- Contributed by
- dusteater
- People in story:
- dusteater, Bevin Boy.
- Location of story:
- Monckton Main Colliery, No. 1 shaft.
- Background to story:
- Civilian Force
- Article ID:
- A4112641
- Contributed on:
- 24 May 2005
The two weeks of monotonous surface work dragged to a an end and the prospect of working underground was welcoming for the more congenial temperatures that I knew existed there.
I had obtained lodgings a few hundred yards from the pit, so the early morning walk to the baths at 5.30am was not unpleasant. The dawn appearing from behind the mountain of gray slag, growing ever bigger with each shift, a reminder that I was soon to add my contribution to this monsterous excrescence that dominated the skyline.
Helmeted and booted I made my way to the lamp room and exchanged one of my two brass tokens with my works number 685 stamped into the surface for a freshly charged electric handlamp.
Following the mostly silent procession of men across the pit yard - clmbing the steps to the scene of my previous drudgery and waited to be body searched and the cage, with it's load of sullen miners for the fourteen hundred yards drop to the pit bottom.
Monday morning revenge -- most of these men had spent the weekend drinking, the winding man knew this. so, he could not resist his elastic joke. "that will teach them" Ha Ha Ha.
dusteater
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