I’ll carry on today with part two about old pit communities. If you haven’t already, you might want to read part one first, about Lundhill colliery, near to where I used to live.
(The pit head shown above is Darfield Main, where my dad worked).
I didn’t tell you about the fatal explosion that killed such a lot of men. At the time it practically wiped out the local community. The mine was closed down after that. Never to open again after the tragedy.
Tragedy in Old Pit Communities
It was in the late eighteen hundreds when the mine exploded. 19 February 1857 to be exact. 189 men and boys were killed, aged between 10 and 59. It was one of the biggest industrial disasters in the country’s history. Gases (especially methane) build up underground in mines. This big bang was caused by a firedamp explosion.
All that remains to be seen now is a shaft going underground to allow exhaust fumes to get out.
This is all in the setting of fields where I used to play with my cousin. It makes me shudder when I think what must lie under there. It would have been such a dangerous place to carry out a rescue, especially in those days. 185 bodies were recovered – but four were never found.
Safety precautions were practically unheard of then, without all the changes that the modern miner had before the pits closed.
Picture of Old Pit Communities
There’s a picture of the area and its inhabitants on my last blog. You can see their local, Lundhill Tavern, behind them in the distance. Also further back even still in the distance is Cortonwood Colliery. That featured heavily in the Miners strike and a lot of bad feeling was created there. But that’s a story for another day, if anyone would like to go into it.
Anyway, back to Lundhill and the chapel. It was tiny, like something you saw in black and white Welsh films like ‘How Green is my Valley’. As a youngster that film made me cry something awful, as it was so sad. It told the story of the mines in Wales and the poverty and hardship they suffered.
A Hard Life
Wales or Yorkshire, it was awful. They had no rights and mines were owned by private companies. There was no National Coal Board as there was in recent times. Safety wasn’t a priority in the eighteen hundreds. The owners were too bothered about making their money to care by and large. So they worked the men to death. Some owners were better than others, but what a way to live.
The chapel at Lundhill was a stone-built small building, with not a lot of room inside, but very pretty in spite of its size. It was well used by the old pit community and they always joined the Whit Walks parade. They had a float like all the other chapels. Although their float had less children, they always put on a good show.
Hidden Heritage
It’s fair to say that my dad hated the mines. He seldom talked about it as he always said he had enough of them while he was there. Never mind talking about it when he got home.
I always thought it a shame as it was our heritage, but no, he wasn’t having any. He was a very private person, like my Grandma (his mum). He just wouldn’t talk about lots of things if he thought they were stepping over the line. So stories of the pit was a no-no.
I did ask him one day what they did if they wanted a toilet (well I would wouldn’t I!) You could tell it was near to his overstepping-the-mark-rule, but he actually said that you find a corner and squat. Oh my goodness.
Donkey Work
My dad worked like a donkey down there, with never-ever even a day off sick. He had to walk four miles to get to the colliery, then two miles crawling underground to get to where he worked. It was filthy, dark, very cold and often on his hands and knees in water. It must have been awful for him.
He worked shifts, seven days a week all his life to put food on the table and pay the rent. The wages were so poor that it was a real struggle. And there wasn’t any money from the government to fall back on like there is today. How the people of today would put up with what my dad and others like him put up with. They would be horrified and refuse to do it.
You certainly worked hard in those days that’s for sure. Times had to change, we all know that. They couldn’t have got any worse for the miners.
How things could have been different…
Things could have been so different too. My dad wasn’t what you might imagine as your typical miner. He was a very quiet, educated man who could talk about any subject with ease (except working underground). It was a crying shame that he, and all the other boys like him, weren’t given a choice.
They went down the mines at 14 to pay parents for food and rent – with no questions asked. It was a fact and you had to do it. I often wondered what he would have become in more modern times. If he didn’t have to be forced into what you can only call practically slavery.
Old Pit Communities Moving On
For me and my family, it was a good thing that the mines closed. In spite of all the striking and rioting. There was continual talk of their closure bringing the area to its knees. A lot of doom mongering went on about people being out of work en-masse. But it didn’t happen.
If anything, it was the making of the area. An awful lot of miners in the old pit communities found other jobs and a lot started their own business. It’s now a thriving area of re-development.
How could anyone be mad enough to prefer work underground in a dangerous job when you can be on top of the soil? For me there’s no comparison.
Back to Business at Central Pier
A local observation to finish on today. It seems that Central Pier is open again. How quick is that after the fire they had recently.
Weren’t they lucky that it wasn’t windy that night or they would possibly had all the pier go up in flames. It looks as though it started in a workshop on the pier. Thanks to the speed of the fire brigade it was kept under control.
They haven’t half knocked about sharpish from all that dirt and damage. I believe they have repaired, or changed as the case might be, the planks that were affected by the fire. Although the Waltzer was destroyed it’s business as usual now!
Don’t look down!
I don’t know about you, but walking on any of the piers gives me the heebie jeebies, when you look down and see water swirling about under you. It was worse on the North pier. Although a lot of the planks have been replaced, Jane said it gave her the vapours too!
You can see the water if you looked down between the planks, not to be encouraged if you’re faint hearted as I am! Anyway, good luck to them and let’s hope they can get back on track now.
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