Leaving helmets around the headgear or with the banksmen may perhaps have
been the practice at smaller pits but I cannot see that it was a practical
proposition at a larger mine and it is a practice that I never came across.
Regarding the embarassment of walking across the surface, what was probably
much more embarrassing was having to travel home wearing work clothes and a
safety helmet and using public transport in the process. This was the
practice for the miners who worked at Houghton Colliery in Tyne & Wear, near
where I lived, which did not have pit head baths right up to the time of its
closure. A good number of miners had to travel and use the ordinary bus
services. It was very embarrassing for the men and also for anyone else
using the buses.
Alan Vickers.
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