Irish Roll

[dazb]

anybody else remember Murrays Irish Roll?...can still taste it.....and the near rebellion when it went up to 2/6p from about 1/10p, threats of boycotting canteens at the time. Even worse when around the early 70's it was withdrawn from sale. (Proper bacca and not a red man in sight and certainly not the tea leaves soaked in muscle rubbing liniment substitute.)
;D

[Ragger]

Can't remember Irish Roll, Daz, but it brought to mind some of the disgusting habits associated with bacca.
Tichie Mordue worked at my first pit and he chewed all the time, even when he was out having a pint or two. Occasionally pints disappeared if you left your drink to go to the toilet (or if you turned your back sometimes). Nobody pinched Tichie's pint, every time he left it, he dropped his chow of bacca into his pint. It was safe as houses as they say. (Happy days) (s).

;D ;D

[dazb]

A terrible, filthy habit chewing bacca, took me 28 years to get used it...............................and 11years to get over the withdrawl symptoms from having stopped it. Dropping it in a pint reminded me of another ploy to prevent Bacca Cadgers ("Gis a chow" merchants) was to ensure that everybody witnessed your new half ounce being drawn from the inside of your shorts, not many asked after that. How uncouth it all seems now in reflection.... ;D.

[John]

Never got the habit, found the taste disgusting, on par with dog poop, not that I ever tasted dog poop, but just imagine they tasted the same.
Now snuff! tin full a week at least!
On that subject, I used to have two tins, one hot for the cadgers and a fresh for me and the other blokes who also donated a pinch.
I often see folk standing outside their work premises over here smoking their ciggies because they aren't allowed to smoke indoors, and it makes me wonder how we managed a shift without a ciggie and never bothered. One mad rush to the electric shop on reaching pit bank though for the first of seven before getting showered

[Ragger]

Now John, snuff, I was introduced to the wonders of snuff as soon I went down pit.
Remember the etiquette associated with snuff.

A little between the thumb and first finger;
A dash on the back of the hand;
Then the best of all, a great line of it along the forearm to the back of the hand, sniffed up in one continuous effort.

Seen it, done it, and saw the after-effects, not a pretty sight.

What about all the ingredients added to snuff to make it better. Eucalyptus oil, and aniseed were quite popular.

[John]

Hmmm, must have been more generous in the north east Bill.
The famous request in Notts pits, bet it was the same in the Barnsley Beds too, " ayagorrowt yoof" Rough translation, "have you got any snuff, baccy or lollies old man" ;D ;D

[dazb]

In the much more articulate Barnsley Area, Coalworkers tended to use the more refined "Cock and Luv" as opposed to the "Yoof or Duck".
For example; " Gis err chow cock" or with outstreched pinched finger and thumb gesture............."Arr wi evin a bit up then err what luv?"
Of course being articulated meant that these men were better adapted to negotiate the thinner coal seams, being much more able to reptilate between roof supports and other obstructions, the inherrent forked tongues and extremley sensitive nostrils were obvious advantages when savouring both the snuff and aromatic chewing tobacos. (Any Kendray Commandos Measbrough Monsters or Athersly Aliens reading this I am only kidding)

[John]

Yer telling me the Barnsley Beds were thinner than the Notts seams?? They did have a face at Bestwood Colliery, area HQ/Workshops and stores too, that was around 30 inches high max..
We had one so low, we had to take our overalls off to give us the extra couple of mm's to crawl through ;D ;D ;D
It was so low the colliers had to use tea spoons to load the coal out as shovels wouldn't fit in the space

[dazb]

Thirty inches high....................sheer luxury, I remember the first time I worked in a seam that you could stand upright in, at Kellingley after I had been working underground for about three years at numerous pits around the Western side of the Barnsley area, until then I believed that God had only created coal in seams less than a yard thick.
Quote from Frank Machin's book The Yorkshire Miners;
"In the Flockton area the seams varied between ten and thirty inches and were from thirteen to twenty-seven inches in the pits around Bradford and Halifax, where the greatest height of the main roadways was forty inches and from twenty-two to thirty-six inches in the Flockton Collieries" ( a bit before my time, but some of these seams were still being worked in the 1980's. Woolley Blocking Bed was if I remember about twenty-eight inches extraction and was in the 1960's one the seams chosen to trial the R.O.L.F. system, using an A.B. thin seam remote hauled shearer).
So thin in fact that we could only take single slices of bread and jam for snap, if you put margarine on then they were too thick to get through the face.
I must admit though that our Shafton Central Workshops were much higher than the Bestwood's thirty inch.

[John]

I reckon you missed your vocation Daz, should have done the rounds of the workmens clubs ;D

[dazb]

John in my younger days I did exactly that, the rounds of WMC's I mean and any other coalmining academy that sold John Smiths or even Mansfield Bitter for that matter, it's not easy having little else to reflect upon other than a wasted youth.

[John]

Dazb said:

John in my younger days I did exactly that, the rounds of WMC's I mean and any other coalmining academy that sold John Smiths or even Mansfield Bitter for that matter, it's not easy having little else to reflect upon other than a wasted youth.

I didn't really mean club crawls Daz ;D ;D More like on the stage as a stand up comedian.

Memories, Mansfield Bitter straight from the wood when it was brewed at the old Mansfield Brewery in the old open kettles! My first local sold Mansfield Bitter still brewed at that brewery, that was in 1965, great drop of suds that was! Then they modernised the brewery and sold that past your eyes crap, never the same. I think we all wept in our pint pots on the demise of Mansfield Bitter

Many a nightshift have I gone out back at that pub, thrown me snap over the wall, gone home after closing time to me bed ;D

[slumberland]

eh up me ducks, worra crackin site this is, yuh know yoofs, its only bah accident i slipped on this site and im glad i did, i was trying to find out about local mining in worcs.(im ex calverton and bevercotes stock mesen!....notts) 13 yrs.
any roads,our gerts tryin to kip,so ill post laterz...tarraaaaaaa

[John]

Ayupmeducks, glad yer found us. I did put some ads around on the Mining History Network, also Dave Douglass's site and a few others have linked me.
Pretty new site, we only started a couple of months back and are expecting to grow once the word gets around.
Ex Nottm myself, Clifton and Cotgrave pits were my home many years back.
John

[slumberland]

going back to the irish roll biz, i have never seen it, i used to get thro half ounce of wot we called "twist"..every shift,(in a blue and green packet) and i saw that rise from 16 pence to 28pence then summat like 76p hell of a jump, so we had an alternative, we went to the chemist and bought this pure liquorice sticks, and it was so strong u had to spit the dam stuff out,but it worked and did the job!
oh the memories of workin down the pit will never be forgotton,and no matter how much we grumbled about the conditions at the time, we always think its the best job we ever had

[dazb]

Hya Slumberland (great name, not another electrician by any chance??) I remember that bacca I reckon that there was a brown version of that same pigtail in a brown and yellow packet. It wasn't every pit canteen that gave the choice of black or brown, the preference around here was towards the brown but many of the canteens gave a choice of several types, thick, thin, black, brown, aromatic, Coop and a few varieties of Kendal twist. The liquirice was sometimes chewed along with "a well worn chew of bacca" to stretch it out a few minutes more, the packets of Imps were ideal. Barnips were a liquirice based sweet that were also used in the same way.

[slumberland]

nah i was a face worker then developement till i took the handshake...i was dosco mk2A header driver, and wen someone else had a go on the header, i was well known for bein able to sleep on the turret while they were cuttin down,(not right at the front obviously) hence slumberland.

[John]

That were the trouble with the Coal Baord Daz, made us bloody lazy!! Needed a touch of privae enterprise to wake us up, not that it turned out that much different though. But they did expect a fair more work out of us.

Loved the old Mk2a Road header, great machine. First came across them at Cotgrave, then CPL bought one for the development of access roads to the West Link at Boulby Mine. Blokes who operated it had never worked with one before and within a week were breaking world roadway drivage records!
Next one I worked with was in Oz, at Wongawilli where management foolishly put it working through dykes! Bloody thing died, too hard so reverted back to a heliminer, which shook itself to bits and only cut two inches a shift! They did tell us how much the repair was going to cost on that machine, but been too many years ago now, all I know is it was a few thousand bucks!

[slumberland]

trouble with operating the 2A was the front skirt needed to be pushing down all the time or u would have all the muck going under the machine and u spent ur time reversing and going forward all the time trying to get it up, a way we combatted this was to operate it with ur left knee cocked up like u was pissin like a dog and pushing the handle down with ur knee aswell as operating the boom, and the seat was a right waste of time, as soon as a new dosco build up started the seat and stand got gobbed straight away!

[John]

Never saw any problems like that with the MK2A, then again, never drove one either, same with continuous miners, just maintained them. Only machines I've driven are the Joy SC10 Shuttle cars, Eimco drill rigs, Wagner Scoop trams, Schoff Loader, Anderson Strathclyde AM400 and AM500 shearers, plus the odd track mounted personnel carriers and battery locos to get outbye from the face to get the trunk belts running.

And before Daz chimes in , the odd FLP transformer on night shift ;D

[Clive]

Got rambling off thread again back to the bacca

I remember the brown twist in yellow packets just enough for a shift. As per soon as young lads get the pit have to start chowing.. not much of a social habit though.. girlfriend would object in flicks...

Got started after me mate had hols in USA he brought us a pouch or two of Red man back and by it were very good

the we started getting a few flavours over here Spearmint, strawberry ect. I got some twist and soaked it in tartan bitter. It were ok

When i couldnt get nowt eles it was on to the thick condore black twist.

The other year i went to the 150th miners institute ann dinner in Newcastle, surly a prestegious affaire with an impressive herritage John Buddle GE Foster ect. At the end of the dinner and a few very boring speeches we were told we could now smoke...surly wrong surly we could now have a chow?

[dazb]

Great stuff there Clive, classic pit humour once inbred never lost, a great pity that the whole world wasn't infected by it, it might well be a happier lighter place to live today if everybody had to have had a pit training.
But..............I can't believe that a man of your standing, prowess and obviously otherwise good taste could possibly believe that the Red Man bacca was worth a chew, it was like the sugar coated Sweet Tabacco that we had as kids, having said that just before I gave it all up I worked at Kellingley briefly where the craze at that time was for the miners to chew garlic cloves…………………(iron men at Kellingley) and no accounting for taste I suppose. Keep it coming Clive.
By the way do you play the ukulele??

[John]

Bloody glad I didn't work at the only pit where the blokes chewed garlic cloves!
I never saw anyone chew baccy in Oz pits, odd too, never saw snuff used either down there.
But swing shift at Angus Place on the longwall, blokes started chewing garlic cloves, God, what foul smelling breaths they had, I could smell them all the way into the tailgate! Worse than any baccy breath!

[dazb]

In India the "chewing of tabacco" is very common, not just underground but in every town city and village. I'm by no means an expert of the various recipes that are used in these tobacco chew cocktails, but usually betel nuts pieces, pan parag ( I think a powder of various spices), cloves, cardamon, slaked lime paste and a choice of various fermented tobacco pieces are folded into a green leaf almost the size of a hand, the resultant triangular package is then placed in the mouth as a huge wad. The betel nut when chewed produces a blood red colouring which stains the teeth and lips of the user as well as accounting for the millions of red stains on the footpaths and roadsides where it is spat out. This Pan can also be made up without the tobacco content and sweeter ingredients are added, more of a ladies Pan. Underground the miners prefer the tobacco rubbed in the slaked lime and placed inside the bottom lip. I did get used to chewing it this way but only after suffering through the first few times of having the skin burnt off the inside of my lips, and I think that garlic is bad now but I must have been mad to try their bacca the second time.