Queuing for Coalite at the Sheffield Canal

[tatty dumps]

No, Albert, I can't remember any tea or coffee handouts - perhaps it was because we were just kids, plus the fact that we were trying to pass unnoticed and keeping our heads down. I can vaguely remember the fire.

[nanrobbo]

I remember queuing for coal, with Mam, at what I think was the Corn Exchange- my memory tells me that the building had no windows- could that be correct? I'd say this was about 1943/44.

[hazel]

I too remember queueing for coal ---I think I took my dads place in the queue while he had a break,

I seem to remember it was somewhere near where the magestrates court is now.

Or I might be mixing it up with queuing for coach tickets to Blackpool for Shefield holiday weeks which seemed just as vital at the time

 

hazel

[warday]

Did Northern Strip Mining do the opencast working that took place on the Handsworth side, between Handsworth and the M1 in the early days of the then newly open Parkway? Thank you.

 

Yes there cleard the old nunnery site between handsworth & catcliffe & cleard the coking plant at handsworth N.S.M was a company that Burnett & Hallemshire started, just a small company at the time, B/H turned it into a multy million pound business, clearing colliery sites & land there had contracks all over the U/K & abroad my cousin was the transport manager for 4-5 yrs at that time.I was a driver for B/H at the time driving the bulk tipper lorries from collierys to power stations this was in the late 50s & early 60s.

[Kidorry]

We went to the gasworks at Neepsend and Brightside with an old pram.I never felt underpriveledged because we were all the same.

[madsteve7]

[someone did mentioned to me that it was transported up the Sheffield Canal on the Barge named the Ethel. But where did the coalite come from.}

 

Coalite was produced by Coalite at the Bolsover, Chesterfield, and Grimesthorpe, Barnsley, plants.

 

It was probably brought in by rail in the 1940's / 50's.

[cuttsie]

[someone did mentioned to me that it was transported up the Sheffield Canal on the Barge named the Ethel. But where did the coalite come from.}

 

Coalite was produced by Coalite at the Bolsover, Chesterfield, and Grimesthorpe, Barnsley, plants.

 

It was probably brought in by rail in the 1940's / 50's.

Ethel is still around and now used as a community barge.

 

 

 

Any coal from the Chesterfield area would not come in by barge as the Chesterfield canal would only have narrow boats .

For these craft to reach Sheffield they would have to go out onto the Trent at Stockworth take the tide to Keadby and then navigate the Keadby to Sheeffield canal this would have taken up to three days at least .

 

The war time coal into Sheffield basin would be from the Barnsley, Doncaster and Wakefield pits The Sheffield canal barges where 61ft 6 ins long by 15ft 6 ins wide.

Some of those boats would be worked twenty four hours a day and are still around today.

[Earsham]

I remember my dad going to Brightside with an old pram to get coke , my brother and I would also go and shovel up the dust and bag it up. Hard times but good times.

[Minimo]

My dad nearly ended up in gaol, all for a bit of coal. In 1947 we were a family of three kids, plus mum and dad shivering in the post-war hard times. Dad went to the side of the railway, where he was picking up bits of coal on the embankment. A police sergeant spotted him and arrested him. Very luckily for us all, someone at the police station had a heart, and let him go with a stern warning.

[Jon26]

I remember my dad going to Brightside with an old pram to get coke , my brother and I would also go and shovel up the dust and bag it up. Hard times but good times.

 

My grandad (born 1907) used to tell me about when as I young boy he and a friend used to dig for coal in a seam his dad had told them about. He lived on Ditchingham Road at the time (previously lived on Earsham St). Previous generations had been colliers at Brightside Colliery so its plausible that they had this knowledge.

 

They had a barrow and went round the houses selling it until some men took it off them in the depression. He started his apprenticeship in 1921 so I assume this would be around 1918. Hard times indeed, but times which have generated many opportunities for future generations.