pit visits

[aardvark]

did anyone else get the chance to take non-mining family or friends underground while I was at Maltby they had an openday If you wanted you could take someone on an underground visit all you had to do was agree to take a party of ten around . I took my wife and a couple we know down , bearing in mind you could walk through the face at Maltby with a top hat on and not knock it off ,there were duckboards between the rails in all the roadways and the faces were lit . We walked down to the end of the tailgate only about 5 mins (we had just gone into the parkgate seam so the workings were close by) down the tailgate only a couple of hundred yards, through the face off the maingate and out of the pit. Along the way I filled them in on all the gory details of people who'd been killed or injured (I think I missed my way has a tour guide ). on the way home we weren't out of Maltby before all 3 off them were asleep this was important to me because my missus was always getting on at me for nodding off on the sofa when I got home or going to bed while Dave my mate used to do jobs when he got home from work. I wish i could've taken them through our last face in the Parkgate seam where bad conditions meant we had to shear 10 yds and then set 3x3s and chock wood over the chocks also the walking over rough ground would have taken it out of them. Or even if i could have taken them to the hot side of the Barnsley seam at Maltby

[Sam from Kent]

I took a party of soldiers underground once, they were not as fit as they thought they were !!!! I also took the P.E. mistress from my old school on a visit. Never really got on with her when I was at school, so thoroughly enjoyed making her crawl through the face, but when we came to a swilley which had flooded I softened and carried her through it

[blueflame]

They had an open day at our pit in the early 70's and a manpower recruitment drive, because I showed some interest I was jumped on by preying manpower blokes and handed a mountain of leaflets and said anything I wanted to know to just ask, so I did.
Why was my name on the waiting list for a job there? not long after the training officer knocked on my door with the offer of a job.
I was lucky I had a trade and could pick my jobs then and didnt have to work under ground, I wanted to and loved it.

[erichall]

Remember as an Undermanager taking my wife and some of the lady workers from area on an underground visit. It was the second week of a fortnight holiday. We were installing a new gate-end system on a longwall advancing face where the extraction was 36 inches. With Dowty Chocks, even over the holidays the seam had obviously crushed to some extent. Rotten swine me. I took them the 'wrong' way round the district i.e. we went down the main gate and back up the tail gate. The face would have advanced some 3/4 miles from it's start point. When we arrived at the face entry, someone said 'where's the face?' 'In there.' says I , pointing to a rather small hole. Crawled along the 220 yard face and into the tailgate. Set off to walk back up about 1 in 10 with the air at our backs. We had a small amount of nuisance water at the face entry which weused to pump up the gate and let it flow back. I'd already instructed the Deputy not to pump so they had to splash through the water. Back to the Pit botton, where the coal went up a short drift to a staple shaft bunker. Dragged them up the 1in3 drift and down the inspection tube with ladder and back into the PB. 'That'll teach our Missus to keep on about going down pit' thought I. Got to surface and Manager had laid on a bit of a spread. 'Would you like to see where you've been?' he said, and showed them on the Colliery Plan. 'What do you think?' he asked. 'Smashing' said our Missus, 'When can we go and see it working?'

[erichall]

I had had several parties down the shaft. Found that the worst ones for riding the shaft wwere generally Nurses for some reason.
When I moved to High Moor, and with our knowledge of FSV's we had lots of visitors, from all parts of the globe. So many in fact that the Manager appointed me 'Visits Officer' 'Your job' he said, 'Just keep 'em out of my hair. I'll pop in at the end to say howdo'

[John]

Never taken anyone underground on visits, but once had the pleasure of meeting the late Harry Oppenheimer who'd come to Boulby to inspect one of his major investments. A perfect gentleman in every way, you would never have taken him for the worlds richest man back then. Just wished I'd have been on the surface when he had showered and changed, he was handing out Cuban cigars!!

I also recall when I was a young apprentice, we had what was supposed to be one of the best Dowty Roofmaster face installations in Britain around 1965, 41's in Deep Hard seam. A group of Japanese mining engineers came to view them. The face electrician was moved for the day to a different face, he'd been a guest of the Imperial Japanese Empire during the 1940's and hated them with a vengeance...

When I was at Angus Place Colliery, NSW, the Management used to allow workers to show their relatives/friends around on Swing shift, as the main roads and surface areas were pretty quiet and there was less danger to visitors.
I was longwall electrician at this time, and my shift Elec Engineer brought his wife, MIL and FIL and a BIL to see the longwall in action.
I found folks were usually in awe when they saw a large machine cutting hundreds of tonnes of coal in just a short time. Most folks have it in their heads they'd see a miner with a pick instead of a machine with hundreds of picks!

[erichall]

Always had to be careful with Underground visits. Make sure the visitors knew the rules and what to do..If I had any female visitors, I always used the same line about obeying orders. I stressed that ANY command from me had to be obeyed immediately and without the usual Why?, for, instance, if I tell you to go into the corner, strip naked and stand on your head, you do it because there will be a good reason for it. Always got a smirk and it usually broke the ice, but it got the message across. I always tried to inform the men where we would be taking visitors, and 'please lads, moderate your language', which they usually did anyway. Usually found far-eastern visitors, Chinese, Japanese etc. were worst to escort. Not because of their to me unknown language or because of any disrespect, but simply because they were interested and wanted to know everything that was going off.
It always paid to be careful around visitors. One group of German Students, on a Union-backed exchange, were visiting a N.Notts Colliery. Some of the chaps were having a 'go' at them, taking the mick and generally making things rather unpleasant. 'we're O'K, they can't understand us.' said one rather unpleasant individual. 'No, but I can, and you are being a bit thingytish.' came a reply from the last visitor. It turned out to be my daughter, who had been brought up in a Mining family in a Mining Area and had worked for a while in Germany, making, of all things, Bra Cups for Christian Dior of Paris as well as disposable dust masks, and had gone along as an interpreter. This quietened the men.

[John]

I recall when visiters were coming, especially any women, the orders were passed out, make sure your trousers don't have "ventilators" and please watch what is said over the tannoys lads!! "whats the bloomin face chain stood for:? ;D

[spartacus]

I was at Maltby when we had a "anyone welcome" open day and visit down the mine in about 1978-ish? I think they went onto S03's in the Swallow wood seam.

The chippies made up a false floor in the cage to stop people falling over the keps and rails, and I went down with a few lads to "test" it. It was bloody scary! The damn thing made more noise rattling about on the sides of the cage than I'd ever experienced.

Always remember one of the Loco drivers taking some visitors around the pit bottom and loco garage. Disappeared for a while and I shouted him over the Tannoy to ask where he was as the visits were very tightly timed. "I'm having a pi....I'm having a sla......I'm powdering my nose" he shouted back.

[Deleted]

I remember as an apprentice getting the job of showing a party of visiting sailors the tail gate shearer(probably to test my knowledge too), whilst at the machine the faceline took it's first break behind the chocks, these guys just flattened me in their rush to get out the face, I'm sure there was an unusual smell in the air too around them. I had sore ribs for weeks from matelots boots.