大象传媒

"I was so keen to join the RAF and when it came time for me to go for my medical ... I went in fear and trembling that I wouldn't pass the medical because it was a very strict and stringent one for the air crew ... in the event I passed A1 and I came back on cloud nine.

"But by this time I was working on war work - I was a turner in a factory which made, amongst other things, bombs would you believe and because of this it was work of national importance. Quite a number of people had been leaving and it had been decided that people should not be allowed to be called up if it was deemed that they were doing work of national importance.

"I was informed when I got back to work that I had been placed on the Reserve list, without consulting me. I was absolutely furious. I remember dashing upstairs to see the Manager but of course it didn't get me anywhere and that was it. And so I had to make the best of it. I was bitterly disappointed.

"After a month or two of being in this situation, one morning through the letterbox came an official looking letter - I was informed that I had been drawn out of the ballot - it was all done on ballot - and therefore would I present myself to Askern Training Centre near Doncaster.

"To say that I was absolutely horrified would be to understate it. I always thought that whilst I was working in engineering there was a possibility of getting out, but I thought that once I'd been re-directed down the mines there would be very little chance. But although I wouldn't have admitted it to anyone at the time, the real reason why I was horrified about the possibility of going down mines was the thought that I may be claustrophobic, that I may lose my nerve and run to the bottom of the pit shaft yelling 'Let me out'. And so I tried, I took this calling up notice for the mines to work with me and I remember going up the stairs into the Manager's Office and slamming it on his desk and saying "Look, a couple of months ago you reserved me against my will from the Forces. Now this has come and I'm called up into the mines." I said "Now look, this is your responsibility, for God's sake get me out of this". "Oh don't worry lad, we'll see to it. It'll be all right, forget about it". But of course it wasn't all right.

"When we first started as 'Bevin Boys' we were not taken seriously at all. We found that the miners were a very, very closed community. They looked upon us as rather soft and we didn't know what it was all about ... But gradually some of us proved ourselves and eventually we went on to be trained in all manner of work.

"The mine at which I worked in South Yorkshire, Barnborough, was a sort of show place ... all the latest in mining technology ... seams of coal six foot thick ... I was allowed to leave South Yorkshire and come to live at home and to work at Nutter Lane Pit [Gomersal]. Hah, yes! Well this was really something else. At first, my first few weeks, I have never been so utterly, completely bone-weary. I have never ached so much, I have never been in such despair in all my life ... The only mechanisation they had was an electric winding engine which dropped us down the shaft ... and the coal seams were very shallow. One would be fortunate to have a twenty-two inch roof height ... they looked for all the world like a whole series of rabbit burrows. My first day I could not believe that people could actually go down them ... the man who was detailed to take me in suddenly said "You go up there" and immediately twisted his tub round at right angles and disappeared up one of these little rabbit holes. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but he did - he disappeared ... There were great sharp pieces of rock projecting from the sides and from the roof. I've still got marks on my back as a result of this - they lacerated one's back in an unwary moment.

"Shall we say looking back that it was an experience and as such I wouldn't have missed it. But no way, I would not send my worst enemy to work under such conditions as were in force at Nutter Lane Pit! I really could not believe that such primitive conditions could exist in the 1940s."
Ron, Batley man born 1926. Bevin Boy.

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