Interesting day out in 1966?

July 21, 2006

I liked the bit about crawling on your hands and knees 2000 feet down, with the ceiling caving in 4 feet away............ HNC A.1 Chemistry Students ‘Blacked’ by N.C.B After much deliberation we finally arranged our Liberal Studies trip to an N.C.B colliery and an open cast mine, the two main methods of mining our ‘Black Gold’. We arranged to leave college at 8.30am, but as we students waited at the rear of the College, our lecturer waited at the front. By chance we met, and left for Bargoed Colliery at 9.00am. On arriving at 9.45am we de-bussed and walked to the changing rooms, after donning rough clothing we were introduced to the Manger, Mr Elliot, the Training Officer and the Safety Officer. After nodding to each other, we were

issued with lights and helmets, except Mr D Hiller who brought his own. Our descent would be by the up-take shaft; there were two shafts, the down-take and the up-take. While standing around shivering in the rain and sleet, we learned that 20,000 cu. ft of air were pumped into the mine each minute; the windless cables on the pithead were replaced every three years, and they’ve no trouble with water. At the appointed time the ‘cage’ arrived and the air-lock doors at the pithead were opened. There it was, a stout open-ended metal box, ready to plunge us 2,000 ft to the internals of the mine. The Manager ushered us in and the air lock was closed – down we went, descending at 45 mph and reaching the bottom with ‘popped’ eardrums and slight deafness caused by the increase in air-pressure. Being the up-take shaft, the air blew into our faces; hot, humid

and foul air, laden with dust and gas after flushing out the labyrinthine tunnels of the mine. While strolling to the face, the S.4 face, the Manager pointed out that owing to the pressure exerted by the over lying rock onto the tunnels, the floors rise up a foot each year; every two years the floors are re-cut to remove the two foot elevations, otherwise the cable cars couldn’t be used. On reaching a fork in the tunnel, we took the right-hander, and after passing through a series of air doors we arrived at the S.4 coalface. A 2’ lo seam is worked by a seesaw travelling chain cutter, with a combined conveyor running the whole length of the 200 yard face. Rams force the complete unit against the coal face and advance it as the face retreats from voracious appetite of the cutter. Behind the conveyor were two hundred twin hydraulic jacks costing £200, they are six feet long and face the direction of

the ‘cut’. They are manually advance with the retreating face and the roof is allowed to cave in behind them. At each end of the conveyor there are two 100 h.p electric motors. On arriving at one of the ends, we entered the cut and proceeded to crawl on hands and tender knees between and around the hydraulic jacks to the far distant end. During our marathon belly crawl we noticed the cutter four feet away on our left hand side and the roof caving in. Four feet away on our right hand side then the miners, with their confident smiles as we clumsily crawled by. We snaked on and on, our knees gradually worsened, becoming sore and lacerated, our foreheads forming a mixing bowl for perspiration and coal dust, the batteries on our backs slid down to between our legs, very uncomfortable! At last we straightened our backs at the far end and waited

for the others, they were held up by our fifteen stone giant – Peter Moore. He later claimed that David Gale was kicking dust up into his face during the crawl – brave D. Gale. Our lecturer Gareth Neale, unfortunately fell over at the beginning of the crawl (better luck next time, whoever pushed him!) and also strained his stomach muscles during the crawl. We walked from the cutter to a ‘bridging’ tunnel, between the two parallel pioneer shafts. In the bridging there were three air doors to deflect the air to the face, otherwise it would short circuit and leave the face in stagnant air, by the way the atmosphere at the face was very clean, hardly any dust at all. This is because the coal is periodically impregnated with water done so by drilling holes and forcing water into the seams. Meanwhile back at the air locks, the Manager asked D. Gale to

step forward and try and open the third door. He confidently stepped forward, caught hold of the handle, and nearly ruptured himself. Next the manager asked Hiller to try his luck, but alas he failed. We then called upon of fifteen stone Pete Moore, he lumbered forward and with half a dozen mighty tugs at once the door opened. The Manager explained that the air pressure alone was holding the door. After passing through the gates we joined the main tunnel, and plodded back to the shaft, on the way the dust kicked up by our feet took flight and added to the milkiness of the air. At the surface we were surprised at each other’s appearance – black faces polished by perspiration, dirty ears and noses and filthy clothes. In the changing rooms we enjoyed hot showers, but hadn’t brought any soap. We were still quite grubby, black marks remained where we’d failed to wash GN had a Charlie

Chaplin moustache and D. Gale a black spot in the centre of his back and also dirty ears. We enjoyed a snack at the colliery before en-bussing and touring the Welsh valleys looking for the ‘Heads of the Valleys’ road. On the way, some members of our party wanted to relieve themselves of something that was causing them some anxiety, so we all reluctantly rushed into a ‘rest-house’ and resumed lunch. Early afternoon we arrived at the Open Cast Mine near Hirwaun and drove up to the manager’s offices. Two members of our party disappeared behind a transformer in full view of the offices! While waiting for the site manager in the office block, we admired Lloyd’s anatomical ‘pot’ which he claimed was an expensive one. Mr Hiller noticed a canteen next door and persuaded us to visit it. There we enjoyed free tea and ‘homemade’ cakes with the Site

Geologis. He soon left to find the site manager and Gareth Neale drank his tea in his absence. After tea we were escorted to the Manager’s office for the introductory talk of the mine. Accompanied by the Geologist and the Site Engineer we toured the open Cast in the van. Our attentions were drawn to the lorries, cranes, drilling rigs, coal seams and fossil trees preserved where they stood 250,000,000 years and now re-emerging into the same sunlight. The lorry drivers work twelve-hour shifts and they sometimes become so tired as to run off the tracks into the quarries. Back at the Manager’s office we thanked the geologist and site engineer for their attentions and drove back to college. We arrived at 6.00pm very tired and dirty. Unanimously we extended our thanks to our lecturer G. Neale for

arranging such an interesting trip, also the Managers and others at Bargoed Colliery and Hirwaun who made every effort to make our visits memorable. The following made up our party: Mr G Neale, D E Miller, D Gale, P Moore, R Lloyd, A Jones and J Davies. By Dennis HillerPeter H

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