HIGH PIT WILMA

They are leaning against the "Modern"[!!] MC3 Gathering-Arm Joy Loader. This Machine made mincemeat of loading out a 14'x10' arched roadway full shot lasted out of the solid strata. In my Bates' gallery there is a pic of me in an Eimco 625 Mechanical Shovel loader..loading a full shot onto a conveyor belt. I had to continuously drive in,track back,skew,then empty the bucket onto the belt. With the Gathering Arm Loader,you just swept in at the left side,driving in inchy pinchy,and the floor was cleaned up,all you had to do next was track back,skew, drive in at the right side,and the a

Bob McGregor was my good friend and Neighbour for a lot of years at West Terrace at Stakeford..lovely family!

This one brings back a lot of memories of my childhood! If you zoom in,you will notice people all aroond. Thi pic on thi left shows a lot of light-coloured stuff lying on thi ground at the base of the chimney. For those who might not knaa owt aboot felling this chimney,aal explain hoo they did it. The light-coloured stuff in the left pic is piles of old lime mortar,and broken bricks taken from the base of the chimney,as the demolition men carved a huge hole out of the base,and supported the area where bricks were removed with Telegraph Pole-sized wood props,just as we would support the ro

Very interesting piece of history.

Those were thi days! Owa 100,000 people visited Bedlington for the Picnic Day!

THE CUNDY!!! THAT'S a blast from thi past.James! Ye can just see the Concrete entrance ,lower left of the pic,and yes,when thi lights were oot in the Cundy,and there was a lot of rainwaata collected in the swalley inside there,we used to dare new kids ti gaan through by thasell's! James,wud ya initials be JH,by any chance?,a hae thi feeling a knaa ye ,or knew ye,very well!!

In some seams,thi coal was like diamond,hard as hell! At Bates,there was a lot of Iron Pyrites,["Brass"..Fools Gold..!],and if you hit some of this,it used to take the Tungsten Carbide Tips off the Drill Bits!...Noo THAT is HARD!.

Noo wat's gaanin on,A posted the first one earlier,then when a came back ti see the rest of the set,me post had gone,and a was thinking that a hadn't actually posted it,and it was deleted.SO, a sat for a quarter of an hoor and typed the same comments again,only ti find when a posted THIS one,the first one has appeared!! Nivvor mind,they are great pics!

Shud be a Bracket after "Bank"..!!

Andy would have been a "Putter".Here he is "Putting" [or Taking],a "Fullun" [Full Tub of Coal],outbye to a Landing area,where he would leave it coupled to a set of other Fulluns,usually making up a set of six,whereby another Miner,[called a "Driver"] and Horse would take the set of six tubs right outbye to the shaft bottom,to be taken in the Pit Cages to the surface..["Bank". This was the procedure with Putters and Drivers,before Conveyor Belts were installed,which then carried all the coal from the faces directly to the Loader -end near the Shaft Bottom. This Pony has the wrong size Yem-Sti

James,not nitpicking,but only for correctness ,when I was transferred from Choppington B pit,to Bedlington A Pit,in 1965,the pit was already 140 years old,and that's when dumping the stone waste started. I was three in 1947,when my Parents moved into the newly built Hollymount Square,and I remember my older Brother [Three years older,born on the same date], telling me to look out of our bedroom window,to see the flames roaring up on a really strong wind blowing. The whole of the top of the mountain was ablaze,but that was normal,they just kept fire hoses running hopelessly in vain,to try and c

...and when the wind got up and she was truly alight...the Sulphrous fumes and smoke were overpowering,it was an accepted part of life..no mass demonstrations to have dumping banned....in the 1960's it cost dearly in Aberfan...

In the confines of a coalface,sometimes you couldn't start with a 6-0' drill straight off,so you had to start with a 3-0' drill,then change to the 6-0' one when you had drilled right in with the shorter one.That's why he has one lying beside him.

Noo THAT!..was one hell of a job,doon the pit,the Bulls'sHead..["BULL'SHEED"],Driller was a canny weight,so with a Nine foot drill in,and drilling into solid stone...ye needed arms like Garth,[a pit saying!],that's hoo Dinper has arms like this in the pic!![He is drilling into the Coal Seam on this Pic.]A "fast" [Stuck!] drill has caused many a broken arm or shoulder,when reverse torque spun the machine out of your hands and twisted your arms etc!

Andy is "Putting" or taking the tub outbye to a landing,where several full tubs would be coupled up,usually a set of six,where a "Driver" with a bigger horse would pull the set outbye from the landing to the shaft bottom,to be sent to Bank in the cages.Andy is going downhill when the pic was taken,as he has a wooden "Dreg" in the rear wheels to help slow the tub from over running the horse,even though the Limbers,["Limma's"] used to control the tub ,also the "Backstrap" on the Horse's Gears,around his rear end and fastened to his Bellyband...that pushed up against the Horse's rear flanks,and w