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A Barwick Miner Remembers


from The Barwicker No.14

June 1989




The drawing of Isabella Mine is taken, with permission, from "The Aberford Fly Line History Trail" by Graham Hudson.
The first coal found in the Garforth area was between Garforth and Aberford in the Parlington area. The coal seam came out to the surface at that point. That's where the first mine was started. They started at the top of the seam and they worked down. Then they woke up to the fact that it was going to be all up-hill bringing the coal out. So they tried another spot, hoping perhaps to get a more level situation but it was just the same result. They named one mine Lily, and the other Elizabeth (Betsy) after the younger daughter of the Gascoignes. they kept the Betsy mine open and closed the other. I have seen the opening of the Betsy mine, well-timbered at the entrance. It was closed because during a long strike after World War I, scab miners were operating at the Betsy. The Isabella mine, named after the Gascoignes' elder daughter, and the Sisters mine started with deep shafts. Later, they opened the Trench mine, named after the family of Isabella Gascoigne's husband, F. C. Trench, who added Gascoigne to his name on marriage.

When I started working at the Isabella mine early in 1918, I had to get up out of bed at 4.0 a.m., have breakfast and then walk the three miles to the pit. For two years previous to that I had been getting up at 4.0 a.m. My father worked on the afternoon shift and my brother Sydney on the morning shift. My mother always wanted my father to come home at 10.30 p.m. Miners' wives always waited for their husbands to come home.

Mother would have to get up 4 a.m. and she was getting very tired. So I got up each morning at 4.0., got Sydney his breakfast and then, in winter time, I would read a library book from the school. We were allowed one each week. It was a real nuisance going round early morning asking other kids to swap books. In summer time I would go looking for mushrooms. I would leave before daylight to make sure I had the first pick. I used to be scared going down Dark Lane a bird would flutter and I would run.

I started work at the Isabella mine on 2 January 1918, the day after my thirteenth birthday. (I would have started on my birthday but the mines were closed on New Year's Day.> I still got up at 4 a.m. when I was working. Hum would leave everything ready. When we reached the mine, we would go out to the engine shed, where the locomotive engines were kept. I think they had three. Two I can remember, "Empress" and "Mulciber". They were kept in good order, painted green and red. In the shed was a receptacle for sand with a fire box underneath. The engine had to have sand to stop the wheels slipping on the wet tracks. We could get warmed up in there.

In those tines you could travel by train from Aberford to Leeds, via Garforth. The Gascoignes had their private rail car. Twice a week it would run. It went under the shed where we worked. Vie started work at 6 a.m. The rail car would go through about 8 a.m. The carriage itself would stay at Garforth. The loco would then do its usual work, shunting the full trucks and lining them up in the Garforth station ready for the big locos. Then the carriage would be taken back to Aberford in the afternoon. The local train was called the "Fly" and it went near the Hall. Anyone could travel on it for a small charge, and the Gascoignes had one section private. Vie never saw it on its return journey, as it came through after 2.0 p.m., when we finished our shift. We had 20 minutes for lunch.

I would leave home at 5.0 a.m. and join Mark Jowett, who lived in the house nearest the New Inn. Mark had only one arm; the other was taken off owing to an accident down the mine. He had the job of working the steam engine that drove all the machinery needed. Joe Balderson lived around the corner in Chapel Lane. Vie would then walk together. Sometimes if it suited him, Joe would say, "I'm not going." I often wondered why he didn't get the sack.

All around the surface where the cage came up was a steel- plated floor surface, so tubs could be turned easily. The cage would come up. It had two sections, one on top of the other. The winding man could see what was going on. The cage would stop, when the top section was level with the steel-plated floor. The full tub would be taken out and an empty one put in. The cage was lifted and the same thing happened again. Then down it went for the next lot. Then it was taken by a boy, and that boy was myself. There was a little office with two men inside; a weighman for the company and a check-weighman for the union. I would have to place the tub on a round steel plate that worked the weighing machine inside. Every miner had a number, a pick and a shovel and most important a lamp. If a lamp was missing they knew where to look down the mine. All the actual coal diggers had an iron disc with a number on. It was on a thin piece of rope and had a loop on the other end. Each tub had two holes in either end, so before he started to fill the tub he would fasten the disc to it.

So, my job was to call out the number and the weight went to that number. That is how the miners were paid. They only got paid for what they got. Then I had to push it forward and a type of chain elevator, with hooks to catch the tub, would take it up to the next floor. Then it went onto a turn table. A boy would turn it at right angles and put it onto an apparatus (rounded) which turned the tub right over, tipping out the coal. After pulling the lever, he would push the empty tub out, which would run back to the steel-plated floor. The numbered disc would then be taken off.

When the coal was tipped out, it would fall onto a shaker screen. Small pieces of coal would go onto a steel-plated belt to the left. The larger pieces would go to the right. Two old men, Charlie on the left-hand side and Matthew on the right would pick out slate, stones and dross and drop them behind where they stood. Also they had to pick out certain pieces of top grade coal, which was put down a chute, down to the railway wagons below. The rest would go over the end to another wagon. "Jovial Joe" Balderson had to keep them moving so the trucks filled properly. When full he would let that one go and put the empty truck in. The line was on a gentle slope. The top grade coal was used for warships as it was practically smokeless.

The small coal went onto the shorter belt to only one truck and that is where I started work. That is where the steam engine was, with Mark in charge. My job was to pick out the slates on that belt and Mark did the same when possible. I was pleased as he was so kind. He had two old men, I think near to 70 years old,(labour was short during the war) and me, a school kid, and Joe Balderson thrown in. Who would have thought we would be fellow bell ringers later on? My next job was, as I have described, helping to take the tubs out of the cage and calling out the numbers.

When I reached the age of 14 years, I had to go down the mine or leave. They always had others waiting after the war. The first task was just the same as the one on top. The man known as the onsetter was the one that took the empty tubs out and put the full ones in. I had to take the empties and the first one would be held on a catch. After about 20 tubs, they would be taken further on. Ben Robshaw was the onsetter at the Trench mine and Jack Cooper, who lived next door to Butcher Hewitt, was the one for the Isabella mine. They had to signal by pressing a push-in button that would go to the winding engine man. That part of the mine had electric lights. It was wide and had two tracks for full and empty tubs.

After that, my next job was to go right to the coal face with a pony. They said it was three miles from the shaft. It took about an hour. The ponies were well looked after. They had electric lights in their stables. Now, I had to have a miner's lamp with my number. There was a lamp shed where you would call your number and get your lamp. I can't describe how frightening this job was! The miners at the coal face had to depend on the pony driver to bring and take the tubs. The first thing you had to do before leaving the stables was to put the harness on the pony. The harness held the chains to the swingle, a piece of wood with eye- bolts on each end for the chains and one in the centre, with a chain that you could hook onto the tub. I had to walk between the tub and the pony with the chain between my legs, as well as carrying my lamp. Some of the ponies were so cunning. It you went behind the tub, they would stop in one place where you did not have room to pass.

The worst thing down a mine is named "creep". After the coal is taken out, the pressure is taken off the bottom and the floor rises. If a tub was left at the coal face on Saturday, it would be jammed tight against the roof. That is where the afternoon workers came in. They were called by-workers. My father was one They had to lower the rails. If they were pushed for time they would dig out some of the floor in between the sleepers so that the pony could move. So the driver had to hop over each sleeper and make sure he did not fall, otherwise he would be lamed or killed.

A driver was responsible for his pony's welfare. Some ponies had sores on their backs with rubbing and that was supposed to be the driver's fault. I remember one time, two R.S.P.C.A. inspectors were inspecting my pony, whilst it was working, and either jokingly or sarcastically complimented me on the shining leather harness on the pony's back, but no sores.

You could not put a pony in a cage like men, so they had a large rope-net, with four corners brought together, then a chain through the corners hooked onto the bottom of the cage. The engine man would pull up the net with the pony in, clear of the steel floor. It had a rope underneath. Then it was lowered down the shaft. The onsetter would grab the rope and gently pull it out as the cage was lowered an to the floor. When a big strike was on, the ponies would be taken to pasture. They could not see for a start but by the time they were taken back they could see again.

Shift work was the worst thing. If you were on afternoon shift, you had to go to work on Sunday night and then back to work on Monday afternoon to get your six days. Before I started work, it was a 48 hour week. Saturday was like all the rest. When the Sisters mine closed, they left the winding gear and engine complete. Also there was a return air-way between the two mines. One Saturday morning we were all waiting to be taken to the surface when the winding engine broke down. So we were told we had to make our own way to the Sisters mine. The air-way was high in places and very low in others. The first ones to lead had the worst part to play. There were deep pools of water, covered with dust and it looked natural till they walked in. The followers could take their clogs and socks off. When we reached the bottom of the shaft at the Sisters mine, only one cage was safe. The other only had one deck safe. So, only four men at a time could be taken up. The water was coming down fast and we all got wet. However, we got home in time to go to the football match.

One thing I have to explain is how the tubs were hauled from the coal face. At the end of each district they had a return wheel for the wire rope to go round, back to the engine room near the shaft. Timber about one foot square was placed into the roof and floor at each end. There would be two sets of rails, like a siding, one for empties to come in and one for full ones to go out. The engine was driven by compressed air from above. Two wires were about four feet apart and went from the engine room to the siding. By touching the two wires with a knife blade you could make the signal. When the men were using the road, the engine was supposed to stop. A young teen-ager named Wilson was killed bringing his pony back to the stables.

Two or three years before the Isabella mine closed down, a new manager was in charge; a Mr Wardle. He did not just sit in the office but would inspect the mine and dressed accordingly. He introduced a night school held in Garforth two nights a week. I joined it and that meant no more shift work. That was a blessing to me. Now by going to night school, I could learn in a few minutes, say arithmetic, what took hours in day school. Also some of us went to the site of the new mine to be called "Barnbow". On my chart the Isabella and Sisters mines were 600-800 feet in depth. At the Barnbow, they had got down to 300-400 feet. They had a big iron container called a bucket. Four or five of us could fit in. They were making a circular shaft. We were lowered down and it was explained to us the different kinds of rocks and strata. That was a plus for us students.

One thing we learned was how to use a Davy lamp. Only the deputies knew this, how to tell if it is methane, or marsh gas or carbon dioxide, etc. The first stage i.s to learn to be a shot- firer, that is next to a deputy. They had to take either the night shift or the afternoon shift before passing on to be a full blown deputy. Well, I passed all my exams and then found out I had to wait another 3 years as I was not old enough. Eventually the Isabella mine closed down. I was the last to leave, because I was kept on with the deputies to recover all the metal pumps. I had to drive the pony and steel trolley. I was pleased when it finished, when "Lo and Behold", they gave me a job at the Trench mine, which was very wet. I think I was the only one who wanted to leave. I got into trouble one night. The tubs came off the line. I left them there and never went back!



BERT HOWLETT.


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