Since the 1870's Fairburn has had a long association with miners
and their families (hence the miner portrayed on the village
coat-of-arms).
Before 1870 most of the working population were either agricultural
labourers, who stayed because they needed a roof over their heads,
or day-labourers who tended to go wherever work could be found.
Also some would be workers in the local quarries.
In the early days mining was only possible where the coal could
be cropped out at the surface with picks and spades. Another
system was known as bell pits, shallow holes which were wider
at the bottom than at ground level. But the output of coal must
have been very small indeed from such pits.
Several collieries were opened in the district - at Fryston,
Wheldale, Allerton and Ledston (Luck) - but it is Fryston colliery
that is associated with the village. Men, boys and even women
were employed at coal mines in the late 18th century and it is
rumoured that woman's shoes were found in some old workings a
few years ago at Fryston.
As time progressed three of these pits amalgamated and were re-
named "Airdale Collieries', the chief shareholders were a family
called Grieves, who lived in Wakefield and who had shooting rights
around Fairburn. They were known as Airdale Collieries untill
pits were nationalised in 1947.
In the days of private coal mining pits were run as cheaply as
they could make them, conditions were terrible, not only for the
men but for the poor ponies and horses who seldom saw the light
of day. Any man found ill-treating the poor beasts would be fined,
not because the owners were animal lovers but because work could
not progress without the animals. The system of working was by
Pillar and stall; driving headways into the seam there would be
stalls or working places at certain intervals, which were cut for
individual miners. The whole area was developed as a grid of
tunnels in which half the coal was left to form pillars to
support the roof. Miners knew which part they were under by the
texture of the pillars.
The presence of these pits played a part in the rapid development
of the Aire, and Calder Navigation Waterway.
The only way men could get to work was by the rowing boat ferry
over the river Aire. This system operated for many years until
a cat-walk over the railway bridge was built in 1922 with funds
donated by the miners. (See Fig.4).
One can imagine the early morning scene at Long Row, a street of
houses built for the miners and which were over a hundred years
old when the N.C.B. pulled them down. When it was certain that
everybody was up, the men would troop down to the River Aire
together to begin their shift, and back again in all their dirt.
The baths at Fryston were not built until 1932, paid for by the
men themselves, so it was a case of a tin bath in front of the
fire. Grandads, fathers, and sons all had to wait their turn.
When I was a thirteen year old Miner
I left Fairburn School in 1910. I was thirteen years old and a
local farmer signed my 'papers' so that I could leave early; I'd
worked part-time for him. My only thought was to get work in
order to help support the family, there were ten of us; it never
entered my head that I would ever leave the village for work.
I got my first job working at the pit-top, screening coal; there
were fourteen or fifteen lads working together sorting out the
muck (stone) which we would load into tins. Each full tin was
entered into the Boss's book and we would receive lid for it at
the end of the week. It was all contract work and we used to
rotate our positions in the line so that we all had a fair chance
of filling the tins.
It was only six months before I went down, I went to see the
under-manager one day when he came up for his breakfast, and he
said I could start, which was much earlier than most lads; I was
131.
When I was on the first shift, I had to get up at 4 00 a.m. and
leave straight away at 4.45. There was no question of being late
because if you were, you didn't work - that's why we used to knock
each other up. I'd walk down cut lane to the boat, which was
situated by the railway bridge. The boat was provided by the
colliery to take us across the river to work, it would carry 12 -
13 men at a time. The boatmen were ex-colliers usually. The river
could be very choppy at times but the only alternative was to
scramble up the railway bank and across the lines.
I'll never forget going down for the first time, I thought I'd
gone blind, the horse-keeper told me to go and stand in the corner
until my eyes became adjusted. There were over two hundred horses
down the pit then - I'll always remember the one day of the year
they were allowed to go into the fields - they used to go mad when
they saw the sunshine, and what a difference that holiday made to
their work-rate.
We weren't provided with helmets or any other sort of clothing -
we would wear shorts, a singlet and clogs. Although there was no
official break during the shift, we always took snap - usually
bread and dripping, and a container of water. We used to eat a
lot of dripping, and whenever the farmer was killing a pig my
mother used to send me round with a basin to have it filled with
fat.
The first job I had down the pit was 'holding-up"; each collier
would take four empty tubs down to the face and when they were
full they would whistle to me to see if it was clear for them
to be sent up. I would signal back to them by waving my oil lamp
up and down, or if it wasn't clear, by placing a sleeper on the
'twine'.
We always got paid on a Saturday - 7 shillings and 3 pence - and
the money went straight to my mother, who would decide how much
pocket money I could have. I lived in Chapel Yard then, and I
remember we had to wash in the sink after boiling the water on
the coal fire. We did used to enjoy our day off, either laiking
about on the "hills and hollows', playing billiards at the Institute
(3d for 20 mins) or walking to the theatre in Castleford. We either
went to the Queen's in Carlton Street, which presented variety
shows, or to the Theatre Royal, which put on straight plays. It
was 3d to sit in the chicken run and after the show we would call
in to the Hot Pea Shop, for something warm to eat before starting
the long walk back to Fairburn.
|
