Miners' Tales

[katex]

You have probably seen my thread re. the Mining Museum at Wakefield and how it deeply affected me with regard to the hardship of working in the mines.

Would think plenty of books on the history of these places, however, would be good to hear from any ex miners and their little anecdotes of life underground.

Just to start you off, whilst going around, my daughter, who is a Practice Nurse, was telling me that she was taking a blood sample from an elderly ex miner last week, and noticed embedded blue/black marks beneath the surface of his skin. He told her that these were known as 'miners' tattoes' due to the scrapes from the coal which became embedded and stayed there for life.

[cashman]

yer daughter was told correctly kate, i was told the same when i was down "Bank Hall" i have a story,not anecdote, will tell yer when we catch up,cos i sure as hell aint gonna print it. a little tale i can print is "Bobby Elliott" who went on to the "Hollies" fame was down the same pit, though he'd left before i started.

[walkinman221]

My old man worked down the pit as a spark, he said the camaraderie and humour of the colliers was second to none.He told me a story about the drillers who used to drill the holes for the charges in the coal face, there were two main teams made up of two men, one team was two older men in their forties and the other was two younger lads. They were always competing who could do the most , and the younger team always came in behind the older lads and could never weigh up why , until one day one of the older blokes told my dad how they kept the advantage , every morning they swapped the other lads new drill bits for their old ones from the day before.It just goes to show there is no substitute for experience

[walkinman221]

My old man worked down the pit as a spark, he said the camaraderie and humour of the colliers was second to none.He told me a story about the drillers who used to drill the holes for the charges in the coal face, there were two main teams made up of two men one team was two older men in their forties and the other was two younger lads. They were always competing who could do the most , and the younger team always came in behind the older lads and could never weigh up why , until one day one of the older blokes told my dad how they kept the advantage , every morning they swapped the other lads new drill bits for their old ones from the day before.It just goes to show there is no substitute for experience

[katex]

Ok, so not many stories then, however, I have questions, such as :

When the miners detected methane gas through their Davy Lamp .. what did they do about it ? Besides exiting quickly. Could they still work in that area or find some way to dissipate the gas, or maybe learn to work safely with it ?

[MargaretR]

Originally Posted by katex

Ok, so not many stories then, however, I have questions, such as :

When the miners detected methane gas through their Davy Lamp .. what did they do about it ? Besides exiting quickly. Could they still work in that area or find some way to dissipate the gas, or maybe learn to work safely with it ?

Davy Lamps were abandoned for better detection methods long before the lifetime of any miners who are alive enough to answer you.

When I worked at Burnley Social, administering Disablement Benefits, I read the records of some quite horrific industrial accidents

[katex]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Davy Lamps were abandoned for better detection methods long before the lifetime of any miners who are alive enough to answer you.

When I worked at Burnley Social, administering Disablement Benefits, I read the records of some quite horrific industrial accidents

Can imagine, Margaret. On my visit to the Wakefield mine, they had on display their accident book, and seemed to be something everyday .. not pleasant reading.

[Alan Gilmartin]

I was told when I was a boy, that there was an entry to dicky pit, at the woodlands, then it was blocked up after the war, my grandad worked there for about 50 yrs.