I thought ‘d talk about old memories today as I think everyone is full-up on Covid and being constantly bombarded with it. So here goes, with today’s blog about life as a coal miner.
Experiencing Life as a Coal Miner Today
Our business used to work for the Yorkshire Mining museum in our past life. Now called the National Coal Mining Museum, we produced leaflets for many years for the museum near Wakefield. Part of the deal was that we went down the mine to experience it all, before we put our thoughts into their work and what it meant. Perfectly understandable – if you’ve never been down a mine you don’t know how horrible it was for the men.
I must say that we all had a dither at the thought of it, going down into the depths of a mine, and what it was like. I’m extremely claustrophobic – and a lot worse now than I was back then. But even then the thoughts of going down a mine shaft didn’t exactly come top of my list of things to do, if you get me.
The Life my Dad Endured
So, it was do or die, because I knew if they went (Jane, Kevin and Derek) and I didn’t I’d regret it. My dad had been a miner all his life but scarcely talked about it as it was such a horrible way to earn a living. I wanted to see what it was like to go underground, what life as a coal miner might be like.
Anyway, we drove the good half journey through some really pretty countryside, to get to the pit yard and find where to go. Retired ex-miners were taking groups down the mine to show conditions in the ‘good old days’.
We went into the lamp room where we fitted up with a miners hard hat with safety lamp on the front of it. Plus a power pack fastened on a belt round our bodies to power the light. Just imagine all the lights going off and not being able to see a thing in front of you. Ugh, how horrible. I would have set off running, no doubt heading into the first coal face I came across and knocked myself out!! The trouble was, the safety gear weighed a ton. What with the heavy hat and the power pack and being short. There I was – staggering about before I even got underground.
Going Underground
Then came the moment I wasn’t looking forward to, going down in the cage to the coal face.
My dad used to say that the cage would plunge down very, very quickly which put the wind up me. But luckily, for visitors it went slower. After what seemed an eternity in the tightness of the shaft with the pitch black below us we emptied out of the cage, along with other people who had come to see what life was like for these men.
When my dad and others like him was young you naturally went into the mines. Unless your family was a bit better off, it was expected that whole generations of families would do this. They had to contribute to the household and buy food or they starved. He was 14 when he was sent down the pit. He left school on Friday and went down in short trousers on the Monday. There was no holiday first in those days.
Into the Darkness
Back to our trip, we all got out the cage and looked around us with our helmet lights on. It was actually quite well lit and it was interesting to see the old heavy machinery, used to claw the coal out. Then it went onto the belts to move it out of the seams.
There were also displays showing scenes of women and young boys sent down to work in terrible conditions. Many of them died with accidents of one sort or another. What a way to live, in the dark, working long hard hours of slog. There was no slacking off in those days. No universal credit, absolutely nothing. You worked hard just to put food on the table never mind buy luxuries, there weren’t any for most miners and people in manual trades.
I was brought up like that and my dad worked harder than anyone would think possible. He didn’t talk about it, only rarely. What it was like to go to work in the dark, work in the dark and come home in the dark in Winter. He worked long hours to try and get overtime to bring a tiny bit more money in. It must have been awful. When I hear people bleating on about not being able to manage, it makes me annoyed when I think about the life we had, and millions like us.
It wasn’t just life as a miner that was hard. It was the same for all the manual trades in different parts of the country. Fishermen, dockers, mill workers – you name it.
A Hard Life
Going without a meal was my mum’s secret, so she could feed me and my brother. I only found out donkey’s years later.
OK it shouldn’t be like that today, I couldn’t agree more. But when you’ve lived through these times like I did, and think about what my dad and others like him went through, it makes me a bit rattled. Too many of today’s generation seem to think it’s their right to claim everything under the sun, I hope you can understand that.
However, back to my story. It was very cold and damp down the mine, which we were warned about. We were told to wear sensible shoes and warm clothing which we did, but still it was cold. It felt like being in the bowels of the earth, a very weird feeling I can tell you. We seemed to be walking for ages, with the guide telling us life down there and the different scenes on displays that illustrated what they went through.
Never Ending Work in the Life as a Miner
It was very informative and interesting. Especially as the daughter of a man who walked miles there and back to get to work, often crawling a good mile underground on hands and knees to get to their job, in knee deep freezing water. I don’t know how he stood it.
He worked seven days a week for as long as I could remember, just to get enough to live on. It affected our family that’s for sure. He wouldn’t talk about it or only seldom, about all the hard graft they went through. I personally think it wasn’t such a bad thing when the mines were closed. You have to be mad to want to work in filth and dark and dreadful conditions like they did.
The area where I lived was a mining community by and large and everyone said it would be the end of everything. How wrong they were, the place resurrected itself from the ashes. It’s now a prosperous area to live, with loads of investment. Unrecognisable as to what it was back then.
Back into the Sunlight
I for one was glad to get back up the shaft and walk out into the sunlight. Pretty much as they must have felt, minus the donkey work they did. I was glad that I’d gone through the experience and braved my claustrophobia. Even though it wasn’t just like the miners would have experienced it. I managed not to go stark raving bonkers too although one poor woman did. She was taken ill with claustrophobia and had to be taken back up to the pit head, poor thing. I knew just how she felt even though I had kept my composure – just! Today, with it so much worse, I would have had the screaming heebie-jeebies but I was a lot younger then.
All in all, we agreed it was interesting as we sat having a coffee in the café when we surfaced. And we all agreed what a hard life these poor folk had.
You might also be interested in:
- Easter Eggs from Long Ago
- Gas Mantles and Peggy Rugs
- Life as a Coal Miner
- Mining Museum
- Old pit communities
- Remembering Steam Trains
- Saturday Morning at the Pictures
- Streets from Long Ago
- The Games we Played in the Olden Days
- The Good Old Days – coal fires
- The Outside Toilet
- The Rag and Bone Man
- Very old picture of a mining community
While you’re here…
Go to the homepage of the Visit Fylde Coast website for the latest updates.
Love the Fylde Coast? Sign up for your email newsletter. Packed full of interesting things it arrives in your inbox all 52 weeks of the year.
👉Join us on Facebook at our Visit Fylde Coast Facebook Group. Plus hundreds of videos to watch on our YouTube channel – from all over the Fylde Coast!
📣JOIN our new VFC WhatsApp Channel for what’s happening, interesting local information, history, communities, events and much more.
Booking a stay? Pick a safe, clean and legal place to stay, at the very best price. Book using the Visit Fylde Coast Accommodation guide.
