At 10:05 04/03/2012, J Roberts wrote: >A colliery is a coal mine. Thanks John, an excellent account, clear and concise. For anyone interested and within travelling distance of Wakefield, Yorkshire the Mining Museum at Caphouse Pit is well worth a visit http://www.ncm.org.uk. I believe Big Pit in South Wales is good too: www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/ The Black Country Museum in Dudley also has a colliery http://www.bclm.co.uk/ - but the website says it's closed at present. I guess there are similar experiences in other mining areas in the world but I don't know them. But all of these are pale imitations of what it was really like to work there - modern H&S sees to that. Imagine being an 8 year old kid, in charge of opening and closing a door in the mine (for ventilation purposes) - in the pitch black too - just so that Dad could earn a few more pence. That really happened before the Shaftesbury reforms. Andy.

Thanks for that Andy - I was down the Black Country Museum one last trip to England (2040) and imagine sitting in a lovely lighted boat with all occ health and safety things going, and vents to let light in and electric lighting all over - well, nothing like the real thing! Next trip I could maybe get to Wakefield - I hope to stay a couple of days at Huddersfield - my daughter and son in law live in London. They are coming "home" for a visit in a couple of weeks from now, to work on their property here. Well, three hours drive away, actually, but a lot closer than London! Dawn (Melbourne Australia) -----Original Message----- From: staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:staffordshire-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Andy Micklethwaite Sent: Sunday, 4 March 2012 10:07 PM To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] COAL MINING QUESTIONS At 10:05 04/03/2012, J Roberts wrote: >A colliery is a coal mine. Thanks John, an excellent account, clear and concise. For anyone interested and within travelling distance of Wakefield, Yorkshire the Mining Museum at Caphouse Pit is well worth a visit http://www.ncm.org.uk. I believe Big Pit in South Wales is good too: www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/ The Black Country Museum in Dudley also has a colliery http://www.bclm.co.uk/ - but the website says it's closed at present. I guess there are similar experiences in other mining areas in the world but I don't know them. But all of these are pale imitations of what it was really like to work there - modern H&S sees to that. Imagine being an 8 year old kid, in charge of opening and closing a door in the mine (for ventilation purposes) - in the pitch black too - just so that Dad could earn a few more pence. That really happened before the Shaftesbury reforms. Andy. ****************************** ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. ------------------------------- ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6937 (20120304) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6937 (20120304) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6937 (20120304) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com