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Miner's Accounts of Life Dahn t' pit
Miners Case Study - Bernard Kenney
Miners Case Study - Trevor Eager
History of The Pit
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Miners Case Study - Trevor Eager
Location: Bradford
"In doing my apprenticeship in the fifties I had experience of every department. Fred Knox was one of the leading lights when I was there. As a man in the mining industry he was unique because he had a manner that you didn't expect from people working in that industry. He was polite, and gentle and I always felt in awe of him.
"Gomersal pit was right at the edge of the coal field. It had two major shafts to the coal seams. When I started there was only one seam - the Beeston seam which was 120 yards deep and they then opened up another one which was 60 yards from the surface.
“When they opened that seam they had to build a drift - a tunnel - which went down at an angle to join the two coal seams together. It was the last seam they ever did in this area. The coal was difficult to get, it was so near the surface.
"There was a part that Fred Knox used to run - the north west part of the colliery which was the most productive part of the pit. Another part ran from Gomersal right down past Drighlington and was called the Main East and there was more water in that area than there was coal. They pulled out more tons of water per shift than coal.
"We were pushing the limits of how much we got out. It was 27ins thick and because it was so difficult men were allowed to go down there wearing waterproofs.
"Normally a man would have a length of coal 15 yards to fill onto a conveyor belt, but there they would only have seven to eight yards. They had special dispensation to come out because they were so wet and the conditions were so difficult for them to work in.
"The coal in the East used to be conveyed on a rope system where the coal was filled into 15cwt tubs. It was a continuous rope system and the ropes went underneath the tubs. In the part where Fred worked it was over the top - it was completely different. The problem was that there weren't enough tubs in Gomersal and we used to be arguing who got them because demand for them was more than we had.
"When I started at Gomersal I lived at Dudley Hill in Bradford and would cycle to work. The pit operated a three shift system. The first was the night shift where they cut underneath the coal. When they made this cut, which was five feet deep, they would put a piece of wood underneath it to support the coal at intervals of 5 to 6ft. Someone would drill holes in it and then a shot firer would come along and blast the coal.
"The day shift would then come along and shovel the coal onto a conveyor belt which took the coal off the face onto another conveyor which would eventually fill the tubs. The afternoon shift would then move everything forward.
"We would work seven and a half hour shifts.
"The main roadways going towards the coal face were 8ft high and 12ft wide, but the seams themselves varied from 24 to 28ins high.
"When I was first there the pit had wooden props, wooden beams and wooden wedges. It was very primitive by other standards. The miners were equipped with a shovel and a pick and the coal was blasted down.
"Supplies to the coal face were taken in tubs which had to be pushed manually, and sometimes the men would hitch a ride on the tubs, which was against the rules.
"One of the other things about Gomersal was that every ton of coal was taken away by road which was a very expensive way of transporting it. The coal wagons would take 12-13 tons at a time; railway wagons carried more than that, but we didn't have a railway. It was taken to power stations. The power stations demanded they had 'dirty coal' and Gomersal coal was not particularly good quality coal.
"We then had to get rid of the rubbish. Most of that is down in the country park and a lot of it went to the Birkenshaw where they were making the new motorway.
Trevor Eager
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