Its dark down here !!

One of the many jobs I have had in my employment history was as a coal miner. Barnburgh colliery to be exact in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.

Described by many as a " family pit ", this was indeed true. You trusted you workmates, laughed, cried and stuck together, but mostly you laughed.

Characters were always in evidence and stories of their antics will spring forth from this blog from time to time.Where to begin, so many tales, so many memories. Lets start with a man called " Frankie", surname not given for legal reasons.

Lets be kind to Frankie and if a label is to be put on him, lets say " thick as a brick ". I knew him in his 60's, but as a young man his wits were no sharper. A story that illustrates this point recalled here.

Before mechanisation of the mines in the late 50's and 60's, pit ponies were common throughout the South Yorkshire coalfield and were handled by pony drivers. This usually involved ponies transporting material in " tubs ", small wagons on rails, along tunnels connecting the various districts of the coal mine. This was the job that Frankie was assigned.

Mother nature, always tries, and is usually successful, in thwarting the efforts of coalminers to maintain the height and width of any tunnel driven through the underground strata. When first driven through the strata the height was 7 feet by  about 9 feet. Then the " weight " came on. Forces pushing into the void, from all directions, squeezed the tunnel until the pony and its driver were banging into the top and sides. It was a simple solution to remedy, the " dinters " were sent for. These men had a job very similar to painting the Forth Bridge, never ending.

On one particular day shift, Frankie uttered his now famous observation. Joe and Stan, two very experienced dinters were taking out, from the pushed up floor, about 3 feet of material. This had the effect of raising the available space for the pony and driver to operate along the tunnel.

As Frankie approached, he spotted the two men digging away at the floor and lowering the rails.He called out a warning to step aside and as he passed them, utter these words of advice and wisdom " Silly buggers, its the ponies head and shoulders that's catching, not its feet ".

Priceless...........

This could have been Frankie...note the confused look.... more to follow.