Birley West Coal Mine

[jeanbrian]

WE HAVE SEEN MANY PHOTOS OF BIRLEY EAST BUT IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WITH ANY INFORMATION OR PHOTOS OF BIRLEY WEST THANKS:help:

[London]

I was a Bevin Boy '45 to '48 and we were "Trained" at Birley Pit. The walls and the ceiling of section where the training was carried out were whitewashed !!! A bit different from the Nunnery Colliery, Handsworth, where we were posted after "training". Gordon (Gee) Lee (and his band) used to play at the Abbetdale Cinema on Saturday nights was also a Bevin Boy at the same pit. Anyone still alive remember those days?

[LoopyLou]

I was a Bevin Boy '45 to '48 and we were "Trained" at Birley Pit. The walls and the ceiling of section where the training was carried out were whitewashed !!! A bit different from the Nunnery Colliery, Handsworth, where we were posted after "training". Gordon (Gee) Lee (and his band) used to play at the Abbetdale Cinema on Saturday nights was also a Bevin Boy at the same pit. Anyone still alive remember those days?

 

I hadn't heard of a pit at birley before but would love to know more - where was it ??

[cat631]

Like Jeanbrian, I have been unable to find a photo of Birley West but apart from Birley East Colliery there was another, Birley Vale Colliery. Vale and West were sunk in the 1850s and East near Woodhouse in 1887/9.

[London]

Hi. Loopy Lou. I do not remember where Birley Pit was located exactly. It was within daily commuting distance of Sheffield because I lived at home in Nether Edge and used the early tram (Millhouses to City centre) in the mornings to get there. I cannot remember if we were bussed from the city centre to the pit. When we were assigned to the Nunnery Colliery I took the 5 am tram to Fitzalan Sq & then the tram to Handsworth for the 6am shift, & vice versa back home. We were not given use of Bath House and Lockers for the first few months so we had to travel to & fro the pit, unwashed and sweaty, and in our working clothes - Pit Helmet, Clogs etc. Not a pretty sight. For a while I took sadistic delight in travelling home down stairs in the Nether Edge bus - much to the greatest disgust of all the posh ladies. I always had a double seat to myself! We did a few weeks working on the Pit-Top as part of the "training", endlessly heaving steel pit props from one place to another.When we were finally considered "pit-wise" we were assigned to work underground We were started as "locker boys" shunting coal tubs around near the pit bottom. Quite a dangerous job (well, they all were down there). Basically, to "brake" a rapidly moving run of coal tubs (full or empty) one had to throw the lockers through spokes of the wheels of a number of tubs. A "locker" was a steel rod, about 12 inches in length and 3/4 inches diameter, with one end curled in a circle (the handle). It was a mind concentrating job and after a few near catastrophic mishaps, and hopefully without serious injury , one learned the art of "lockering" very quickly. Eventually I was promoted to Pony Boy. Basically this was working with a pony pulling coal tubs to & fro the coalface along roadways about 4 feet and a bit high - so one was always half bending whilst working. My pony was called Powell and he knew more about what to do than I did. He never gave any trouble and I became quite attached to him, and sorry to part with when the time came. We did not have cap lamps. We had a bucket lamp, which in effect was acid battery in a steel case surmounted with a frosted glass encased light bulb, and giving a white light which enabled one to see about 5 feet max. It was heavy and hung from the belt and bruised the side of one's knees unmercifully. It also leaked acid. So you carried it as much as possible. After a year I was given the job of Rope runner and thus qualified for a Cap Lamp with a polished reflector enabling one to see hundreds of feet along the roadway - much like the beam of today's Mag-Lite torch. Some of the roadways were very long, maybe a mile or more from the Pit Bottom, and so were the steel ropes which were attached to the engine at one end, and round a pulley at the other.. A rope runner connected the ends of two steel ropes to the front and rear of a train of coal tubs. Having connected both ends of the ropes, the rope runner signalled the driver of the electric powered engine (a mile or so away) to start his engine turning to wind on whichever rope would pull the tubs in the right direction. The other rope, then pulled by the tubs would unwind freely from the engine. Thus to pull tubs in the opposite direction, the role of the engine winding & ropes would be reversed. Signalling was done by crossing the two wires, with a penknife, which stretched the whole length of the wall of the roadway to a battery and bell by the driver's controls. The driver would know what to do by the number of "rings of the Bell". To give one "Ring" the wires were crossed once. To give two "Rings" the wires were crossed twice, and so on and so on. The rope runner, who crouched on the end of the rope attached to the last coal tub, had to be alert and watch what the train of tubs all the way (hence the need for a bright long narrow beam lamp). If there was a derailment then he had to jump off and signal the engine driver to stop his engine almost instantly as the rail track could be torn up, pit props unseated etc etc. This was always a hazard when pulling relatively light empty tubs back to the coal faces. The coal tub train reached speeds of about 20 mph, which underground was very fast especially in a tunnel one mile + in length and 4 feet or so high! I ended my Bevin Boy "career" as a driver of a compressed air powered Engine. Not on the mile plus roadways, but on the steep angled 100's of yards long roadways (jinnys) running up/down between one coal seams which were one above the other. By the time the "training" was done in early 1945 the war in europe was over. My demob numbert was 64 and I got back into the open air in 1948, so to speak. None the worse for wear, a little wiser, and very respectful of coal miners. To my mind the hard working "shop" floor worker in any trade is the real celebrity, not those obscenely overpaid mindless entertaiment industry inhabitants that abound in the cacophonous media, and the spit ridden sports arenas.

[London]

Hi. Loopy Lou. I do not remember where Birley Pit was located exactly. It was within daily commuting distance of Sheffield because I lived at home in Nether Edge and used the early tram (Millhouses to City centre) in the mornings to get there. I cannot remember if we were bussed from the city centre to the pit. When we were assigned to the Nunnery Colliery I took the 5 am tram to Fitzalan Sq & then the tram to Handsworth for the 6am shift, & vice versa back home. We were not given use of Bath House and Lockers for the first few months so we had to travel to & fro the pit, unwashed and sweaty, and in our working clothes - Pit Helmet, Clogs etc. Not a pretty sight. For a while I took sadistic delight in travelling home down stairs in the Nether Edge bus - much to the greatest disgust of all the posh ladies. I always had a double seat to myself! We did a few weeks working on the Pit-Top as part of the "training", endlessly heaving steel pit props from one place to another.When we were finally considered "pit-wise" we were assigned to work underground We were started as "locker boys" shunting coal tubs around near the pit bottom. Quite a dangerous job (well, they all were down there). Basically, to "brake" a rapidly moving run of coal tubs (full or empty) one had to throw the lockers through spokes of the wheels of a number of tubs. A "locker" was a steel rod, about 12 inches in length and 3/4 inches diameter, with one end curled in a circle (the handle). It was a mind concentrating job and after a few near catastrophic mishaps, and hopefully without serious injury , one learned the art of "lockering" very quickly. Eventually I was promoted to Pony Boy. Basically this was working with a pony pulling coal tubs to & fro the coalface along roadways about 4 feet and a bit high - so one was always half bending whilst working. My pony was called Powell and he knew more about what to do than I did. He never gave any trouble and I became quite attached to him, and sorry to part with when the time came. We did not have cap lamps. We had a bucket lamp, which in effect was acid battery in a steel case surmounted with a frosted glass encased light bulb, and giving a white light which enabled one to see about 5 feet max. It was heavy and hung from the belt and bruised the side of one's knees unmercifully. It also leaked acid. So you carried it as much as possible. After a year I was given the job of Rope runner and thus qualified for a Cap Lamp with a polished reflector enabling one to see hundreds of feet along the roadway - much like the beam of today's Mag-Lite torch. Some of the roadways were very long, maybe a mile or more from the Pit Bottom, and so were the steel ropes which were attached to the engine at one end, and round a pulley at the other.. A rope runner connected the ends of two steel ropes to the front and rear of a train of coal tubs. Having connected both ends of the ropes, the rope runner signalled the driver of the electric powered engine (a mile or so away) to start his engine turning to wind on whichever rope would pull the tubs in the right direction. The other rope, then pulled by the tubs would unwind freely from the engine. Thus to pull tubs in the opposite direction, the role of the engine winding & ropes would be reversed. Signalling was done by crossing the two wires, with a penknife, which stretched the whole length of the wall of the roadway to a battery and bell by the driver's controls. The driver would know what to do by the number of "rings of the Bell". To give one "Ring" the wires were crossed once. To give two "Rings" the wires were crossed twice, and so on and so on. The rope runner, who crouched on the end of the rope attached to the last coal tub, had to be alert and watch what the train of tubs all the way (hence the need for a bright long narrow beam lamp). If there was a derailment then he had to jump off and signal the engine driver to stop his engine almost instantly as the rail track could be torn up, pit props unseated etc etc. This was always a hazard when pulling relatively light empty tubs back to the coal faces. The coal tub train reached speeds of about 20 mph, which underground was very fast especially in a tunnel one mile + in length and 4 feet or so high! I ended my Bevin Boy "career" as a driver of a compressed air powered Engine. Not on the mile plus roadways, but on the steep angled 100's of yards long roadways (jinnys) running up/down between one coal seams which were one above the other. By the time the "training" was done in early 1945 the war in europe was over. My demob numbert was 64 and I got back into the open air in 1948, so to speak. None the worse for wear, a little wiser, and very respectful of coal miners. To my mind the hard working "shop" floor worker in any trade is the real celebrity, not those obscenely overpaid mindless entertaiment industry inhabitants that abound in the cacophonous media, and the spit ridden sports arenas.