When I was driving the pony, which pulled the tubs of coal along the underground roadways, I was holding the harness near the side of the roadway and the pony suddenly knocked my head sideways into the sharp edge of the steel ring which supported any loose lumps of stone from falling on to our heads.
Needless to say, my head poured with blood and the shotfirer put me some dressing on it, then he said to me, if you go home, I shall think that you are a baby, not wanting to be a laughing stock, I stayed at work and then I was asked if I would stay for a double shift as they were short of coal for the War effort, so I stayed over on the afternoon shift and worked through the night,
going home in the morning. On one shift, I left my sandwiches in one of the chocks which supported the roof, whilst I got on with "running the rope" ( clipping the tubs of coal on to the endless rope ) and left them there for two hours until it was time for elevenses and when I returned, I found the pony had eaten them.
There were headings which ran away from the main headings where the coal had been extracted and had been abandoned, they were dangerous places to be due to gas accumulating in them and as the pit props had been withdrawn there was always the possibility of roof falls, one occassion the Overman took me with him as he went on his regular inspection and he left me at the entrance to one heading and said, wait here for ten minutes and if I don't come back in that time, go and fetch help, however, he did come back, so I was relieved to know that he was alright.
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