Archive for the ‘North Staffordshire Pits’ category

Apedale Country Park, Loomer Road, Chesterton – Now with photos!

June 11th, 2012

On Sunday last, I had great pleasure in discovering Apedale Country Park, its railway and museum. I must say, I was thrilled to find such an interesting place right on our doorstep. I can guarantee that I’ll be going back again to check out the mine.

I did know that Apedale was a country park, but I wasn’t prepared to be kept amused and entertained for an entire afternoon.

It is a very reasonably priced day out for families or grown ups alone. If you take a ride on the steam train you’ll pay just £2 for adults for a trip which lasts about 15 minutes. The engine and carriages have been lovingly restored and they absolutely gleam. The station platform makes it easy to get on and off the train and looks lovely and clean. You can tell that everything has been created and restored with careful attention to detail.

I was pleased to speak to a couple of the volunteers there who were so enthusiastic. They told me all about the additional engines they have and the work being done restore them. There’s information on their website  http://www.avlr.org.uk/ about the fares, timetables and special events.

From the railway I was drawn to the museum. Free entry by the way, and it’s certainly well worth a look. There are many mining exhibits and photographs as well as details of all the brick works that used to be in the area with samples of all the different bricks that were made. There’s lots of local items many which I didn’t know about previously, and many that I did but have now seen so much more.

I didn’t get a chance to go down the mine (didn’t have the correct and sturdy footware) but be assured that I will be on the case to get back there and try it out. I was talking to a couple from Wolverhampton who were visiting for the day. They had just been down the mine and were thrilled with their experience. You get to wear a pit helmet with a light on the front and the tour is around 45 minutes. They said it was cold down there so they were glad they wrapped up warm! It was a beautiful, warm day outside but down the mine it’s always cold so best to take a jacket if you intend to go down. Oh, and some good, sturdy shoes or boots. I’ll certainly remember to take these next time as I won’t be walking away from Apedale again untill I’ve been inside that footrail. So watch this space ……. I’m going down!

Here are some photos I took during today’s visit to Apedale. Best to see it first hand, but hope this gives you a taster

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Apedale Colliery and Steam Railway

June 10th, 2012

Hi everyone,

Just checking in after a fabulous afternoon.

Museum

Railway

Country park

Watch this space for photos and details later.

See why I’m so impressed!

 

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A visit to a coal mine in the 1830s

August 24th, 2011

At last, I mustered enough courage to go down a pit – yes down one of those seemingly bottomless holes out of which comes a thin blue vapour.

They dressed me in a flannel frock and put a round crowned brimless hat on my head. A collier seated himself in the chair. He put me on his knee and we were swung over the pit mouth. It was a terrible moment. I was terrified and dared not look. Down we went. Around us gushed water from the bricks lining the side of the shaft. The water made a dreary splashing sound when it hit the bottom far below. We continued our descent and when I looked up the sky above us was just a small circular speck of light – shinning like a star at night. Shortly afterwards, I heard voices below which sounded like echoes.

Soon we reached the bottom. A collier released my protector from his chair. We stood at the entrance to a region of darkness. What a wild, gloomy and strange scene. I stood in a large black cavern illuminated by a few glimmering lights. We went on, the colliers stooping because the roof was so low that they could not walk erect. After going a long way, I suddenly saw two rows of lights – one on the right, the other on the left. These were the lights by which the colliers were at work getting the coal.

The coalface where they were working was called a “benk”. There were two “benks”. One was called “the deep benk”, the other “the basset benk”. Here the poor fellows sat on the ground using their sharp picks to undermine a quantity of coal called a “stint” which had been measured and marked with chalk. When they had finished, the hammer man came. He hammered wedges into the coal above the undercut causing it to fall. The coal was loaded into tubs which a little pony pulled along a railway line to the bottom of the shaft where it was hauled to the surface.

As the poor fellows cleared away the coal, they supported the roof of the coalface with stiff pieces of wood called pit props to prevent the earth falling and burying them. From time to time, this happens in spite of all their care and they are crushed to death or trapped by the fall and die of starvation before their friends can dig them out. In this bleak and dreary region and in this way are the coals produced that make our parlours so bright and warm and cook all the good things in the kitchen.

(An edited extract from “Descent into a Coal Mine” in “Mrs Watt’s New Years Gift for 1834″.)

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Harry Wilson – A Local Hero

August 10th, 2010

By David Martin

 

The Coal Mines Act 1911 forced colliery owners to employ qualified safety officers, called firemen to inspect roadways leading to the coalface and make sure the pit was well ventilated and free from gas. It was an important job. A miner could not become a fireman unless he had obtained a Firemans Certificate, was at least 25 years old and had worked underground for three years before working at the coalface for two.

In the early 1920s, Harry Wilson, a roadman at Harriseahead Colliery, was a part-time student at the North Staffordshire Technical College (Staffordshire University) where he was studying for his fireman’s certificate.

On March 10th, 1924, Harry was at work when the lower levels of the colliery were flooded by a sudden inrush of water. With the exception of Edwin Booth, who was trapped by flood water about 300 yards (274 metres) from the bottom of the shaft, all the men working underground escaped. Many made their way along roadways where the water was four feet deep to the bottom of the shaft and were brought up in the cage while others climbed a footrail to reach the surface.

When he realised Edwin was missing Pailing Baker, the manager, called for volunteers to help rescue him. Five men, including Harry, volunteered. Led by Pailing, they entered the mine through the footrail. Making their way along a roadway, the volunteers reached a ventilation door that was holding back the flood water. Fearing for their lives, four of the men refused to open it. They returned to the surface while Pailing and Harry stayed in the tunnel.

The two men slowly opened the door and the water behind it fell slightly. Realising they could be drowned by water which was still pouring into the workings, Pailing and Harry risked their lives by wading in semi-darkness, through swirling flood water, along a low roofed, narrow roadway to where Edwin was trapped. Struggling against chest high, fast flowing water, they again risked death to guide him to the bottom of the shaft where a cage took them to the surface.

Six months later, on August 23rd, 1924, Buckingham Palace announced that King George V had awarded Pailing and Harry the Edward Medal for “exceptional courage and resolution”. Before going to London to receive their medals from the King, they were honoured locally. At a ceremony in the Victoria Hall, Kidsgrove, they were presented with certificates acknowledging their bravery by the Daily Herald, a popular national newspaper, and the Carnegie Trust, which also announced that it had agreed to pay all Harry’s tuition fees at the North Staffordshire Technical College giving him the opportunity to continue his studies there and become a mining engineer.

Instituted by King Edward VII in 1907, the Edward Medal was the equivalent of the Victoria Cross. Designed by W Reynolds-Stephens, the medal had the sovereign’s profile on the obverse, while the reverse which depicted a miner rescuing a stricken colleague, was inscribed with the words “For Courage”.

During the Battle of Britain in 1940, King George VI instituted the George Cross “for acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger”. The George Cross gradually replaced the Edward Medal which was only awarded posthumously after 1949. During 1971, the Queen invited the 68 surviving holders of the Edward Medal to exchange it for the George Cross. Harry accepted the invitation and until his death in 1986 he regularly attended the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association’s reunions at Buckingham Palace.

Tell us about other miners who were given awards for risking their lives to rescue a comrade trapped underground.

 

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