NORTH WALBOTTLE COLLIERY
by Norman Wilson
This is an outline of the working of North Walbottle Colliery at the time I worked there 1956-1961. I worked with the fitters. The colliery closed about 1968.
It had two shafts. The Betty Pit also known as the Busty shaft. This was the down-cast shaft where the air entered the pit. The other was the Mary Pit also known as the Brockwell shaft and was the up-cast shaft where the air was drawn out ater circulating the pit.
Both pits drew coal on foreshift (midnight-8am) and back shift (8am-4pm). No coal was drawn on nigh shift (4pm-midnight).
The Betty pit was I believe 700 ft deep (it was more correct to express a shaft's depth in fathoms). It had two 2-deck cages and carried two tubs on each deck, one cage bringing full tubs up as the other took empties down. The Mary Pit had two 3-deck cages but carried only one tub on each deck, and was 900 ft deep. A third 'shaft' ran between the two shaft bottom levels and it was known as 'the stapple'. IT was accessed by a series ofiron ladders and landings.
Both pits had endless rope haulage systems, which pulled the empties in as it pulled the full tubs out. These ropes ran constantly and the tubs were fastened together in sets by chain couplings and the sets attached to the moving rope using special clips. In the Betty Pit a top-rope system was used with the rope running above the tubs and fastened on with ham-bone clips. In the Mary Pit a bottom rope system was used: this ran under the tubs and they were fastened on with box-clips.
Coal came from the various faces on convyor belts and was loaded into tubs and hauled to the shaft bottom.
There were devices between the rails at certain points which automatically greased the tub axles. (The wheels and axles were fixed solid togeher so both revolved.)
When the tubs came to the surface, they went to the screens under their own power on a gentle gradient; first they went to the weigh-cabin. Each tub carried a token to identify the fillers - this was recorded along with the weight. Tubs would not be paid for if they contained too much stone. From the weigh cabin the tubs went into the tipplers. A tippler was a device which revolved the tub 360 degrees sideways emptying the coal onto what was known as a jigger. The jigger was basically a metal chute with a grid in it and it jigged back and forth (hence the name) so the dust and small coal went through the grid and onto the appropriate belt; the rest went on a belt where the stones were picked out. It then dropped into 20 ton coal wagons (trucks). The men involved in stone picking were the elderly coming up to reirement, school leavers or perhaps those with work-related injuries or disease.
From the tipplers the tubs ran to the lowest point on the gradient where boys under supervision would remove the tokens; the tubs then went onto the creeper. The creeper was in effect a large chain with hooks on which caught hold of the tub axles and hauled them up a steep incline to put them back on the gravity system, so they could run away back to the shaft.
Each shaft had its own steam-driven winding engine which was powered by Lancashire boilers.
The pit yard also had a timber yrad, and saw mill, and a system of rail track and sidings.
It had what was called a land-sale, where coal merchants came and filled and weighed their own coal sacks to supply the public.
It had a large slag-heap which burned continually; the heap was built up by use of an aerial flight, which was a cable-car system.
There was also a small sewage farm.
There was the main office, powder cabin well away in the timberyard, pithead baths, medical centre, canteen, lamp cabin, time office, weigh bridge, plumbers' shop, cutters' repair shop, electric shop, fitting shop, choppy house, joiners' shop, stores, engine sheds, blacksmith's shop and what we called the fire-holes - this was a shed along the end of the Lancashire boilers where the stoking was done.
The pit worked longwall faces which were up to 200 yards long and between 2 and 3 feet high. The cycle of work followed this pattern. The coal cutter and his marra would cut the face. This was done with an Anderson-Boyce cutter and removed a slice of coal from bottom of the face along its entire length to a depth of 4-5 feet. Next the driller would drill holes at intervals along the face: these would be charged with powder and the face 'fired' which would bring all the coal down in manageable size pieces. The fillers would then load the coal onto the face conveyor which ran the full length of the face This was done by hand using pan shovels ('shulls') - these were round and came in two sizes: coal shovels and stone shovels, the former much larger than the latter. Each filler was responsible for clearing his own stretch of the face which was known as a 'stint' and had to timber the roof as he went.
The final shift of the day would see the bumpers come in and moe the conveyor forward ready for the fitters. The would also draw out the timber from the goaf to allow the unsupported roof behind the face to fall.
During this shift the Mothergate and Tailgate were extended. These were the main access tunnels to the face. The Mothergate carried the conveyor which carried the coal from the face conveyor, and this to be moved forward as well. The Tailgate was the part of the ventialtion sysem but also gives alternative route in an emergency. These gateways were extended by the stonemen.
So that's a basic rundown of the general routine at the pit.
ANNFIELD PLAIN, 1920s
by Jack Gair
There was very little car traffic and streets were places for play, kicking a ball, playing 'Mounty Kitty', 'Finger or Thumb' etc. Streets always had a horse and trap or horse and float – selling vegetables, cakes or whatever. There were always men visiting – the Doctor's man to people who paid a small sum of money which ensured free prescriptions (usually made [up] by the doctor), the Store (Co-op) man to take orders, the Insurance man, the Milkman (local farmer) twice a day; buskers, knife and scissors grinder. Coal miners would get a 'load' of coal which was deposited outside a miner's house – about 10-12 cwt. Some would illegally sell their lot!
Sometimes this [hubhub] would be silenced by a 'Crakesman' ringing a bell and shouting, “There'll be a special meeting of the ---- Miners' Union at the Miners Hall at such and such a time!” There were 6 pits in and around Annfield Plain: The Billy, The Lizzie, The Moor, The South Pontop, The Morrison, The Louisa. Some of these belonged to wealthy people – the old Queen Mother's family (the Bowes-Lyons), [and] Londonderry, among others. Some of the miners helped themselves by going shooting on Lord Gort's estates – pheasants and partridges were there in plenty.
Some of the houses in one area were wooden and most of the inhabitants came from Cornwall, and that area near Greencroft was called 'Cornwall'. Once a week on a Friday a lady would travel by train to Annfield Plain with a 'creel' of fish. She set up a stall near the station and did a roaring business…
Here are some of the prices of those days:
Coal to puraches, 15 shillings a ton.
Milk 3 pence a pint
Bread small 1d/2d, large 3d/4d. Most people baked their own.
Beef was 5d a pound. (My Mam would send me to McKinley the btucher with half a crown and get some beef for dinner on Sunday.)
Becon, cheese and butter all 4d a pound.
A quarter pound of dairy chocolate was 6d.
A cup of tea 1d, coffee 2d
A meal at Carricks: sausage and chips, bread and butter, tea – 1 shilling; same price for fish or eggs.
A teacher's pay was £180 a year.
Rents varied but a council house was 2 shillings a week!”
HORDEN AND COAST
Jack Leger
In the early 1930's my parents and grandparents lived in adjacent bungalows erected by the Horden Coal Company and purchased by miners for about £320 each. The mortgage was repaid at the rate of 7s and 6d per week with a 5 shillings rent allowance so accommodation cost 2/6 a week. These were the so called 'Scheme Houses' as apart from the free colliery houses.
At that time fresh fish was collected by 'Hartlepool Fish Wives' in old prams stocked with either ice or dry ice then brought to Blackhall - a distance of over 5 miles walked and then hawked around the colliery rows and scheme houses. I still remember the cry of 'FRESH FISH' and the various prices - cod being the cheapest and crab or lobster being the most expensive.
In those days the beach at Blackhall was a long stretch of golden sands before the effect of slag tipping despoiled the coast. We had no need to visit any of the local resorts having the sea and sand on our doorstep. Cost was another factor as no bus or train fares needed to be found out of the miners small wages.
Towards the end of the 1930's slag and sea coal were being washed up on the beach and unemployed men from Hartlepool cycled to Blackhall beach and collected two or three bags of sea coal before facing the stiff climb up the access road to level ground. We kids 'helped' with the heavy load from the beach to the top for the going rate of one Woodbine between two of us - not a very good turn as it worked out!
As a special treat we were taken on foot to Crimdon Dene Lido where the beach remained spoil free until long after the war so far as I remember. Alas, we moved inland to Bowburn when I lost contact with the coast but have many happy memories of learning to swim, fishing for cod and fires on the beach and baked potatoes acquired from the nearby allotments.
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