Coal Mining

The Heritage Centre is a museum to everything that was the mining industry in the area. The engines, coal trucks, equipment and tools used, pictures of all the local pits, a model of the pit and a typical miner's house.

I was then treated to a tour of a coal mine. I had never been down a pit before. It's hard to believe children as young as 9 had been down these pits.

The mines were dark and damp with narrow and low corridors. It was surprising to think men worked in them with rats pinching the sandwiches sometimes.

Danger was also a big issue, killing hundreds of men over the years. Lots of tools could create explosions from the cutting tools to the actual explosive used to blast the face.

My interviewee explained about the Minnie Pit Disaster in which his father was killed. George Rushton aged 78 (ex miner from Holditch Colliery) describes the terrible day when he lost his father.

For more information about Apedale Mining Museum, call: 01785 81 3417 (daytime) 07940 192 718 (evening).