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Do you want to go work down a coal mine?
Uk Ltd
Posts: 1,228 Forum Member
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Anyone here who'd want to go and work down a pit these days?
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Uk Ltd
Posts: 1,228 Uk Ltd
Posts: 1,228 Uk Ltd
Posts: 1,228 Uk Ltd
Posts: 1,228
Comments
I would have a bad back.
My legs would be shot.
I would have emphysema and die early.
I was here. My number was 1126.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/mmartin/fifepits/starter/west/pits/c/pit-2.htm
I come from a mining family and know what it did to my grandfather and uncles. My gradand lost a brother and his right leg in one accident. My dad only escaped as he was the youngest son and the local mine had closed by time he left school.
If the mines did open the only place they'd find workers is from eastern Europe. The youth of today are too soft.
I have read some of the transcripts of his career in the 30's - 40's, and I would never make a miner. He was a brave, altruistic man, I am somewhat of a coward.
My father worked in a foundry. It was not dangerous as such but he was knackered at the age of 37 and dead when he was 47.
My dad always encouraged me not to do a dirty job.
My FIL, a Pole, worked in the Fife pits in seams less than 2.5 feet high. He was the strongest man I have ever met, it was all hand work in the 40's & 50's.
He was a miner when WW2 broke out, and so wasn't called up for military service (mining was a 'reserved occupation'), but in 1941 he was allowed to join the RAF, and spent the last 4yrs of the war as a navigator in Coastal Command.
After the war he went back to the mines when his squadron was disbanded, until he was caught in a roof cave-in in the early 50s - he lived another 30yrs, but never walked again.
When I was a kid, he always told me to never go down the pit.
£40-50,000 a year for the top paid (and hardest) jobs according to this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15445418
I can think of easier and safer ways of earning that money.
My grandpa was a miner too, likewise, during the war he was in a reserved occupation so did his bit as an ARP, going round the village to ensure the blackout was adhered to. He died before I was born, it was a tough job.
I found it very telling on a visit to the Beamish Museum, that men who had been miners previously, gravitated to those in charge of explaining to visitors what life in the mine was like. They all seemed to have a very special kinship, and ALL spoke with great affection of their days down the mine and said how much they missed it.
I admire anyone brave enough to do it especially those chilean miners who got trapped a few years ago.
Most of my husband's family and friends were miners. They all say it was a hard, relentless life, but they valued the cameraderie and pride that went with it. By the end, before the pits were closed, it was quite well-paid work; but none of them seem 100% well. A lot of them seem to suffer from vibration white finger, which seems unpleasant. I think my father in law was pleased that my husband got a more white collar job.
I used to feel sorry for the pit ponies. They lived underground and never saw a green field. The mines in Northumberland go for miles under the sea, and there was no question of hauling the ponies out at the end of a working day.
As for miners pay, I don't begrudge them that. By all accounts it is a difficult and dangerous job, in the scheme of things.
Back in the sixties mining (or at least tin mining which I did for a few years) was already considered so dangerous and unpleasant that declining work in one did not affect unemployment money. The mine I worked at, South Crofty, despite offering the chance to earn very good money in a county with high unemployment already seemed to have a lot of difficulty getting face workers and already had to bring in Polish and S African miners.
So perhaps not such a new phenomena?