Reminiscences of an old Collier.

David Bolsover - 1907 - 1996.

I am indebted to David and his wife Elizabeth for information concerning his working life as a miner from 1921 to 1972.

David started work at Holbrook pit and was underground at once. Oil lamps were in use then and he remembers quite clearly, that a "Colliers" day's pay then was 10s 1d (51p today) for filling tubs.

There were no safety helmets then, headgear was a beret or wool cap and there was often a walk of a mile or so from the pit bottom to the coal face. Pit ponies were used for haulage work and coal extraction was "pick and shovel".

In the early 1930's David and elder brother Jack went to Brookhouse (Beighton) and their wage went up to £1 a day for "packing and drawing off".

When the Silkstone seam ran out he went to Dinnington for a short spell and then back to Brookhouse on the Thornecliffe seam. Later on he worked at Westthorpe where he finished on his retirement, having been there for his last 25 working years.

In his early days lots of miners walked to work but in the 1930's Ted Ferneough started a Pit Bus and, later on, Ernest and Alf Plant continued the service.

His only serious injury, in his working life, was when a steel pit prop dropped on his toe, badly crushing it.

Born in Duke Street, moving later to Chapel St. when he married he "flitted" to South St., then to Drake House Lane in Beighton, moving back to "Easy St." in Mosborough (just above the Toll Bar in High St.) from thence to Ash St., next to Westfield Crescent and now living in Westfield Place where he and his wife have celebrated their 57th Wedding Anniversary.

David English. 1994

NB

 David Bolsover passsed away in 1996.

A payslip belonging to D. Bolsover from 1938