I worked for NCB in Barnsley Area from 1964 untill the govement kicked us in
the teeth. Malcolm is right when he says concessionary coal a 'hand-out, I
used to go to the colliery office and pay 10 shillings for a ton of coal on
behave of my father working at Darfied Main Colliery. Yes it sometimes would
have detontanators, always shot wire, and yes it was dump on the pavement
outside your house. I myself entered the mines at the age of 15. Starting at
Barnslery Main,(Oaks) and then at Charton Main my brother at Wombell Main.
Which brings me on to another subject asked Main . This was seams driven on
the Barnsley Bed. Barnsley Main 6 feet in 1964 (Training Galley) The Kent 4
foot in parts hand filled (I know beacause as a timber lad I used cut props
for the colliers on the face on send them down on to the face via the tail
gate the bow saws they carried were 10 inch from top to blade plus the prop
being any thing in dia from 6inch to 10inch.( The thiner the prop the better
for the miner he had 16 yards of coal to fill of (He did not like cutting
props it interfered with his real worked of fulling of (Depending of the
mine and managemement)
----- Original Message -----
From: Malcolm McCullough <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 1999 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: Collieries in Barnsley and concessionary coal
> Mike Exon asked a lot of questions about concessionary coal in the
Barsnley
> MB.
>
> Well. here's my contribution - though I'm sure that there are plenty of
> people who know more about it than I do.
>
> I worked for NCB Barnsley Area from 77 to 87 (by which time it had merged
> with N Yorks Area and the NCB had become British Coal). I have to confess
> that I have never known the geographical extent of Barnsley MB, so cannot
> say which mines were in it.
>
> Mike, you are asking for a lot of information. Please could you give us
> some background on what this information is for. It seems odd that you
only
> want concessionary coal info and not total home coal supply. I recall
that
> in 87 BC was supplying over 12 million tonnes of home coal p.a.
>
> Why do you call concessionary coal a 'hand-out'? Should we have gone to
the
> pit manager, tugged our forelocks and thanked him each time we came home
in
> the dark and fell over half a ton of coal and a few detonator wires tipped
> on the pavement? (Hey, det wire is useful stuff!)
>
> I can see that it could be quite difficult to trace concessionary coal
> supplies to the receiver's location, more so that getting info on how much
> was supplied by each colliery or each washery. I got my coal from
> Grimethorpe but I lived in Fitzwilliam then Wakefield (both outside
> Barnsley MB).
>
> The rules were, to the best of my memory:
> Coal or smokeless fuel was provided for your own use. You weren't supposed
> to sell it. Accurate history should record that it was sold. Some people
> couldn't burn the allotted tonnage (possibly because the coal wouldn't
> burn, or they couldn't afford the matches). There was no refund for
> unclaimed coal. If you received smokeless fuel there was a refund.
>
> Coal was only available to those living outside smokeless zones, or those
> inside who had an approved 'smoke-eater' fire. The coal allowance was by
> weight, the smokeless by equivalent value of a much lesser tonnage of
> anthracite (was it anthracite or Homefire?). You were free to choose which
> smokeless fuel. Some of my workmates had to buy extra smokeless because
the
> allowance wasn't enough for them.
>
> It is easy to find out how many miners were working at each colliery each
> year: just look in the Colliery Guardian Annual Guide to the Coalfields.
>
> Have you asked the NUM about concessionary coal allowances and
> distribution? I would have thought that they were the best and most
obvious
> source of information.
>
> Regards,
> Malcolm
> Singapore
>
>
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