fleetwood Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I went to Owler Lane Secondary Modern School (posh name for a school who's students couldn't pass 11+ exams in anyway shape or form). * I would have been around 14yrs old and in the last year of school when we went on a field trip to a coalmine, who thought this one up, I could'nt tell you. * I've forgotten the name of the mine, we went by city transport with the teacher holding all the bus tokens, I often wonder did we have to have letters of consent from our parents and whether we were told to wear old clothing, that wouldn't have mattered really all our clothing was old anyway. * We did wear the helmet and lamp and proceeded to the cage, was I scared, probably not, maybe apprehensive and bit excited I suppose. * Cannot remember if the teacher went down with us or whether we were in the sole custody of a mine official. * All I do recall was that we were in very very narrow tunnels and they were getting smaller with moving wagons on one side, until at some point could not fully stand up. * It gets worse and before I continue, this is the Gods honest truth, I'm not a liar, if it sounds like a far fetched tale, it isn't. * If! if anything might have happened like somebody getting run over or some other problem or heaven forbid a major disaster of some description, how would the papers have read 'twenty school children hurt and trapped in mine.' * There's almost a comical aspect to this story and one has to say 'what were they thinking?' * This was not your highly mechanized mine because I remember rounding a corner and there were men working at the face with pneumatic drills, yes schoolkids at the coal face and this smart little bugger asking the man 'mester could I have a try?' and him letting me, I kid you not. * Heaven only knows what kind of state we were in when we arrived home, the weekly bath took on a whole new meaning I'll bet. * The teacher insisted we write 'thank you' letters to the Mine Deputy for all his time and trouble. * I have often wondered if it all might have been some job promotion thing, we were a mixed class at school but cannot truly remember if any girls were with us on that field trip, I kind of think not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebourg50410 Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Same here. 14 yrs old a group of boys got taken from MG school down Brookhouse pit. Despite family being in mining it convinced me not to take that option on leaving school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleetwood Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Same here. 14 yrs old a group of boys got taken from MG school down Brookhouse pit. Despite family being in mining it convinced me not to take that option on leaving school Hi lebourg50410 - You have to hand it to the men who worked the mines for a living, we would all have been in a sorry state without them that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebourg50410 Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Great respect for them. Salt of the earth miners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hardie Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 My school trip was to Manvers Main. A thousand feet under I think they said. They did kit us out with overalls and boots though as well as helmet and lamp. I also recall a trip around Hadfields and a three day course at Daniel Doncasters, the main memory of which was the toast and dripping morning tea breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleetwood Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 My school trip was to Manvers Main. A thousand feet under I think they said. They did kit us out with overalls and boots though as well as helmet and lamp. I also recall a trip around Hadfields and a three day course at Daniel Doncasters, the main memory of which was the toast and dripping morning tea breaks. Hi Jim Hardie - A trip to the Co-op dairy and I think we got a free little bottle of milk, they tried to educate us though didn't they? * Now, schoolkids listening to props straining, dodging equipment and horse manure down a pit, that's something else, I think the jury's got to be out on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 During the last few months at Burngreave in '47-'48 there was a few trips for the pupils in their final year. One of them was to the National Coal Board's permanent exhibition and recruiting center on West Bar. The general idea, I imagine, was to get a few suckers to sign up to a career in mining when they left school. Back at school the following day we had a period having to answer questions on the visit and to give, verbally, our impressions of life down the pit. I was one of the lucky ones who got to stand up, go to the front of the class and say what the visit meant to them. As I'd been mucking about as usual, being chosen was a way the teacher was going to get his own back. I didn't last long out there because I wasn't expecting it and I said the first thing that came into my head. I said the visit and trip into the mocked up mine tunnel and coal face was like a 'trip on the ghost train at Owlerton Fairground'. The remark got me a lot of sniggers and more or less broke up the question session. It also got me another visit to Scowcroft's office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleetwood Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 Nice one Texas, nearest to coal you wanted was stoking it into a steam engine, if your 'posts' are anything to go by. But thank heaven for Diesel/Electric eh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 Slightly moving off the original subject of coalmines, did anyone get taken on any other school trips? From Burngreave we went to Parkgate Iron & Steelworks; Post Office Telephone Exchange in Fitzalan Square; Dixons silver smelters down Neepsend; I forget their proper name, the 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition (in a series of railway carriages on Victoria Station; and another exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The trips all came under the blanket heading of 'Social Studies', we had to write about the trip and sometimes speak about our impressions so we didn't just have a time p*****g about, mind you, I tried my best. They were all memorable in their way. On the Victoria and Albert jaunt me and another kid, name of Jackson Horrocks, managed to find our way behind the scenes, so to speak. All the original exhibits in the museum had been stowed away behind closed doors but we found a way in. I have this memory of Jack trying to play 'Honky Tonk Train Blues' on a spinet that hadn't been played since about 1600. All the feathers were shot so all we got were little puffs of dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lebourg50410 Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 Yeah I remember the dairy trip and I think a trip to Gunstons bakery. The highlight though was some kids getting taken round the sewerage works ( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.