大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jenny Ford on behalf of Herbert A. Purnell and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Mr. Herbert A. Purnell鈥檚 memories were recorded on 13th August 2005 at the VE/VJ Celebrations held on the Castle Mound, The Embankment, Bedford.

鈥淚 was 13 in the December as the war started in September 1939. We鈥檇 been on holiday in Blackpool. We came back on the Saturday and war broke out on the Sunday morning. At 18 I left school but couldn鈥檛 get a job, this was in July 1944 so I joined the Royal Observer Corp. We had a lot of aerodromes around us, a lot of air activity, this was near Pontefract. I was on post called Yoke 3. We had Yoke 1, Yoke 2 and Yoke 3, three posts in this little group. We used to report to a centre in Leeds and later on of course they had the flying bombs coming over. I鈥檇 been on duty one night and I got home at two o鈥檆lock in the morning and I hadn鈥檛 been in bed long and I heard these bombs coming over, they landed in Leeds somewhere. Later on we had the rockets. We didn鈥檛 get any rockets but I was on duty one Sunday morning and it was a fine clear morning and I could see this con trail, what looked to be a con trail which we got a lot of there because the Americans used to fly a lot. I saw this con trail and suddenly it sort of went in a squiggle and disappeared so I reported this to the Head Quarters in Leeds and later on they came back and said it was a V2 rocket that had exploded in mid air over the Thames estuary. We saw this in Yorkshire!

I had six months in the Observer Corp and then I stayed on afterwards part time. We had some good experiences in those days. We saw lots of aircraft because I was mad keen on aircraft recognition because I鈥檇 been in the A.T.C. from 15 until I came out when I joined the Observer Corp.

We wore a breast plate with a microphone and we used to report, we had a plotting device so that we could plot the aircraft and report where the aircraft where. They tracked them down and pass them on from post to post. Our post was in a field outside a little village called Badsworth, near Pontefract. It was a concrete building with a hole in the roof. We used to stand, there was some rain protection but basically you stood there in the open air. We had binoculars and we used to report to Head Quarters, the centre was in Leeds. You鈥檝e seen where the WAAFs were plotting the Germans coming over, well they had a big thing like that where they used to plot all the aircraft and they could keep a tab on all the aircraft in the area.

There were a lot of RAF aerodromes around York and they鈥檇 fly down and then we had American bombers, they used to fly over on Sunday mornings, they used to be very high up.

I was 18 in December 1944 and while I was in the Observer Corp I was still due to be called up and I got called up in March 1945. I was a 鈥楤evin Boy鈥� at Grimethorpe Colliery which is well known for it鈥檚 band and I worked down there for three years. I was sent for training down the pit, at the Prince of Wales Colliery which was near Pontefract and I used to get the bus there each day. A lot of the lads there lived in a hostel because they were from all over the country. I got friendly with a lad from Torquay but when we split up he went one way and I went the other, I never found out where he went to. We did a month there. It was a case of how to handle tubs of coal and to lash them on with chains. And to stop them 鈥� marvellous to see them doing it down the pit 鈥� get two pieces of stick and as the tubs went by they used throw these and they used to go into the wheels and stop like that. That was the braking system. I didn鈥檛 do that when I got to the pit but it was part of the training. There were quite a few well known people who were 鈥楤evin Boys鈥�, Jimmy Saville worked at our local pit, Brian Rix he worked nearby at another pit at Askern. Jimmy Saville worked at South Kirkby. There was a chap who was a Minister in the Conservative Government, I met him at Cardington, he鈥檇 been a 鈥楤evin Boy鈥�, I only found later on that he鈥檇 been a 鈥楤evin Boy鈥�.

A lot of the newly trained 鈥楤evin Boys鈥� worked on the top, on the screens or in the pit bottom loading the tubs of coal onto the 鈥榗age鈥�, they called it a 鈥榗age鈥�. This was the lift shaft, 600 yards in a minute. They used to do between 50 and 60 winds an hour so that gives you an idea of the speed that they worked at. They pushed the full ones on and pushed the empty ones off the other side and that鈥檚 how it worked. At the end other end they pushed the empty ones on and pushed the full ones off. It was all done by hand in those days. When you see the piece of steel rope about that diameter, that鈥檚 all you were held on in the shaft.

I was studying chemistry at the time at the local Technical College so I carried on doing that going to evening classes and I had the job as the Ventilation Officer. I used to go round measuring the amount of air. Going round the various coal-faces in the pit and taking samples and analysing for gas. I used to take balloons down the pit and I used to have a big bunch of balloons round my waist when I came out with numbers on where they were taken. We had to pump the air into the balloon and then when I came out I put it into an instrument we had. We used to burn the gas off and it measured the drop in pressure really and you got a reading on a scale which gave you the amount of gas that was in the sample. This procedure only took two or three minutes. I used to go round four seams; there was the Melton Field and Beamshaw East and Beamshaw West and Parkgate, they were the four seams of coal and I used to do one each day. Go down one day, bring out the samples. We used to measure the air using a thing called an anemometer, measure the airways and then take an anemometer and work out the amount of air flowing and then if there wasn鈥檛 enough I used to go an adjust it. There were doors which could be adjusted to allow more air to go on the coal-face. I used to travel around, along the coal-faces, probably three each day. There were only about 2 foot 6 inches high so it was case of crawling across 180 yards of coal-face. I used to wear knee pads but I鈥檝e suffered with my knees ever since. I was there when the men were working. Sometimes the coal had been removed from the coal-face and I was able go across quite easily but other times there was coal there and I had to crawl over the top of the small pieces of coal. They used to have a coal cutter come along and cut the bottom layer out and then the coal would be churned out and these were called 鈥榞ummings鈥�. Then the miners would come on and they鈥檇 fill those onto the conveyor belt then the shot firer used to come along and put a charge of coal into a drill hole and blow the coal down and they would fill it. But I was never there when that happened, I鈥檇 been and gone or I hadn鈥檛 arrived. I remember one particular time I鈥檇 come up this coal-face along a supply gate, it was about 800 yards the walk, it was reasonably high to walk and I was just climbing over the conveyor belt on the coal-face to go along and the men were still working and my cap lamp which was on my helmet, failed - it just went. I don鈥檛 know if the bulb had blown or what but if that had happened a few minutes earlier I would have to have sat down and waited while somebody came along off the coal-face because it鈥檚 pitch black, you couldn鈥檛 see anything. The Deputy on the coal-face he loaned me his miner鈥檚 lamp and I went round with that.

It was an important task. I did that for two years and then the chap who I took over from he decided to come back and he went back on it. I joined the Fire Fighting Team for the Colliery fitting hydrants over where they loaded the coal, sprayed water to keep the dust down but they never used them, they didn鈥檛 like the water. We used to put lengths of pipe as the coal-face advanced, we advance the supply. Then I came out of the pit at the end of 1947 and went to work in the Laboratory on the pit top. I鈥檇 got my Higher National Certificate by then and I stayed there until I came to Bedford in 1959. I worked in the Laboratories from 1947 to 1959 analysing air samples. There was a career structure but the pay wasn鈥檛 very good in those days and I applied to join the Civil Service so I came to Bedford in 1959 to work at the Air Ministry at Cardington. I worked at the Laboratories dealing with airfield construction and airfield maintenance and that sort of thing and I was there until I retired in 1986.

I did have one or two near escapes when I worked down the pit. I remember one time the coal-face had finished working and we were taking some pipes off and there were some men working further up and they let a tub of muck come down on the rails and I just jumped out of the way - if that had of hit me I鈥檇 have been a goner. We had one or two near escapes. I鈥檝e got much to be thankful for - I always thought I鈥檇 got a guardian angel.鈥�

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