O/T Ex miners.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

As with most people going down pit for first time it was always a fecking button you were on to start with and like you say it was lonley as **** most of the time, infact the only thing you had to look forward too was seeing a shining lamp coming down the belt so you could at least press the button when you were on a transfer belt lol.

I met some right characters down the pit and the things that went off at times were really ****ing stupid lol.

Great times when you look back at it through those glasses but not so great when you look back at wading in neck deep water when you could only crawl on the face because it was only 3 feet high and flooded lol. Worst job I did was the stables I fecking hated that job.

But did it damage your mental health?

[villamiller]

As with most people going down pit for first time it was always a fecking button you were on to start with and like you say it was lonley as **** most of the time, infact the only thing you had to look forward too was seeing a shining lamp coming down the belt so you could at least press the button when you were on a transfer belt lol.

I met some right characters down the pit and the things that went off at times were really ****ing stupid lol.

Great times when you look back at it through those glasses but not so great when you look back at wading in neck deep water when you could only crawl on the face because it was only 3 feet high and flooded lol. Worst job I did was the stables I fecking hated that job.

I bet you was nearly blind on that button .....it’s official there is more Cnut books buried under ground in England than anywhere else in the world 😆😆😆😆

[Archiemiller]

I had most dangerist job, at t gu daarn tpit fust t mek sure it wer safe for canaries.

[CAMiller]

First day at Silverwood, sent to back o' 48'' as a button lad. Had that lonely lousy job for about 3 month, then I asked to go on supplies. Ended up on 9's tail gate, material runs and ran the engine, warm as toast in that tail gate. Then went onto 7's on supplies but asked to be nearer the 'job' so, got the flight deck job. Cracking set of lads on my shift, Stan Parker was our 'leader' so to speak. Mick Hope was our Overman, a Sunderland bloke. Sadly, a lot of them have passed on including Stan and Mick. Started my face training on the loader gate rip still on 7's.

Remember taking it in turns with our lot going across to 10's and taking a few strips off there before they finally closed it.
Continued my training on 7's tail gate and then face trainee for 3 months. I worked with a right lazy fecker on the face, left me to get all chocks o'er while he pissed off the face towards the end of the shift. Boy was that ferkin dusty as hell!

Ended up as a market man and sent all o'er place to fill in, be it on face, headings and even supplies! Felt like a backward step going back on supplies. Finally ended up in headings helping to drive 12's tail gate then finally 14's. That was a massive task and anyone who ever went on 14's would have had to go through the huge Becorit garage that we first dug out for and built. We then veered left to drive 14's tail gate.

Set a pit record one night shift by cutting out and setting 8 girders!
Deputy Manager thought our deputy had fiddled the stats and had him and me in to discuss what went off. Simply told him Mother earth just gave up so easy and we ripped out and set in double quick time, to say he was impressed was an understatement.

After 14's and splitting from my team, I ended up back as a Market man, boring being sent all o'er place not knowing what district you'd be on. Finally got a perm job on 25's Loader gate, a brand new district. This is where I first came across the awesome LH1300, the rest is history. Other stories to mention about 25's but that's another time.

Being an ignoramus, what do all the numbers mean? 7,10,12,14,25.

[Brin]

I bet you was nearly blind on that button .....it’s official there is more Cnut books buried under ground in England than anywhere else in the world ��������

....correct there were loads of em with well worn pages.

[CTMilller]

Need a specialist dictionary to read a lot of this but fascinating stuff. Keep it coming!

I went to the Nation Coal Mining Museum at the old Wakefield Pit a few years ago and would throughly recommend it. A very, very tough job and I take my hat off to those of you who did it...

[Brin]

Being an ignoramus, what do all the numbers mean? 7,10,12,14,25.

They were the district numbers what they were known as, rather than A,B,C etc.

[Brin]

Need a specialist dictionary to read a lot of this but fascinating stuff. Keep it coming!

I went to the Nation Coal Mining Museum at the old Wakefield Pit a few years ago and would throughly recommend it. A very, very tough job and I take my hat off to those of you who did it...

CT, like I've posted it was a combination of heat and cold down the pit depending where you were underground at the time. The 'intake' was the fresh air side and it made it's way around the mine and back out via the return shaft which the coal was taken out.

Silverwood pit had coal seams on what we called the rise side (haigh moor seam) and then at deeper depths in a different seam. Marvellous how it was all technically drawn up by the surveyors and then plans put into place for the miners to extract and advance roadways etc. Pure brilliance when you think a team of men split over 3 shifts worked the job 24 hours, working in the pitch black apart from lights on our helmets and building junctions from girders weighing 4/5 tonnes and upwards to even heavier weights.

There were some good banter times though where jobs came to a standstill because of say a broken conveyor belt, which stopped mimerals being extracted out of headings and coal faces. Invariably as if by Paul 'it's magic' Daniels request, a pack of playing cards would appear and the lads would gather round for a game or three. Even found a box of dominoes behind a girder leg in our heading so hid them so the other shift couldn't find them . Bet they were pissed of at that but it was a laugh at the time

Although classed as flammable material and not permitted, a newspaper would be brought out and we took it in turns to read the news and debate what the topic of the day was, well it wasn't as though we could nip off to pub for a jar.

Playing cricket from a rolled up paper and covered in electricians tape with a bat carved out of a batten. The only way to play it was to hit it as hard as you could down the heading trying not to get caught. This would be a laugh if you hit it into the roof and you were what we called, topside of it. The whole gate would suddenly turn into a cloud of black dust and nothing could be seen for several minutes until it all cleared You were not Mr popular if you did that.

Another one, where someone actually brought a bag of marbles down the pit and we use to play at the Deputy's signing desk waiting for the mail to pick us up to take us to the pit bottom.Many many laughs which I treasure as they remind me of colleagues from what was a fantastic camaraderie.

[WanChaiMiller]

They were the district numbers what they were known as, rather than A,B,C etc.

I'll ask. Whats a district number.

[Brin]

I'll ask. Whats a district number.

A district was of an area of ground even though it was underground. Like Masbrough is a district of Rotherham, 25's was a district for the area it covered. You knew the location as simply as that, 25's.