Wigan Album

Good photo Bri, that should bring back happy memories.

the guy at the back to the right his lad played for man utd dav.

whups: That's great lad, looks like a happy crew,good photo.

glad you like it guys . there,s a golborne miners page on facebook if anyone wants to look at it.

Oh reet Bri, so he didn't follow in his fathers steps then, I suppose it was better than kicking coal and a lot more money to.

no dav he got transfered to bournmouth & got married there & he,s still living in the aera.

It must be Russell Beardsmore, Whups.

yes it is phil.

How do you take photos down a coal mine,are they speciall cameras and lights?

Taken down Golborne Colliery, probably late 1980s. Back row left to right: Jack Turner, Peter Beardsmore. Front row, left to right: Ken Derbyshire, Colin Davies, Regie Floyd, Dickie Smout.

I was wondering that myself Pw. Given the strict precautions relative to the presence of gas. They must have been specialist cameras.

Peter Beardsmore is my cousin. Brought up in Queen Street, Highfield. His son Russell played for Man. Utd. in the late 1980's in the early part of Fegie's reign.

go to golborne colliery in the work section & you,ll see a lot of them .

Brian, was that photo taken in the engine house at the top of L,3, brow?

i know ste . it,s where ronnie pilling used to run the engine down to L12 level for harold peters & co . do you know harold has passed on ste.

Did the practice of having to buy your own tools, spades, picks, etc, from the pit stores, in the early fifties eventually cease?. To safeguard your tools, you had a straight metal bar, one end was a coiled hoop, on the other end there was a split where a lock could be fitted to the the bar. in the wooden shaft of the tools, you bore a hole through which you threaded the bar, locked one end. The other end had the hooked coil, kept the tools secure.

Albert, All tools were supplied by the N.C.B. when I started, but you needed a note from an official before the stores would issue with anything. Tool rods were still being used but they weren't widespread.

Brian, yes, I heard about Harold.

Pw they used low light film in any camera and at times used lights in specialy sealed units with a sealedbattery compartment

Thank you tuddy. What period would that be tuddy?.Thank you Peter.P. For your camera explanation .
.

Albert, I worked in the pit from 1974 to 1993.

Thank you tuddy.

Thanks PeterP for that information.Albert, when I was very young I remember my Dad bringing home tools from work and one of those lock devices.There was spade,pick,hammer and a saw and he bore holes through them with the poker,he also put the hammer into the fire to burn off the broken shaft and fitted a new one.Istill have the hammer and pick.I remember it like it was yesterday

Pw go onto Parkside Colliery photos and on second page is a photo of a FSV being loaded. There is a detailed description of how the photos were taken

There are some of my pix on the Parkside site. I took them using a camera with the lens open and "painted" the scene with my caplamp. No batteries involved. They were taken during the Christmas holidays in 1980. L19 face was being got ready for production

Excellent underground photos Fred

Remember when I was an apprentice, some one coming to take some photographs around the bottom of the staple shaft and they had two flameproof camera flashes. They were inside cast iron tubes with a window in the front and probably weighed about 10kg each. me and one of the other apprentices had to carry them all the way down L3 brow to the bottom of the staple shaft and all the way back out.