Recommended Posts

Anyone who has information on Notts and Derbyshire pits, please email it to me with your full name so I can give you credit for the info.

I'm looking for family members/husband/brothers/friends stories, photos etc, anything to do with any pit period.

I'm rebuilding the Late Terry Blythes webpage within my own. Trouble is Terry was still gathering information before he passed on.

When I've completed this "little" time consuming project, I want to start on the Leicestershire coalfield and pits, then onto the other coalfileds.

So ANY history, stories, pictures etc will be most welcome.

Get in yer attics and sort through old diaries, photo albums, papers etc etc and get emailing them to me!

This is preserving our industrial heritage.

Thanks to all!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Awww c'mon! Notts must have had thousands of mineworkers and hundreds of thousands of relatives who had someone work at or in a pit somewhere!.

I'm after personal mining stories, history of collieries, photos etc, don't have to be Notts collieries.

I have over 50% of Terry Blythes material posted now, that's an awful lot of data, BUT, there are large gaps, ie, some of the pits, both Notts and Derbyshire, have no information yet.

I'm also planning ahead, I'm after anything coal mining wise for any pit or coalfield in Britain.

You can check out the progress at http://coalcollieryandmining.110mb.com/

Not all internal links work yet as I'm working daily on the site, check out the Terry Blythe section to see what I'm after, Im up to collieries beginnging with "R" today.

When done, this should be one of the best data bases for our coal mining history on the web.

Preserve history for future generations!

I forgot to mention, the site has no pesky ads or popups to distract!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ayup John,

Probably mentioned it before but there is/was a self published "book" called "Radford colliery the bread and herring pit" don't remember the author though, I think he did it all on his home PC and stapled all the pages together, fantastic read, unfortunately I lent my copy to someone and never saw it again, got it from that Nottingham book shop under the council house building

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the lads on here scanned and emailed that book to me Rog, as you say, great reading. I'm not sure if I dare use the book, it infringes copyright, I'd love the authors permission to use the book though.

Under US law, I can use part of the book, but not all. I don't like using someone elses material without the owners approval though, tends to be a bit rude!

But that's the sort of thing I'm looking for. Personal stories, colliery photos, old, new, surface, underground, doesn't matter. Newspaper articles, MUST HAVE the name of the paper and date if possible, so I can credit it, old NCB booklets, they produced tons, must be some out here!!

Best thing is for anyone who is unsure of what I'm after to visit the site, and check the "Terry Blythe" section.

There is one article by an old feller who worked his whole life at Ormonde Colliery, now that's "real history"!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I never knew the Notts pits, but in the Potteries we had Hem Heath and Florence - two really big workings and half the town worked in them. The other half worked in the pot banks, so at the end of the day, you'd see black guys - caked in coal dust cycling or walking home and white peeple covered in clay dust doing the same.

The pits were more than work, they were a way of life really and now they're recreation areas. I don't go back very often now, but when I do it is such a sad place. It's heart and soul have gone.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I too find it sad to see photos of once large pits I knew from my training days now gone Charlie.

Having spent most of my working days underground I'm trying to preserve those and others memories for future generations before we are all gone with those memories.

My first year at Tech with the Coal Board was just up the road from the concrete head towers of Hucknall number2 colliery. Week about with the training centre at the historic Hucknall number one pit. Not known to me at the time, just a couple of miles further up Watnall Road was the pit where D.H. Lawrence's Father worked and Lawrence was from.

And lets not forget Harold Larwood worked as a collier, lucky for us, his employer was a benevolent one! In fact we had several famous cricketers from the Notts coalfields.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I understand the preserving thing, but in my mind - maybe 'cos I'm getting old now - we ought to be able to preserve more than that. I grew up in a community with a sense of belonging, where everyone knew me and looked out for me - as well as everyone else. There was none of this driving about stuff - I walked to school sfe as houses, teachers hugged me if I tripped over and stuck a plaster on my knee. AND I got to play triangle in the school orchestra! The backs used to be bright with washing on the lines, steps were red leaded and the streets were clean. Not much in the way of aspiration, but to my mind a lot more happiness.

Now I live on a road of detached houses and I know the people across from me and on either side and that's about it. A friend (girl) of mine was attacked in town and no one - not one person stopped to help. I'm as much to balme as anyone - we've all retreated into our PCs, mobiles and wii fitness training programmes!

It seems to me we've lost a lot more than the pits in exchange for fitted carpets and the holiday abroad! But, I guess to the folks who've grown up with it, there's lots of stuff that I can't see and they're probably just as happy as we were - nearly!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Have you tried the National Coal Mining museum for England? they have massive archives, might be worth getting in touch with them

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

I might just send them a list of wants Rog.

I've a long way to go yet in getting all my material uploaded, 120mb only allow three files at once to upload and a file max size of one mb.

Link to post
Share on other sites
there is/was a self published "book" called "Radford colliery the bread and herring pit" don't remember the author though, I think he did it all on his home PC and stapled all the pages together

It would be great to see that?

When was it written, is the author stil with us?

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think he'd be about 60ish Mick, so would hazard a guess as yes. Well worth a read just for the history of living conditions during the early part of the 20th century of working folks in Nottingham.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

I finally got all the basic stuff up on the site under Terry Blythes. I still have to put lots of photos up, but having a well earned rest from text editing.

My eyes are now square!! I spent something like nine hours a day, spread out from early morning to when I went for a shower working on that material!

I'm rough draughting pages for a new section, and will be also sorting out a booklet that Shane Phillips kindly scanned and sent to me regarding the Blackshale seam at Cotgrave.

And thanks to Eric "AKA Limey", for a contribution he sent me that I'll be posting as soon as I can get around to it.

I may go ahead and edit the book, "Radford, The Bread and Herring Pit" Under US copyright laws I can post the book with a couple of pages removed on a "none for profit site" like mine. Who knows, it will give the author some free publicity!

Anyway, if anyone has ANY photos, family stories from ex pitmen send them to me to place on the site! All will be credited to whoever sends material.

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...