Coal Mining Prints - The Rose Bowl

Coal Mining Prints - The Rose Bowl41 x 51cm signed print "One question that is always asked when describing life down the pit is "Were there any toilets?" In a word, yes, they were called conveyor belts! There were chemical buckets but were few and far between and non near the coal face. However, at Usworth Colliery where most of us new recruits did our underground 16 weeks training course toilet facilities were marginally better. At the end of the week each group of trainee miners

Its Friday night

"Joe was on permanent nightshift

that froze up every Winter

a gentleman adjusts his swimming trunks and a mother tries to coax her off-spring to jump

If he nodded off he would lose his balance then jerk upright to regain his three legged stance and continue his vigil

and for me too

And thus they both

union militancy

the water squeezed from them between the wooden rollers of the mangle and then pegged to the clothes line in the back lane

His lamp had been dismantled and all parts set out systematically on the floor

Both cages can travel at around 30 feet per second

"In the 1800 & 1900s the men and boys of whole families worked down the same mine and when disasters occurred