Recommended Posts

  • Replies 124
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Back in my Narrow boating days, when I could afford a beard..

Neither have I Fynger

Don't they look like they've been to an audition for a new version of the Village People?

I grew my first one (Tache) back in the 80s, because everybody had one,(Even my birds, I've got to check up on that, is Eric a girls name?) I suppose we were all saying "Look at me, I'm a man!"

Then I tried a beard towards the end of the decade, but it came out ginger, so it didn't last long, I finally grew another full set when I knew I was off on a three day deep sea fishing trip in November 2011?. Anybody who knows me on Facebook will see that on my profile picture. That came off after Christmas that year, the only real reason being it tickled and irritated my nose.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 years later...

Had beards on and off for years. When I didn't have a beard I only shaved a couple of times a week.Then when I got a 'collar and tie' job, I found that daily shaving started a shaving rash which nothing would cure. Antibiotics, creams, potions etc, changing blades, soaps and so on.. Nothing cured it. I'd be clean shaven at 8:00 a.m and my chin would be 'zit city' by 10:00.  So, I grew a beard and have kept it since. I keep it short though.

 

A few times I've had wise guys in the pub asking 'Do you have a beard to try to make you look intelligent?'  I've been known to reply, 'Do you shave your face to make you look thick?'

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I grew my first beard out of frustration when I worked at Boulby Potash mine, It was either five o clock shadow or pure torture at work.

You don't realize that when shaving you remove a layer of skin, very thin, but a layer. Once I started sweating underground and the salts in the ore from the mineral we were mining combined, it was like using a continuous application of after shave lotion, multiplied by ten!

So beards were the fashion at Boulby. Everyone from Whitby to Middlesbrough knew with fair accuracy that usually a bearded man probably worked at Boulby.

It's been shaven off about three times in the last 42 years, but it's here to stay now.

Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Ayupmeducks said:

I grew my first beard out of frustration when I worked at Boulby Potash mine, It was either five o clock shadow or pure torture at work.

 

On Friday I was chatting to an American couple in the pub and he said that as a young man he worked at Boulby before emigrating. I mentioned that i knew of someone that had also worked there, he worked there early sixties and was known as big red he stood at over 6ft with a red beard. I never asked how long he worked there but if you had crossed paths I think you would have remembered.   He still had his beard but no longer red, when I read your post I though what an odd coincidence.

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

If he was there in the early sixties, he'd have been on site clearance, shafts weren't sunk until around 69. When I started, No1 shaft hadn't been completed very long, and was having the steelwork installed for the skipping plant. That was early 1975.

All the surface works were complete, offices, mine services, processing plant, which was operational, rail loading. But we were only just developing the Underground workings. Full production started around August of 75.

Again when I started, there were around 1000 men employed underground working four shifts, plus contractors. Some 350 to 400 on the surface.

With the shift system we worked, it was impossible to know everyone, union meetings held once a month gave me a chance to meet the rest of the electrical staff, and later when I took over as central and ore handling electrician underground, with unlimited overtime, I got to know a fair few of the other shifts by covering them on overtime.

Shifts were "A", "B", "C" and "D", we rotated through a complicated 8 hour shift system 7 days a week. The only time the plant closed down was Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Other than those two days, the rest of the year was normal working. We got paid double time, or treble time, or double and a day off in lieu for public holidays, I carried the days off in lieu to my annual leave time.

There's a Boulby Mine group on FB, one of the "old" hands posted a lot of rare photos of the site, before and during the site clearance. I found other photos on line of the shaft collars being excavated, collars being poured with concrete and start of shaft sinking. Some other photos show the winding engines being installed, No2, 3,500HP and No1, 7000HP, both high voltage DC motors, and winding engine halls being built around them.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Quite a few I worked with ended up migrating, one elec to Canada, my elec Engineer ended up in Queensland, Australia and retired from the Mines Inspectorate, two miners I worked with who hailed from Kellingley ended up back in coal mining in Canada, "C" shift mining supervisor to South Africa, his replacement migrated to Australia, where he was the Under Manager of a Colliery I ended up at for a few years.

Link to post
Share on other sites

No problems Gem, Staithes was just a couple of hundred yards south of Boulby's main gate, one of "C" shifts Banksmen lived there and was a volunteer lifeboats man, one of the miners I worked with lived there too. I lived at Loftus, couple of miles north.

 

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Daily Mail?  Must be true then.  :rolleyes:

 

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

And to elaborate.....  without even reading the DM drivel (How do I know it's drivel if I haven't read it?  Simple.. it's in the DM!! ) .. It's well known that we all carry bacteria on our skin, on our hair, in our guts, in our noses, ears  etc.,etc., which have the potential to turn very nasty in certain circumstances.  So.. as ever, by careful distortion, omission and innuendo, the DM has performed its usual stunt of delivering fake news designed to target a social group.. in this case, wearers of beards.

 

I was going to say 'You couldn't make it up'.. But the DM can.. and frequently does.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Tell him you know everything then Lizzie  :yahoo:

Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't really care what grows in a blokes beard - I'm not going anywhere near them...   ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think beards are an affectation but currently they seem to be fashionable. Even my own son has recently grown one of which I strongly disapprove. An electric razor for his imminent birthday I think. The Lord Jesus had a beard though, so who I am to criticise?  

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...