to attend classes at the College one
day a week when the new session started, to get his certificates.
The next few years passed in a blur
as he progressed both at work and the College. He started at the
pit bottom where full hutches were gathered prior to being raised
to surface in the cages while the empties rolled off to disappear
down the endless rope haulage to the working sections miles away.
He progressed further away from the shafts to work on these same
haulages, the arteries of the pit, where the flows of coal, supplies
and men in never ending streams had to be maintained. He worked
on the clipping, the creepers, the snibbling and the coupling.
He learned about the subtle differences between direct and endless
ropes and how the new main belt conveyors were revolutionising
the transport of coal. He got to know the pit worthies by their
nicknames, Raggy, Davie Doddle, Shagger, the Crab and Big Eddie
who beat the drum in the Salvation Army Band. Getting even closer
to the coal face he became one of the "wood laddies" taking the
props and supplies right up to the men at the face. Though it
was against the rules they crept fearfully into the face to watch
the strippers manfully shovelling coal onto the belt and hear
the thumps of the explosives as the shotfirer exploded another
shot to break up the coal. These were the "real miners" at last,
men he could admire, covered in sweat and black grime from the
dust. Then there were also the elite, the mine drivers, who advanced
the tunnels into new areas of the pit, men who proudly showed
off their work in the roads named after them, Hastie's mine or
Donald's drift.
So much to see, so much to learn both
underground and at the College where he moved on to pass his first
certificate in mining. He was on his way.
He served his time in every part of
the underground world below the shores and waters of the Forth.
He worked on the haulages in 12 east as a supplies workman in
12 west. He completed his face training in no 4 mine then finally
became a faceman working the upper leaf of the great seam in 14
west. Experience in working at the face was essential for his
future progress. He went through it all, from undercutting the
coal with the machinemen on the night shift, boring the holes
for blasting, filling the coal on to the moving belt and setting
roof supports on the day shift and the brushing and advancing
the gate roads on the back shift. At last he could call himself
a miner.
Then there was the union. He learned a deep respect for the solidarity
of working men against real or imagined grievances. About "them
and us", and "unity and strength" and "scabs" and "blacklegs" and
"how we had to stick together", all forged in the black days of
the thirties amid hunger
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1745 
