Hello, just had to drop you a line and say how much I enjoy your web site.
My name is Tony Dove, born and bred in Mansfield Notts, but for the last 42 years living in Somerset.
My father Ernie, or 'Snowy' to his mates, grandfather and uncles all worked down pit. Dad and I, for our sins, at Sherwood, Dad for most of his working life (excl army service ) on the face, me from school for 2 and a bit years as a supply lad, leaving in Dec '59 for a new life in the southwest.
Pride of place in my house now, 2 working safty lamps and a Sherwood commemorative plate.
Dad only lived a few years following the forced early retirement scheme but he was very proud of his pit, its records and achievements. A visit back home to Mansfield is getting a little less often, and with Sherwood along with so many other pits just a piece of wast land, or super market its getting harder to pass on what is part of my family history to the younger ones.
Again many thanks, and keep up the good work.
Tony Dove

Life on the central mines rescue station Ashby de la Zouch Leicestershire.

I left Bretby colliery to become a brigadesman at Ashby Central Rescue Station from 1958 to 1969. There were seven men and three officers when I started, rising to nine men, then to ten men when we received an emergency winder. The emergency winder was kept in a garage at Measham Minorca. It weighed over forty tons and was only allowed to travel at 12 miles an hour. Besides the driver a further brigadesman had to travel in the trailer which housed the twin Rolls Royce engine power pack, so that he could signal to traffic to overtake when the road was clear, or to stop traffic to enable our vehicle to turn round awkward road junctions.
During a week of 168 hours we only received an average of 42 hours leave the rest was N.C.B s. However we were given five weeks holiday per year.
Our wages paid us the princely sum of two shillings and sixpence per hour. We also received a house rent free, eight tons of coal per annum free and a uniform measured and supplied by Montague Burton each year. I could go on for ages about life on the station but being a complete novice with computers I am very slow with my two seventy two year old fingers.
Nice conversing with you.
Regards
Mick Jeavons

Hi there, or should I say 'ey up youth'
enjoyed your web page, as an Cotmanhay lad and ex u/g mech fitter at Moorgreen Colliery now living in Suffolk
I will send you reminiscences and drawings of my experience of the mining industry, please be patient as I am a little slow of the mark.
cheers for now
Tony Cox

My first job in the pit was as a ganger (pony driver) I worked in mining between 1966 and 1989. My father was hosler at Bentick Pit in the 60s. If there is any help I can furnish I'm more than happy.

Les Cooper

Just a snippet of information for you about the 1973 Markham disaster. My father lost a cousin in the cage, Charlie Palmer. I can confirm that the windingman never spoke again. We were a Codnor/Ripley/Golden Valley mining family, (on both sides); my father, Edwin 'Ted' Sharp, working at Britain and other pits. He started as a boy, working ponies, and then clipping tubs on, eventually becoming a steelchecker. He left the pits after developing chronic conjunctivitis. My elder brother, Michael, was employed at the No. 5 Area Laboratories, Eastwood, on air analysis. Two other uncles, Herbert 'Bill' Frost and Peter Nicklin, were union stalwarts.

My uncle Walter Sharp, was the very last person to work on the Ormonde Colliery site. After recovery of machinery, and capping of the shafts, he was employed as a night-watchman, complete with Alsatian, a very friendly bitch called Bess, who might have licked intruders to death!

Sadly, all my uncles and Dad are long gone, and I now live in the USA

Ross Sharp

Just to let you know the mentioned charlie palmer in the article by ross sharp wasnt killed in the cage in the 1973 markham disaster but was killed in the feb of 74 in a collapse at makham.he was my father.if it is possible to contact the ross sharp please do so as i have a photo of his father as a child with my grandad.
thanks
gavin palmer

Dear sir,
I worked at Hucknall No 2 colliery up until it closed in 1986, and worked on both k32s and k33s both of which had sandstone intrusions at some time or another on them, the management at a very high level(London) knew that these two faces would thin out and run into trouble the further we went on that side of the workings, infact they used to phone every day from London(Hobart House) to see what problems we were encountering, obviously they didn't want miners killed for there decision to open that side of the workings up, old miners told us young lads that they were the worst conditions they had ever seen or worked in, the dust from the double headed sheerer when going through the sandstone was unbelievable, and so was the extreme heat, but we endured it, because some of us knew they were trying to close the colliery, and the effects on the wider community would be catastrophic, why else would they deliberately take two out of three working faces into the bad working side of the pit. On the North East, and East sides of the mine there were plenty of mineable reserves, in fact I was working a heading when the closure decision was taken, that was 8 foot thick with coal, and we had the first 4 face supports on, we could have gone to Skeggy with that one. The older guys were bribed with redundancy payments to close the mine in a ballot, my point is that a political decision at the very top, closed Hucknall colliery not the geology or the miners themselves, Hucknall was the first casualty of the Tory closure programme after the miners strike of 84-85. With Thatcher signing the European Emissions deal and her party's hatred of the miners, there fate was sealed.
Keep ya powder dry serry.

I must explain about keeping your powder dry though, when I first started at Hucknall in 1976 there were a lot of old miners 65 years old still working underground, some still on face work, the experience they passed onto us as trainees was invaluable, when changing shifts we would very often meet the afternoon shift or night shift underground at some point, some of the older guys had the saying , meant as a greeting as well, ''allright serry, keep yer powder dry''wich could either mean keep your snuff tin dry, or your explosives bag, which were in a locked leather barrel bag, in the past the explosives would have been gunpowder, to get this wet would mean a fine or the sack, and the very least loss of wages if you didn't have enough powder to blow the workings down to advance the face, on the down side, it could mean having to re bore your holes adjacent to the ones you already have packed with powder and detonators which wasn't a task for the faint hearted, a drill bit in the new hole hitting a detonator in the previous one could result in fatalities, it was common to see old miners with powder burns ingrained in there faces as black powder marks because of shot firing accidents.
Anyway I could write a book on the subject, but must get some work done.

Ian Morrison