Price of coal & nutty slack
 

Hi,
can anybody tell me the price of coal or nutty slack, in the nineteen twenty s.
I know it was a long time ago, so if a mans wage was £2 week and he had to feed and cloth a family of 6 presumably coal was cheap, but how cheap, can any body please help!!!
Jethro

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

In 1925 best house coal was between 25 shillings and 30 shillings a ton at the pit head. If you are old like me and Cashy, you will know there are 20cwt in a ton.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

How much was a bag of coal then Mog delivered to the Mog family home? I assume a bag was a hundredweight (cwt) ? Could coal workers get cheaper coal than Joe public?

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

In the late sixties, We had what was called concesionary coal allowance. This varied depending upon the area you lived in. Bearing in mind you had to be the home owner or tenant. Son living with mam and dad got nowt. 2/0d a cwt we paid in Accy and you were allowed 10 bags a month. In Warwickshire you were allowed the same ten bags but you paid for the haulage. About 10 bob. Or you could sell back your allowance if you were daft. But you depended upon the haulage company to be honest. Who knows if there was a full cwt in each bag or not.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

The coal merchants who delivered it would sometimes cheat.
It was wise to watch a delivery from the start because a common fiddle was to drop an empty sack outside the coal place to make it look like that sack had already been emptied, so you actually got one sack short.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

So how much cheaper was it for you Mog?

There must have been Weights and Measures back in the day? I seem to remember some copper disc or tags embossed with 1 cwt on some sacks??

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

A bit off thread Margaret but connected to things subterranean, how you doing with the diggings for the water main on Rishton Road?
Forts Arms Beer Festival this weekend and Janice aka "The tattooed lady" ;) is worrying that the vibrations will upset the barrels on the racks.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

It was about 5 bob a bag cheaper, but the problem was that if you bought a bag of coal off the the local coal merchant. You would get the best coal. Our coal was from the pit you worked at and wasn't deemed to be of the best quality. Yes I also remember the cwt tags, but that didn't mean a great deal apart from it was a cwt when it left the depot. Say no more.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

I haven't been out to look.
I wouldn't know it was happening if my visitors and deliverymen hadn't sometimes mentioned their 'detour' to reach me.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

Coal carters were obliged to have a set off scales & 56lb weigts on their carts, and could be asked for a weigh check before delivery, every body was aware of the empty bag scam, it only worked if the householder came out to watch 1/2 way thro the delivery.
During the last war as kids we went coal picking up on the mine tip up thro Broad Oak Factory, its surprising how much usable coal was in that tip, and it certainly made a difference at home.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

I wonder if cashman remembers the lorry driver who lived on Hood Street in the 60's.
He drove a red bulk tipper and brought coal to East and West Lancashire merchants from the Yorkshire coal fields, usually best quality house coal.
He always seemed to have a big stack of coal in his back yard and sold it by the barrow load, bring your own barrow. One Irishman who lived at the top house had an enormous barrow and always got his moneys worth. If I recall correctly it was ten bob a barrowful.

There were still traces of coal dust in the wall inside the yard when I sold the house. Oops, given the game away.

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

I had a mate in those days Dave who owned a coal business, I sometimes went out delivering with him on Saturday mornings, that was around 1970 the price then was around 6 shillings a seven pence,

Re: Price of coal & nutty slack
 

The striking Nottinghamshire miners in the winter of '71/'72 were selling bags of coal in the car park of the pub in Flintham at £1.00 per bag