• The first stage of the forum upgrades has now been completed but they remain in a degraded state and are still being worked on.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

What was it like working in the Pits?

C

Cosmo

Goalkeeper
Would you apply for that job today if they were still open?

It seems like really hard work with all the dust and crouching down.

Massive respect to those that did the hard graft.
 

Sounds grim as fck. I often walk the dog through Whitburn cemetery and there are two headstones that mention the person died in Whitburn Colliery in 1912 and Monkwearmouth in 1974. Curious to what happened I googled the names and there is an excellent site on North East mines that includes a list of all the poor lads that were killed.

The Whitburn lad injured his face getting out of the lift carrying him out and ended up dead from his injury!!! (Can only assume he got infected) and the Monkwearmouth lad was killed as he was crushed between two carts. Some horrific ways to go reading through the list.

Definitely not for me like and absolute respect to all the men and boys that did it
 
The job basically entails being crouched down in an uncomfortable position and hammering a heavy pick axe against a wall on a 12 -16 hour shift. I can't imagine many people doing it nowadays as modern woman nowadays probably wouldn't even have the tea on when you get back in 🤷‍♂️
 
Last edited:
Cosmo said:
Penny for your thoughts, what was it like?
Click to expand...
It really wasn’t that bad. Main roadways had plenty of height. You rode to the face on a conveyor belt or a loco even. Okay there was no lighting, bogs or running water, but that just made you more self sufficient in yourself. You learned teamwork and you all had a role to play to make everything work. Any shyness you had was soon dispelled. You made mates for life. The craic was great and the pisstaking relentless. Those of us who learned trades down there really benefited when we left the industry. Yes it could be noisy and dirty at times but it could also be very serene at times. Turn your cap lamp off and see what true darkness is like. I always said that when I started I went from having one dad to having many. Great times and helped shape me to be the adult I became.
 
spitfire said:
It really wasn’t that bad. Main roadways had plenty of height. You rode to the face on a conveyor belt or a loco even. Okay there was no lighting, bogs or running water, but that just made you more self sufficient in yourself. You learned teamwork and you all had a role to play to make everything work. Any shyness you had was soon dispelled. You made mates for life. The craic was great and the pisstaking relentless. Those of us who learned trades down there really benefited when we left the industry. Yes it could be noisy and dirty at times but it could also be very serene at times. Turn your cap lamp off and see what true darkness is like. I always said that when I started I went from having one dad to having many. Great times and helped shape me to be the adult I became.
Click to expand...

Total respect mate.
Your Football Club built around people like you and what some stories you must have.
Love it.❤️🍺
 
Swindon On Tour said:
Total respect mate.
Your Football Club built around people like you and what some stories you must have.
Love it.❤️🍺
Click to expand...
For us tradesman life was very canny. You need to appreciate this was the modern mechanised coal industry and the days of the hewer with his pickaxe were a thing of the past. The NCB had great apprenticeships. I won’t go into the politics of what happened in 84/85 as that should be for another thread, but what an adventure those 12 months were. I refer to it as my gap year. As a 21 year old lad looking for an adventure, I certainly found it.
 
Seems to be this exaggerated mythology and yearning for the ‘good old days’ of working in the shipyards or the mines.
My dad, his brother and their father worked the yards all their life
My brother in law’s dad as well as lot of my mates worked the pits
They all said it was , apart from a couple of years in the golden era of union strength and solidarity, dirty, boring hard work and in Winter, even worse
The camaraderie and craic ( mainly gallows humor) was one of the main things most missed when darling of the black shirts Thatcher closed both industries down.
It’s like those who yearn for a return to standing on terraces at footy but who only really know what they see in old footage
It’s reminiscing through rose tinted specs and harsh dark realities are conveniently forgotten about
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top