Research Projects

by Bob Williams

I started work at Blackhall Colliery in 1946, full of expectations for future life. No training was given, straight onto picking belts, picking stone from coal, a soul destroying job for a boy of 14 years. Shift work was 7.00 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. the first week.

“I was brought up in a coalminers family. I had 3 brothers and 2 sisters”. From the age of six we knew what coal was as we used to help mother get the load in, from the street. My father’s concessionary allowance was 18 cwt. every 15 days and from the age of 12 years I was shovelling coal in at the colliery streets, as they had coal lets - little doors on the outside wall - we used to get a tanner (2�p) a load.

If we got too dirty we used to go to the pit baths for a wash and dry on a handkerchief before going back to school. When the coals were been tipped at the council houses it was a carry in job for which we got a shilling (5p) sometimes if we got 2 loads to put in we used to go to Mr Harts and hire his barrow for a tanner it was easier than filling and carrying buckets.

Getting back to the colliery, after working on the picking belts we were promoted to pulling the levers that controlled the flow of coal onto the belts, another dirty dusty job. Later again promoted onto the tipplers the worst job of all. We ate the dust almost all the shift the only time we had short breaks was when the miners were going down the mine or when they were riding back up to the surface.

If we wanted to go to the toilet we had to run quarter of a mile down the pit yard to the netties. A plank of wood made for 4 persons to sit and do the business “job” those netties were for 500 surface workers in shifts at various times, no flush toilets them days the toilet cleaner used a fire hose to wash all the excrement down a pipe onto the Pit Dene.

The only flush toilets on the surface were in the winding house for the winder man’s use only. The medical centre had a flush toilet – the power station and compressor house, and the grannary, there were toilets in the pit baths but they were out of bounds when you were working. We had a new pit canteen opened in 1942 it also had no toilets for the workmen. This may sound far fetched but it is the truth.

When I reached the age of 17 years I was sent for a medical to work underground but failed due to an eyesight defect “I’m pleased to say”. From then on I did a multitude of jobs mostly working on the stone heap tipping tubs of stone over the Beach Banks.

At 18 years I was called up for National Service, the best time in my young life. When I was due for demob I wrote to Hartlepool council for a caretakers job, which I was shortlisted for. Demob day was 7/6/53 coronation day. When I arrived home bad news was awaiting me. My father had been badly injured in a mine accident, my eldest brother was in the Royal Navy and my elder sister was working away in place as it was called. I became the breadwinner bang went the caretaker’s job and I started back at the pit one week after being demobbed. The wages by then were higher than a school caretaker.

I worked at the pit for the next 12 years then I left and got a job at Crimdon Park as caretaker foreman. the best 10 years of my life - lifeguard, lifeboat crew, fresh air winter and summer, good food, and plenty of holidays, lots of women holiday makers. I had my own flat on the job. I got married while working at Crimdon, and we bought a home nearby to over look the caravan site, 1540 caravans in 1977 on Crimdon. Then the council in its wisdom let off the pavilion to private enterprise and I was transferred to Peterlee swimming baths, the job I hated, it was an insult to me.

I transferred to the gardeners, but they were on low wages. So I was told they were looking for men at Seaham Colliery, and within a couple of weeks I was back at the pit. A happy colliery with a good workforce. In a short time I made many good friends who I still value today.

Seaham was a small colliery in regards to Blackhall, but it had been modernised, good facilities, canteen and baths, toilets in all work places, good lighting. But when they shut the pits I was made redundant with a pension. I never looked for another job, I bought a little truck and did a multitude of jobs, moving furniture, garden rubbish, bagged coal, anything for a few quid. That kept us going. And now I’m happily retired and enjoying life.

Digitised by Helen Davison
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