大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Roger Marsh of the 鈥楢ction Desk 鈥� Sheffield鈥� Team on behalf of Donald Goodge, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I went down the mine in 1944, the wretched working and living conditions of some of those with whom I came into contact was unbelievable. At that time the school leaving age was 14, but children could leave school in their last term if they had a job to go to. i.e. at 13 years of age. I came across some who at 14 years old had already found employment underground. Often there was no alternative to mining because it was the only employment available in the area, in certain families boys were expected to follow their father, uncles, and grandfather and go into the pit. Because of the lack of information, understanding & ambition, many had limited horizons, and as was often the case, a person's future, and particularly for those from lower working class communities, was delineated by birth.

We had to walk 2 to 3 miles underground stooping all the way to our place of work, those who hewed the coal worked in a space 2ft 3in. i.e. 70cm height. The whole shift demanded extreme physical exertion. Our source of illumination was from oil lamps, which were locked to avoid a naked flame creating an explosion. If the lamp went out, it couldn鈥檛 be re-lit, so we crawled along the ground to find someone who had light, or stayed where we were until they came to find us.

There were no sanitary arrangements, and about 100 men and 10 horses were all doing what came naturally, the 10 horses were the most prolific! I am a 鈥渇addy鈥� person, so before I ate my Marmite sandwiches (because of wartime rationing, Marmite was a good alternate to 鈥渕ucky fat鈥�) I would spit on my hand and wipe it with my handkerchief the only method of hand washing available! We never experienced a health epidemic.

The miners/families were often housed in long rows of 鈥減it鈥� property (the lucky ones got a council house), those not so lucky lived in sub-standard slum property often along with bugs/fleas and undesirable creatures. Sometimes 鈥渢he Council鈥� would come along and 鈥渟tove鈥� a house, i.e. fumigate. No baths at our pit, so that keeping a house and clothes clean for a family of underground workers placed a tremendous strain on even the most efficient wife, some were unequal to the task, whilst others were worn down by serial child bearing.

THE WORK MEN DID, DETERMINED THE WAY THEY LIVED THEIR LIVES.
A few developed extreme religious or political views, a few had interesting hobbies, i.e. allotments, but many accepted their lot philosophically and the pubs, clubs and cigarette manufacturers and dog racing stadia prospered to the detriment of other parts of life. BUT THAT WAS UNDERSTANDABLE.

Pr-BR

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