Who used to work down the pits?

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My Grandad died down the pit...Mainsforth Colliery... the year before I was born.
 
Not just my Dad side, on my Mam's side:

My Grandad (her dad), worked down Wheatley Hill and Thornley pits (apart from brief spell of when he was called up during WW2), his dad (my G-Grandad) worked down Thornley pit, his dad (my G-G-Grandad) worked down Houghton, Hetton, Wingate and Wheatley Hill pits, my G-G-G-Grandad worked down Monkwearmouth, East Rainton, Hetton and Crook pits (According to census records)

My Nanna's Dad worked down Wingate, Easington and Wheatley Hill. In his spare time he repaired pit boots and my Nanna's job from a very young age was to help him running back and forth with the boots to their owners, she wasn't allowed to go school because he was (quotating my Nanna here) "a right mean bastard who cared more about making a few extra coins than his own kids) - she didn't know how to read and write until her early 20s. His Dad also worked down the pits, but he came up here from Cornwall so not too sure which ones.
 
Grandad on me mams side started at the pit (fishburn i think)when he was 14 had his leg shattered in a winding gear accident at 22 then had to walk with a heel for the rest of his life. He was a promosing ameture footballer (his younger brother went onto play for whitley bay). And his son for pools. He was in hospital nearly a year and had a young family. He was determined to work and got a job at bishop middleham brewery and ended up foreman. He made sure he had enough money to keep his son away from the pit. On the plus side he met my Nan at the pit when she was pit secretary the randy git.
Later when the pit was closing my dad got the oppertunity to go down. He said as you got down to the floor it was ok but as you got to the pit face it was like going to the bowels of hell.
 
I remember when the pits had a strong hold on housing in Horden, you had to appear in front the Horden big club committee who decided if you could have a colliery house

Im talking late 80s here
 
i'm the first one for a few generations that never worked at the pit. my dad spent most his working life at horden. he never wanted me to go to the pit although he loved it. i think it was the cameraderie he loved more than the job mind. he knew they were fucked and was over the moon when i left school and got an apprenticeship at djb.
 
My dad always said one of his favorite memories was as a teen working on the threshing days in the fields you could tell the time of day without looking at your watch as the lads walked up the footpaths when the shifts changed from the pit. And on a sunday the pit men would let the farm lads use their shower block down the road.
 
My grandfather did and made my fatha swear he would never go down. My fatha left school at 15 on the Friday, worked at Plessey's on the Monday and was down the pit by Wednesday. Worked at Wearmouth till it shut, my grandfatha sadly paid the price, he had coal dust on his lungs and the stress of this caused them literally to burst walking up the stairs one day, he was dead by the time he hit the bottom.

Remember my old man's grey vest and y fronts on the washing line and his panda black eyes when he got in even after showering. He used to occasionally bring home the PHB soap too. Fatha has subsequently recently had two knee replacements and hes convinced it's from crawling through water for the years he was down Wearmouth one his hands and knees. If anyone ever says "its too early" my fatha still replies with "only 2 things are twirly, ones a pigs tail and the other one's fust shift".

Used to come in with chunks of flesh missing from his legs and back from rock falls, upmost respect for any miner from me like.
 
humbug said:
i'm the first one for a few generations that never worked at the pit. my dad spent most his working life at horden. he never wanted me to go to the pit although he loved it. i think it was the cameraderie he loved more than the job mind. he knew they were fucked and was over the moon when i left school and got an apprenticeship at djb.
Click to expand...
DJB or Archer components?
 
humbug said:
djb. archer was before my time, started there in 1984.
used to be a great place to work before the townies spoilt it.
Click to expand...
Davids son was a regular in my house as he was mates with my younger brother
 
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