant in Europe (Manvers).
There are none of these now. I began work in the old Doncaster area of the NCB at the village colliery .... Hickleton Main...... in September of 1964. I was indentured for a 5 year period as an Apprentice Mine Surveyor. this meant attending the collery for 4 days a week being trained in the practical aspects of surveying and the 5th day being spent at Doncaster College of Technology during which I passed 1st my ONC then my HNC, learning the theory, the latter having to be attained before we could be qualified.
During this time at 'Hicky', I witnessed the transformation from a pit pony populated colliery where the supports on the face were wooden, to a fully mechanized, modern production outfit.
I left the pit in 1969 to work on the motorways as an engineer. After a good few years working all over the country, under pressure from my lady wife, I returned to mining.
This time, however I was to work on the opposite side of the fence so to speak. I started at Dearne Valley Colliery as a Coal Face Trainee ....!!! I worked my way into management, again, via shearer driving/Dosco road header driving/Dosco Dint header driving .... ripping. in 1984 I left Dearne, having reached the lofty heights of Development Overman.
In September 1988 I moved to the South East of Essex where I took up a post of Mathematics Teacher at a local school. The irony is ..... after spending so many years underground with only so much as a scratch ...... working in some of the most inhospitable places known to man ..... I had to retire early due to being run over by of all things ..... a Southend Transport Bus. I still keep in contact with a lot of friends from my mining days and visit my old village but ..... the Heart has gone out of it.
The following picture is of Ian driving a DERDS in the Beeston Seam at Kellingley Colliery.
THE END.
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IF YOU HAVE ANY STORIES OR TALES YOU WOULD LIKE ADDING TO THE SITE THEN PLEASE FORWARD THEM TO ME.
