大象传媒

My War Service in the Hemsworth Collieries

It was the evening of the afternoon shift when the World War II came close to home. I鈥檇 drawn my check-docket and was about to get onto the first cage out of the pit. Then word came back to us in the queue, 鈥淎n air-raid is taking place on the surface. There is a delay in drawing you men out鈥�.
Two days after my 14th birthday I had started work in the Haigh Moor seam of Hemsworth Collieries. Working days were in three shifts six am until two pm. Two pm until ten pm. Ten pm until six am. For a few months I worked in the pit bottom, near the shaft and on the full tub side. Tubs of coal came from two miles away along a main haulage tunnel from the coalface to the pit bottom. The tubs travelled along rails, clamped to an endless rope in up to seven tubs per run. These were joined together in one run towards the pit shaft and were loaded on to the cage in twos on the three decks of the cage. Tubs were open-topped square sheet metal containers on cast iron wheels, running on rail tracks.
When we men and boys (riders) travelled out of the pit two decks were used, the top and middle decks. As many as could be crammed in on the top deck standing going out, but a sedate ten or twelve travelling in to work. No one rushed in to work.
After a few months I was given a new job and had to learn how to drive a pony to bring full tubs of coal from the coalface to the end of the main tunnel where the endless rope would take them to the pit bottom where I first worked.
The ponies were kept in stables near the pit bottom, at the end of a tunnel that also led to the coalface. This tunnel was known as the Airway. The air was drawn in by fan from the surface.
Each shift started by going to the stables and a pony was allocated to each driver. The driver then put on the pony the gears suitable for the nature of the levels running in and out of the gates (entries to the coal face) that would have to be travelled. Then having allowed the pony to have a drink at the stable doors, we walked to the district 658, coalface workings. Having taken off our top clothes and wearing socks clogs and shorts I proceeded to the gates where I would find two to four tubs of coal to be taken to the endless rope tunnel.
The ponies had names like Reg, Salty, Oak, and Gilbert, to name a few. Each pony was trained to obey vocal calls i.e., 鈥� Come on鈥�, 鈥淏ack鈥�, 鈥� Come here鈥�. The command to 鈥淐ome here鈥�, was called when the driver was stood behind the pony and required the pony to turn around. All the ponies were very obedient and very hard worked. No reigns were used except during training. Some ponies survived for ten to twenty years. I do not recall more than two dying at work or in the stables. From time to time some were hurt, cuts etc.
The shortage of food for the pony鈥檚 oats, carrots and clover was noticeable. When clover and carrots came at harvest time then the ponies responded with vigour and high-kicks and would canter down to their work. Hay and oats were the basic for most of the year.
It was an offence for drivers returning from work along the airway, to ride the ponies. If caught seven shillings and six pence fine was deducted from wages and given to the Pontefract Hospitals. Reg was not a good ride he was old, and unstable. Gilbert was a great pony, with a black shinning coat. A good obedient worker and very easy to work with, saving the driver lots of energy. He had to be watched, Gilbert was very intelligent. He would open air-controlling doors with his head. He knew that if the air was in his face he was on his way to the stables.

Continued 2

He had a drink every time he had to pass the trough on his way in to the workings. If Gilbert were left near enough to smell sandwiches in your jacket pocket, hanging at the side of the road, he would shake out your 鈥榮nap鈥� and eat it. Gilbert was very popular with the colliers they brought him tit-bits.
The job of a pony-driver was to keep colliers supplied with empty tubs, props and bars. The empty tubs were hauled into the gates (the tunnel to where two men were working) of the coalface. The tunnels were single track and wider nearer the face where the empty tubs would be tipped on their sides and the full tubs could be pulled or pushed passed. The tubs had a capacity of about five hundred weights and two colliers would fill ten tubs most days. Each driver usually had two gates and four colliers to drive to. Therefore twenty tubs a shift, meaning five runs a day in and out of the gates to the main tunnel. The walk down the airway, five runs, and the walk back up the airway, was a day鈥檚 work that earned the driver one guinea for Six days.
The sad part for me was that the pony, very often after the long dayshift, was taken out to work another shift an hour or so later.
During all the time at the mine there was one fatality in our seam, a young man called Wilfred Senior. Two minor injuries were all I was scarred with, one still visible, a lifetime later. There were two major rock falls of great amounts, but no one was hurt.
Due to the bad working conditions, there were a number of men became sick and were not able to return to work.
The snap (lunch) we took to work was carried in a telescopic tin. War rations limited the menu, to six slices of bread and jam, or dripping. During the summer, home grown tomatoes in sandwiches were 鈥榗hoice鈥� with four pints of water in a tin bottle that we called a 鈥淒udley鈥�. The butter rations of two ounces a week did not go far on thirty-six slices of bread.
The man that looked after the drivers in the district was called 鈥� The Doggy鈥�. His job was to help any drivers to lift tubs of coal back on track, that was when we could find him to ask him. As we grew physically stronger he was not always required. 鈥淭he Deputy鈥� was the manager of the district responsible for our attendance, the correct running of the work and surveying as well as making gas checks with safe working practices.
During the whole time I worked at the colliery the trade union shop stewards were very active. The hard work and not so good wages appeared to aggravate the spirit of the men. My own reaction to appeals for 鈥渕ore production鈥� was 鈥� how could we鈥�. Colliers鈥� work was digging the coal out into tubs and they were paid for it when it reached the scales on the pit top. Tip ups and accidental spillage on its way out of the pit were not included in the miner鈥檚 pay. The men that used the pick blades, had to pay for them to be sharpened from time to time. The wages were not enough to enable the men to pay income tax. It was a common belief that men, whose health kept them out of mine work, received better pay for building airstrips and barracks for the R.A.F. Colliers were charged six shillings for the cartage of the coal allowance to their homes. His spending money for the following week was very restricted. A collier receiving 拢1 pound a day in wages was on top pay. My last pay packet for six days work was 拢4-10 shillings.
Health and safety was between each man and his mates. Everything you did was according to general practice; risks were personal endeavours to do the job and look after yourself.

Continued 3

The World War 2 started in the fifth month of my colliery experience. I intended to stay in the mines for one year, because I was looking forward to joining the Royal Navy when I was fifteen years old. However, the Government prevented mineworkers from leaving the mines they said they needed coal. Thus my experience was required to encourage Bevin Boys and others directed to essential production of coal. The Bevin-boys were welcomed but it took them quite along time to adjust to the language and ways of working, Colliers鈥� sons appeared to adjust much more naturally.
Production targets were set and incentives were proposed to enhance production towards the war effort. A scheme target was set for the Haig Moor seam, if the target was reached, all the names of the colliers and drivers were put in a hat and drawn, as in a raffle. The winner would receive one-pound bonus. At that time my wages for six shifts would be about three pounds for six shifts. I was very fortunate my name was drawn out on two occasions. The second time I had agreed with another driver to share it with him as he had with me.
Another incident, the war came close. I was working afternoon shift and we were due to be drawn out of the pit at nine-thirty pm, it was delayed. An air- raid was taking place. A little later we were drawn out but warned not to use the pit head-baths as they had glass roof and firebombs had been dropped close by. On my way home I saw that a firebomb had been dropped on a haystack near to the colliery. It lit up the whole of the colliery and the coke ovens (they had been built for the war effort).
Lots of jokes were related to the whole incident. One man was so scared; he dropped his bicycle and started running home. Another, a woman, stood on her doorstep watching the air raid, saw a firebomb drop in her dustbin full of ash, she walked over, put the lid on the bin and went back on the step to watch the raid continue. As a friend and I continued to make our way home, we were challenged by some women crouched in a doorway and told us to take our clogs off, because they thought that the pilots of the enemy aircraft would hear us walking up the concrete footpath.

Today鈥檚 technology appears to be beyond belief, compared with the pick and shovel methods of the war years. The most up to date technology in those days, used in the Hemsworth Collieries was the compressed air pick. This could only be used under a solid rock roof. The very soft rock over the one metre seam in the 658 district was very dangerous and had to be removed and separated from the coal. The noise and the vibration of the air pick made it dangerous for the collier to hear the natural sounds from the coal face as the weight of the earth reacted to the removal of the coal. The surprising detail of technology in the Haig Moor seam was that the whole seam was run on two electrical engines down the pit with the winding engine on the pit-top as it drove the cage up and down the shaft. The three districts of the mine covered about two square miles, from the pit-bottom.

This is my recall of my experience in the employment of Hemsworth Collieries from 1939 to 1945.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.