Helo John
Sorry for delay in correspondance but my wife broke her leg, fell off rope
swing, then was hospitalised with throat infection. So I've been juggling
with work, baby sitters and 2 young uns.
I hope you are well in what for you must be the depths of winter when I dare
say it gets that cold youy have to put a jumper on eh!
The only reason we can work a seam this thick any more is that it is
anthracite,m well semi to be exact, but that just means it has slightly more
vollatiles than the full monty. Interestingly our coal is a dull gray with no
sheen which is unusual for any coal let alone an anthracite. Still it burns
very well and slow & Hot. However it dose lreave more clinker than the Welsh
stuff and a bit more of a sulphery smell if you open the Parkray just after
you riddle. I have used Welsh and Alston and I prefer the Alston as it comes
ungraded from doubles upwards, where as with ther welsh stuff you could
almost put 1cwt in one fire load as there were no air gaps. On avarage in the
depths of a Northumbrian winter I was burning 5 bags a fortnight, for five
radiators with it flat out 24/7 which you tend to do when its for free.
The product gets a good price, for best aprox £120 a tonne off the pit top
with beans the same. However, slack barely pays the price of transportation.
It is usless in industry as being Anthracite it has just set alight by the
time it is half way up the flue in these modern plants. Our coustomer for the
slack, Blue Circle in Weardale is closing so I don't know what we will do in
this regard yet.
The coal is filled from the face into 10 cwt tubs, hand putt to the main way
and taken out by a 3.5 tonne clayton battry loco. This is the saving grace of
the pit as it elliminates expencive ropes and banksmen but it means we have
to drive the main way's 6' X 6'3". Small by your standards but when it all
has to be hoyed up the pack with the shovel, backned also before you earn any
brass, it is no mean feet. We genearly fire 2 meter advance at a time and it
takes a good man all day to shift the shot and I can tell you he's non so fit
by the time he gets out.
You could possably have passed Ellingtomn on the train, i am not sure where
the East Coast line runs. The only headgears up there these days are
Ellington and the Woodhorn museum. Ellington is near the Alcan plant which
has numerous chimneys, and that is where the bulk of their coal goes.
What is the state of play over there now John? Is Queensland now the big
hitter coal wise? I heared it was very up and coming. It must be nice to hear
of pits opening , I have only ever heared of them closing and the few that
have opened, or tried to open have had a load of tree huggers protesting.
Still we're still there. It's my ambition to be the last, a sad ambition I
know but the iundustry offers us nothing eles.
All the small mines will now have to close. Moorside mining in Shefield had
to clos e the other week as they couldn't re-new their employers liability
insurance. He got 2 days notice then had to finish 25 men./ He had been
prommised his 3rd installment of a subsidy, £250,000 and on the strength of
that prommmise spent £100,000 on new gear and has had to close. No pit no
subsady so he's at least £100,000 in hock.
I rather suspect that is why Blenkinsopp is closing. They finish production
2nd Aug weather they are coaled out or not. The only ones that will stay in
buisness is those that can insure themselves or the realy small ones like us
who have become partnerships. Again it is greed that has commited the
brittish industry to suicide. First big redundancies and now big claims for
white finger, hearing and dust. The best joke was in my experience as an
official, you couldn't get the men to wear their hearing protection and dust
masks!
sad times
Yours with hopefully some good news some time
Clive seal
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