ANOTHER SIDE OF OUR HERITAGE Once, at the heart of industry, was mining

 

ANOTHER SIDE OF OUR HERITAGE

Once, at the heart of industry, was mining

National Coal Mining Museum, Caphouse Colliery. Overton, Wakefield WF4 4RH

As it’s free to enter the National Coal Mining Museum, formerly Caphouse Colliery and Hope Pit in the beating heart of Yorkshire, visitors don’t need to dig deep. Local young schoolchildren and old are guaranteed as warm a welcome as the coal fires that long before central heating systems provided glorious relief from the cold outdoors. 

Hauling, from hundreds of metres underground, millions of tons of combustible carbon rich black rock powered the technologies that enabled the first ever industrial revolution that had a profound beneficial impact on people’s lives. But extraction was never easy, depending on the coal seam thickness and geology. It all helped breed a unique band of brothers, whose safety meant sticking together in difficult circumstances.

This is clearly demonstrated when helmeted visitors, whose requested donation of £7.50 is well worth it, descended in a small cage underground. The 140-metre drop was massively exceeded by most of Britain’s underground coal mines.

Enthusiastic, experienced ex-miners act as tour guides.  From the off Andy Clayton, who was one of the last working miners, clocking off when Kellingley Colliery, Britain’s last working pit, closed in 2016, is keen to recapture the miners’ experiences. Their numbers peaked at 1,190,000 – 5 per cent of the total male UK workforce – after WWI. Despite the dangers Andy loved being a coal miner “due to the craic and friendships forged.”

He was delighted when he began working at the NCMM a year ago. “I like trying to keep coal mining heritage alive especially for youngsters who don’t know what is coal but which combined with steel built this country.” Andy is also pleased to welcome many ex-miners as visitors.

The underground trail that follows begins by returning to before 1844 when women and children under ten were banned from working underground. This was the first time that the owners of capital had been prevented from doing exactly as they wanted and came just two years after the first ever General Strike by over a million workers nationally.

A father is seen digging out the coal using a pick, the mother shovels the coal into a heavy wagon and shoves it hundreds of yards for it to be taken to the surface. On route their infant daughter opens and closes the trap door being used to prevent the spreading of noxious gases.

Fortunately, things improved over the succeeding years. Andy explains how wooden props to keep the roof up were replaced by hydraulic ones and bars.

Extracting coal went from “using hand tools and then drilling and blasting and then finally we got modern machines.” All of which can be viewed on the hour-long tour that includes models of pit ponies that after 1844 were used to pull coal to the shafts to be transported to the surface. “Miners loved them.”

During Andy’s time at Kellingley there were three fatalities. Similar tragedies took place elsewhere.

This is brought home by former school teacher Nicola Harrison, a keen volunteer within the colourful Mining Lives Exhibition that is one of the many galleries that tell the story of coal mining.

At aged 16 Nicola lost her father Edward Finnegan in 1973 at Lofthouse Colliery. There is a display board that stands as a permanent reminder of this tragedy in which he was one of six men killed following flooding. Their bodies have never been recovered.

 “Such stories, especially as later on the miners were vilified in the press, need telling as does the work of the rescue groups, the WWII Bevin Boys and the mining communities. My favourite item is of a piece of metal from a conveyor belt that melted due to the heat. It highlights how tough and brave miners were.”

A point highlighted by Mexborough’s Gary Price who despite having worked extensively in industrial mining admitted he had prior to going underground at the NCCM “no idea how hard an industry, especially at the start, coal mining was. It was why my dad, whose own father died due to lung dust – Pneumoconiosis - stopped me joining him at the colliery. I had a great experience on the tour. The guide was great.”

Christine explains that the exhibition on the year-long 1984-5 Miners’ Strike, which Andy, like the majority of miners stayed out for, has been well attended. This despite some criticism for featuring strike breakers as well as those who stayed out for the year and others who returned before the end.

Arthur Brown was “enjoying” what he was seeing including photographs by Martin Jenkinson, the official NUM photographer who later worked for the TGWU and Unite. Martin died in 2012.

“I was a pit electrician for twenty years and stayed out in 1984-85. I visit the museum quite regularly. There are often new things displayed. I especially like looking at the machinery I worked on.” On being made redundant, Arthur became a South Yorkshire Police Officer, serving 20 years.

The NCCM helps visitors discover the lives of inventors and innovators crucial to improving mining techniques whilst the mechanics of mining can be explored by visiting restored colliery buildings such as a blacksmith’s workshop, pumping, winding and compressor houses.

On a much smaller basis but just as essential was the introduction underground of canaries.

“They helped warn of the danger of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide underground that the miners could not smell or taste. The alerts gave miners time to evacuate,” explains volunteer Peter Bailey.

A memorial garden to which some Unite members have contributed also provides a poignant spot to spend time remembering former miners which, personally, includes my relatives Joseph Charlton, 42, and Robert Noble, 45; killed at Easington Colliery in May 1951.

Our visit to the NCMM was best summed up by radiographer Steven Aitchison, a trade unionist from Edinburgh. “You get an amazing insight into how coal was mined. The guides bring that to life. It is one of the most amazing experiences you’ll have from visiting a museum.”