Hucknall pit

[Blondie 1,392]

I can remember the Bedstead being built in the 1960's when all the old shops and houses around Byron Street and Truman Street were being pulled down,....................A friend of ours Vic Dawes used to run the place year ago...................Cannot imagine a Co-op being put there, I thought all the co-ops had disappeared.....................

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

I've not read all the posts on this thread.

But wasn't there two collieries at Hucknall plus the one just to the north at Lindy?

[catfan 14,793]

Hucknall 1 & 2 plus Linby.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Yes. Hucknall No1 Watnall Road, 2 shafts sunk 1861 ceased winding coal 1943. Hucknall No2 Portland Road (I believe) sunk 1865/66 ceased 1986 when they lost a face for some reason.

I don't know much about Linby except there was a pit there, spoil heaps are on the left hand side as you leave Linby heading toward the Annesley bypass.

[Blondie 1,392]

Hucknall no 1 and 2 known as the Top Pit and the Bottom Pit.......Linby Pit was close by, my dad and brother worked there............. I was born and grew up in Hucknall from 1945 - 68.......great place to live back then.................

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

It was a nice place in the early 60's, I did my basic training at top pit and 1st year at tech at the tech college on Portland Road, part of Arnold and Carlton College.

[banjo48 928]

After my electrical apprenticeship finished, I worked at Gedling Colliery for 2 years as a trainee MechElec, did my face training at Hucknall too I think. Would be in the late 60's.

Also did a year at Arnold & Carlton college as part of my basic training in the mining game.

Had to give it away (the pit) as it was affecting my health making my asthma worse so then joined the Post Office as a Technician.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

The Hucknall training centre was closed by 1968, as we had to go to Bentinck Colliery Training centre for our practical trades test. Our intake were the first intake to take the test, which became mandatory, either pass or never get tradesman's full pay.

During our second year they got us to do a mock annual trades practical test to try the new annual practical test out.

The reason for the tests was due to the fact the NCB were getting too many "lame duck" electricians and fitters, academically fine, but practical, useless.

When I worked at Boulby, most of the electrical staff and fitting staff were ex NCB, we had one new electrician join our shift and he broke down under production pressures, he had several breakdowns. How he'd managed to pass his practical test I have no idea, but our boss had to ask him to resign, he was a danger to himself and all around him.

[Blondie 1,392]

Ayupmeducks - You probably know my older brother, he did his training at Hucknall in the early 60's - (was born March 1944) he was an Electrician at Linby Pit and was called Pat Housley...........

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

If he was born in 44, he was three years before me, I started with the NCB in early 1964, half way through the academic year, so my first year was really just over 6 months and had to catch up with the rest of the class. I was luckt to have been accepted as I was 16 1/2, but had been attending a class for contracting electricians apprentices, so I assume the NCB accepted that course.

No I only studied along side one lad from Linby and one from bottom pit, and they were one year younger than myself, don't ask me their names, been almost 50 years now...LOL

[mercurydancer 1,104]

I recall Hucknall pit from a different angle - there was a pitched battle between the cops and the miners in 1984. I was heading home to Selston from Nottingham when I was blocked from going further on, I could see the Byron picture house in the distance. Couldn't go back either. Stuck for about half an hour, but with some bricks being thrown and not wanting to be anything to do with it.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

We only knew about the strike by the Australian media and our unions, we had a "big strike" in the 80's, but far from the one year the NCB lads had, ours was a couple of months and was ended by court intervention. It started by us lads with a company called AI&S who locked us out of work. The other lads in the other pits across NSW and Queensland walked out in sympathy. Luckily the public and media were behind us 100%.

Had it not been for the fact the power stations had almost run out of coal, we would still be locked out.

AND, we didn't have scabs, to be a scab in Oz at that time.....well I won't go into that here, but I will say, they would never have found work anywhere in Oz.

[Annesley Red 80]

I can remember the Bedstead being built in the 1960's when all the old shops and houses around Byron Street and Truman Street were being pulled down,....................A friend of ours Vic Dawes used to run the place year ago...................Cannot imagine a Co-op being put there, I thought all the co-ops had disappeared.....................

I worked with Vic Dawes at Newstead he liked a pint back then,never imagined him the other side of the bar

[Blondie 1,392]

It was a nice place in the early 60's, I did my basic training at top pit and 1st year at tech at the tech college on Portland Road, part of Arnold and Carlton College.

My brother Pat Housely did his training then at those places, he left school in 1959.....he was an Electrician at Linby Pit until it closed down.........

[Blondie 1,392]

I worked with Vic Dawes at Newstead he liked a pint back then,never imagined him the other side of the bar

He was in Double Glazing in Hucknall before he went into the Pub Business....He was called KLG Glass on Station Terrace, that is the Terrace I grew up on in the 50's/60's.....He also worked at the Central Club Hucknall in his later years.............

[colly0410 1,181]

I was on the locos down Hucknall pit, a phone was ringing & I answered it, it was the pit bottom deputy, he said "have you seen that little so-&-so Colly?" (he used a rude word) I said "no I haven't!" (Bit of quick thinking there you see) He said "when you see him tell him I going to wring his so-&-so neck!" I said "OK I will" & hung up. I kept out of his way for the rest of the shift & to this day I still don't know what I'd done wrong, lol..

[Brew 5,408]

Linby had a steam engine for the shafts. anyone know what happened to it? It would be a shame if it was scrapped.

[Oztalgian 3,270]

Brew

Markham and Co of Chesterfield built many steam winders for the pits in the Notts and Derby coalfields. Linby may have been one of those.

You should be able to see one at the old Pleasley Colliery https://www.pleasleypittrust.org.uk/about

Unfortunately many of these beautiful living, breathing engines went to the scrap yard in the sky.

[Brew 5,408]

Thanks for the link. I've found the engine at Papplewick pumping station and have copy/pasted from the 'net. Glad it didn't go for scrap.

 

This engine came from the nearby Linby Colliery. The Winder was manufactured  by Robey & Co. of Lincoln in 1922 and was erected on Linby Colliery No. 2 Shaft to lift coal. It was used until December 1982, when It was replaced by an electrical driven winder in 1982.

The  Winder consists two steam engines, Nos. 40542 and 40543. They each have a cylinder bore of 24" and a stroke of 40", working on a steam pressure of 120 lbs. sq. in., and exhausting to the atmosphere. Producing  about 900 break horse power when winding coal. Steam is admitted and exhausted via Robey Patent Drop Valves. The two engines are connected to the Winding Drum that is 6' wide and  9' diameter. This acts as a combined Crankshaft and Flywheel with a total weight of 24 tons. The engine could operate up to a maximum rope speed of 32' per second, raising 4 tons of coal per wind in an automatically operated skip giving a maximum capacity of 300 tons of coal per hour, from a depth of nearly 450 ft. During its working life the Winder raised over 40,000,000 tons of coal.

After being rebuilt and housed at Papplewick with the generous assistance of British Coal, the engine was restarted by Mr. Ken Moses, Deputy Chairman of British Coal, at a ceremony held on 21st August 1990. It  is believed to be the only steam winding engine that is in use and powered  by steam, in the UK at the moment.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I used to sail radio controlled model steam boats at Papplewick, good day out if your interested in steam and engineering.

[colly0410 1,181]

I was on the belt staff down Hucknall pit: Someone had put a jack on the bottom belt of the Black Shale seam to Deep Soft seam drift conveyor belt & it'd jammed in the return end, we reversed the belt & it un-jammed & all was well. We decided to make a bottom belt plough so it didn't happen again. We found some angle iron & started to make the plough. Now common sense tells you to stop the drift belt while making the plough, but none of us had any common sense that day & we left the belt running, we lost control of the angle iron & it went into the return end ripping a gash 20 odd feet long before we could stop the belt. The overman (gaffer) went beserk & ranted & raved for 20 mins threatening to sack the lot of us, I didn't help the situation by bursting out laughing...

[colly0410 1,181]

On 4/5/2010 at 6:38 PM, plantfit said:

Don't know whether this is good new or not but, up at Cap house colliery (national coal mining museum) they are having meetings about using the pumped water from the mine to create energy, they say they pump over a million gallons of "warm" water from the mine either each day or each week to keep the mine open, some boffin from Holland say's it's possible to turn that water to good use by providing heating for the museum giving them a saving of around £100.000 per year, if successful it could be that all the old mines could be pumped that way giving them a new lease of life but in a different form to what we know.

Info from Radio 4 this afternoon on me way to Nottingham

Rog

 

The water & everything else down Caphouse pit was flipping freezing when I went down, it was 11 Celsius. Hucknalls number 3 & 4 downcast shatf pit bottoms were colder in middle of winter, but when you went through some air doors on to the return it was lovely & warm. When I went through the pit bottom air doors from the intake to the return down Caphouse New Hards seam it was still as cold as the intake.... Down Hucknall Deep Soft seam all the trades pit bottom offices were on the return & nice & warm, all except the belt staffs office/cabin which was on the intake & flipping cold. Where the return roadways for the Deep Soft & Black Shale drift diverged there was a cross-cut between them, it was lovely & warm & cozy in there & that's where I used to go for a skive when I was on the loco's, lol...

[colly0410 1,181]

Was on the belt staff down Hucknall pit...... I was sent to the pit bottom to collect a length of chain & a flight for a panzer & take it to K6's face main gate lip as the face was standing, they'd be belt staff waiting for me there. So off I went with them down the drift to the Black Shale seam where K6's face was. When I got to K6's main gate junction the K6's main gate belt was running & discharging coal onto the east intake drift belt, I asked the belt button man if the face had been standing? He said "no, it's been coaling for ages, they don't mean A'6's face do they?" I phoned K6's main gate lip & there were no belt staff there. I got on the drift belt (it was a legal manriding belt) & asked the button man to throw the chain & flight on the belt a few yards behind me. I finally got to A6's main gate lip in the Deep Soft seam covered in sweat & there were the belt staff lads waiting for me, the overman praised me for my effort, I didn't admit my trip to K6's to them, lol.... 

 

At the time there were 3 working faces with a 6 in them = A'6's & B'6's in the Deep Soft seam & K6's in the Black Shale seam, there was always confusion between them till A6's & B6's were worked out & abandoned & the Deep Soft seam was sealed off & all workings were then in the Black Shale seam only till the pit shut... 

[Brew 5,408]

Hucknall pit was the bain of any coal hauliers life. Start of the day shift was around 6 ish and there was, if you were lucky, enough coal in the hoppers for about 3 trucks. The washers broke down with monotonous regularity and they went to 'run-a -mine'. Not sure what it meant or where the name came from but basically coal could not go through the washers and went to a heap. Often times I've had trucks stand all day and not be loaded.

 

Hucknall bath house also imported coal from Linby, their own coal was 'the wrong coal' for the boilers and the steam winder engine apparently.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

"Run Of Mine" is the raw coal from U/G not washed, contains the rippings (dirt) as well as coal, you needed "finished product".