HIGH PIT WILMA

This was after I left Westridge School,Mr Abrahart left the school around 1958[?]..ish,and went to West Moor at Gosforth. A few years ago,not that many!,My Barber was cutting my hair,and as usual,the chat always went around to our days at Westridge,and he told me that Mr Abrahart left the school after a lot of harrassment from the Headmaster,Mr Hemming,who all the pupils I knew,including myself,thought the world of!! When Mr Hemming left,Mr Abrahart came back,so I am wondering if this Photo was taken during his return..which would have been after 1959 at the very least,cos that is when I left,to work down the Coalmines. Mr Abrahart was the best,zaniest crackerjack of a teacher,on History,but he made you remember your work though his animations during Dictation lessons!!He used to take on the parts of Disraeli,Napoleon,and others during the lesson,and stomp back and forward across the floor,like Basil Fawlty!!..Can you remember ,Canny Lass,being unable to write,cos you had to hold your ribs and stomach,cos they were sore with laughing!! The lasses cried when he left,and a can tell ye noo...the lads were haading it back...as ye did when ye were a tough kid!! Ha ha! Sorry,Alan,I digress again...! Cheers Folks! Bill.

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 arms on the spade at the front,just gathered like a human being would,and lifted tons of stones onto the belt in an hour! The machine was about 6 feet wide,so it was a very efficient machine. It became out-dated when they brought in the Joy Continuous Miner [JCM],Hence the bracketed ! mark in my comment at the start!

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 roof underground. The men created an absoloute cavern,in the side of the chimney,and calculated exactly where to remove the brickwork. Once they had removed a considerable and sufficient amount of brickwork,and had a whole whack of huge props supporting the chimney,they poured either Deisel,or Petrol,all over the props. On the day of demolition,they cleared the immediate area of personell,and the public,then they set fire to the props that supported the chimney. It didn't take long,and as soon as enough wood had burned away,the weight of the now insufficient support of the chimney,made it lean exactly in the intended direction,then,in a suspense-filled few minutes,she crashed down..exactly on time,and neatly between the Pit buildings and the Rail Line...NO EXPLOSIVES!!..that's why people are standing all around so close to watch! The smoke at the base is from the burning wood props. If I hadn't witnessed the men taking out the brickwork,as a kid,and asked what they were doing,[to other Mineworkers standing there also,] I would have found it hard to believe such a basic primitive method was used to bring down a tall chimney like this one,I think it was 180 feet high,but stand to be corrected on that one. But I have a vivid memory of the days when all this happened,standing watching the men creating this huge hole,and propping it up...seems incredible when they could have gotten Fred Dibnah up ti sort it oot in his fashion!!..cud he hae done it any mair precise?! I hope I have enlightened at least one person,and hopefully more!

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-Sticks on his Collar! Andy has a wooden "Dreg" [piece of wood],inserted in the rear wheels to control the speed of the tub,indicating they are going down a slight gradient. Notice,no fat on the Miners like Andy!..all blood sweat and...sometimes....tears,but naebugga wud ivvor knaa!

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 control the fires. For years it was always burning,but one night there was a Hurricane force wind,and she lit up more than ever in the past,and the heat was so intense it melted and twisted the heavy rails that the Bogie ran on which carried the stones up to the top of the heap,by means of a rope hauler. We played up on that as kids 10 years old,but knew where to go,and where not to go,by the colour of the slag we were walking across.In places where it was cold on the ground,the colour would change from Slaty Grey/Black,to Orange/Red/White. If we threw a big stone into those areas,it would sink like quicksand,and it would throw a plume of red hot fumes [Sulphrous],and dust and smoke. You were ok if you played along the Rabbit tracks and Burrows,of which there hundreds!! But my ain point was,in 1947-on,that heap was a mountain,and yes,that's what the Washery was built for,to clean the oal,but all the stones from the screens went straight into Railway trucks underneath the screens and unloaded into the Bogie Hopper,and away she would go!!

...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...