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I have a group photo of National Coal Board Trainee's, that includes my brother, at Hucknall pit in 1957 but I don't know where to put it (steady). If anyone's interested in it then let me know which topic I should enter it into please.

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Couple of Pit banners,seen at Caphouse colliery     Rog

Annesley Pit taken from the Frogs Head 

I lived at 51 Byron Street, Red.  Just out of shot on your Annesley pit photo.  There was no flag on the upcast headgear when I worked, sorry - Wokt there.

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May be cause for a new Forum Catagory "Nottingham Industries"?

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Portland Road College, annex for Arnold and Carlton Tech College, I did my first year week about with the training centre up Watnall Road "top pit" as an apprentice elec with the NCB.

Another two prefab building's were in front of those when I was there in 1964, one housed the machine shop on the right section and a classroom where we did mining science maths etc and one behind we took tech drawing and mining legislation etc.. Mr Moxon took us for a fair few subjects, another was an retired Mine Manager who took us for legislation, and the feller who took us for workshop was a feller who used to work at Metal Box, I think he went back there.

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I was there in 67/68 as an apprentice electrician too but I can't remember any of the teachers' names. I was also at Top Pit training section where I learnt how to strip and service cutting machines. One in particular was a bally nuisance - the Samson undercutter.

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I ended my NCB career in 1969 after near three years. The coal dust was getting to my lungs so itook the only opportunity I could undder the circumstances - I joined the RAF as a trainee technician and took my papers before demob.

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I took the advice and wore a dust mask most of the time when in faces or development headings. My lungs are pretty clean, at least that's what my X rays show, I also had to have medicals every two years when I worked in the NSW coal industry, they were mandatory, no medical, find another job, it was the law.

Oddly enough, the Australian coal industry seems to be pretty free of pneumoniconiosis, (sp) not sure why, but the majority of face workers did use dust masks and the company's encouraged us to wear them at all times...

I did my surface and underground training at the "top pit" plus all the advanced apprentice training sessions, but had to go to Bentinck Colliery training centre for my final practical tests. I think the "top pit" had been closed completely by 1968.

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I have never worked at a pit but if I had then I would have always used a facemask. I've seen photos and film clips about the pits and saw the miners coming out of the cages with black faces. To not use a facemask, or dust mask, is just bravado and stupid and they couldn't complain if they got.....that long word that Ayupmeducks wrote,... and it's nice to see that Ayupmeducks is healthy after working on the coal face.

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MY DAD STARTED DOWN THE PIT GEDLING IN 1918 AGE 14 YEARS NO MASKS IN THOSE DAYS HE RETIRED 1974 AND DIED AGED 82 IN 1989 PNEUMONICONIOSIS CAUSE OF DEATH. HE WAS ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES FROM THAT ERA DID NOT REACH 70 YEARS OLD I AGREE THOSE WHO HAD MASKS AND DID NOT WERE THEM PLAIN STUPID BUT THE FUNNY THING IS MANY OF THE YOUNGER MEN GOT MUCH BETTER COMPENSATION AFTER CLAIMING THAN THE OLD GUYS OR THERE FAMILIES MY NIECES PARTNER DOWN THE PIT THREE YEARS GOT OVER 20 THOUSAND , WHEN WE MADE OUR CLAIM FOR DAD AFTER OVER FIFTY YEARS DOWN THE PIT BECAUSE HE HAD ALREADY DIED LIKE MANY OF HIS GENERATION WE GOT 6 THOUSAND POUNDS A MERE PITANCE CONCIDERING WHAT HE SUFFERED BEFORE HE DIED , BUT HE WAS A PROUD MAN AND WOULD NOT EVEN HAVE APPLIED FOR COMANSATION IF HE HAD LIVED LONG ENOUGH.

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Ayupmiducks: Top Pit was just a training centre and an emergency shaft in 1967. The canteen was still open and they made welcome hot OXO drinks in winter.

From Moorgreen, Top Pit and the college training centre I moved on to Annesley.

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COMPO DAVE ALSO WORKED FOR TWO YEARS DOWN CLIFTON PIT 1963 TO 1965 HE HAD JUST COME OUT THE PIT WHEN I MET HIM HE ALSO JOINED THE AIRFORCE 1969 APRIL INTAKE ON TO ST ATHENS FOR HIS TRAINING IN AIRCRAFT ENGIENS WORKED MAINLY ON HURRICANES AND WAS ON PRINCE CHARLS INVESTITURE PARADEBEFFORE MOVEING ON TO LYNEHAM AND THEN TO BRUGGEN 1970 TO 1973 POSTED TO LINCOLNSHIRE FOR HIS LAST FEW MONTH DEMOBBED AFTER HIS 5 YEARS APRIL 1974.

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Ayupmiducks: teh spelling you are asking about is "Pneumoconiosis".

Babs: Was Dave at St Athan in early 1970, say Jan-Feb? I ask because after basic training at Swinderby a pal who's name I can't now remember but I have a photo of him somewhere, was posted there from mechanics training just after Xmas 1969.

Was Dave at Swinderby during November/December 1969? If so, what flight?

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Babs,

Just re-read your post and clearly Dave was at Swinderby a few months before me and he would probably have left St Athan before my mate arrived.

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Compo, Top pit ceased production in 1943 if my memory is correct, it carried on as men and materials for bottom pit and also had a timber treating plant for wood props, chocknogs and lagging boards.

It originally had a tandem headgear until one of the shafts was filled and capped, I don't know the date.

It then had one cage in the "downcast shaft" if I recall a four deck cage at that.

Hell they could have put a ladder down that shaft, it was pretty shallow...LOL You could see pit bottom lights if you leaned over the gate, there was also a furnace grate on the Hucknall side of the pit bank if you looked down, the inset was visible, it went back to before top pit had it's own ventilation fan, took out when the shaft was filled.

Another bit of info, it joined up with Babbington to form an emergency egress route, you could also ride down to bottom pit underground on a rope hauled manrider. Hucknall bottom pit was also linked to Linby and Bestwood, and I think Linby was linked to Annesley/Newstead and they linked up with Bentinck and a few other pits.

I served my apprenticeship at Clifton from, 1964 until closure, then was moved to Cotgrave, where I stayed until I'd completed my apprenticeship.

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One of the reasons a lot of miners wouldn't wear dust masks, was they were made of rubber back then and had replaceable cartridges. Lots of faces were pretty warm and if you were doing heavy work like shovelling out a stablehole or shovelling the rippings, they made you extremely uncomfortable, nothing worse than a rubber cup full of sweat on your face...LOL

Those were replaced years later with the lightweight paper type masks and the airflow full face helmets for shearer drivers.

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As late as 69 Annesley was still a stand alone pit. The 'Bentinck drift' from 22s district had been abandoned but I think it must have been in 1970 when it was reopened and connected to Bentinck. Annesely mined good quality soft coal from the 'Deep Soft' seam some 2000ft down. Our house coal came from the harder, more tarry Bentinck. I remember them drawing off Kirkby 'Summit' in '69 - I bought a cap lamp from them for 2/6! My wedding reception was held in the Underwood Miner's Welfare in 1969; it was terrible! Brinsley 'Bod-tod' pit was reduced to being a single shaft by the time I started at Moorgreen and I think it was used as an airway cum emergency exit for Moorgreen (might well be wrong there).

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The old top pit and Brinsley head stocks looked identical, in fact when I saw the old top pit photos I could have sworn I was looking at Brinsley, I have a few photos of both pits taken early 1900's.

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Please post your pictures Ayupmiducks. I have only one poor quality B&W photo of Annesely. Would be great to see the old pit heads again.

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My Grandfather(mothers dad) worked down Radford pit for most of it's working life.

Grandfather was born in 1887 & started work at the age of 12 and worked long after the age of 65.

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Bubblewrap: Member "Scooter Sam" was looking for some stuff about Radford Pit. I don't know if she still takes this group but her profile is still in the members list.

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I've had one hell of a time finding anything on Radford Colliery period! Ironically, I worked with some ex Radford electricians who were transferred to Wollaton after it's closure and then to Clifton after Wollatons closure.

I'm sure the City Archives will hold dozens of photos of all Nottingham Collieries from Bulwell to Gedling!

Radford was sunk with one shaft and a road driven through to Wollaton to comply with the M&Q Act, both collieries were owned by the same owner but run as two companies.

My personal website contains information on all Notts collieries, problem IS!! Since the host was bought out about two years back, the servers have been down more than they have been up, this time server box 5 has been down nearly three months!

I was reluctant moving to a new host as 110Mb is ad free and gave us 5Gb of storage space, quite a lot!! I have registered with another host, so just waiting for some time to start uploading files.

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1928 sounds about right, got it's name from the Duke of Newcastle who sunk and owned it. There were more than those, Strelley, Cinderhill, (NOT Babbington) it was north west of Babbington, then Turkey Fields in the same area, there was a Wollaton dated around 1750 or so to the west of the Wollaton we knew, it's shown as "possibly" mineworkings, on the abandonment plans.

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Thank you for that

As you my know I have quite a large collection of maps of the Nottingham area.

One map has 3 colliierys on it Brindsley, Plumptre (Closed 1912) & a small pit called Clinton which I believe only employed about a dozen men.

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