Tom Crawford

Sings little chancy-the Galloways was tired (possibly the only song to come from Alexander Barrass through oral tradition - part of the Driver's Song), we were strolling along the wagon way. Singing in the pits, learning pit songs, mother played piano. Father listening for buzzer to know whether had work that day. Poverty - sandshoes in winter, selling potatoes to buy shoes. Father good miner, understood stone. Father a "puffler" - ran a team making roadways in the pit. "Fanny wood" -wood taken home to light fire or you wouldn't get any! Taking drills home to avoid theft. Paying for fuse, old fashioned shot firing. Midgie lamps and mending them. Managers had bigger lamps, and a lad to clean them. Pit ponies - smart, treated well, got confused at bank, pay for breaking them in, legs cut through by rope in accident.

Location: Byermoor
County: Durham
AUD1980-201

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Transcript of audio:
(black powder firing - saw when first down the mine)
Them days if there gas it was just a bad job. Put the powder in first and then they put a bit clay in, and then they put that guide, that brass guide thing in you know. And then the progger, that used to gan through the guide, and straight through the clay and into the powder. And then they would put the fuse through that guide and into the powder, and then keep a hold of the fuse and pull the guide out. And that left it there, and then they would just poke it to tighten it up again, you see, just a little bit, you know, just to hold it there, and then they would put a match to it, a lamp, a midgie, you know, whatever it was, whatever they used at that particular place, and just run like hell.
(using midgies not safety lights)
They were - I used to use a candle in a midgie shape, like, I cannot tell you, it was about two and a half inches wide, and then about seven inches high and it came rounded at the top you know, and the front was left open, it had a back in it.
(like a cowl)
Like a cowl. And the back opened and on the back was just like what you used to light it with, just a, how can I explain that, just like a bent bit of steel soldered on. Cos you could make them yoursel', you know, with solder, my father used to make his own, oh aye. Cos they were about a tanner a piece then, and that was a lot of money, them day, you know, two and a half pence now, isn't it. Aye, about a tanner a piece and you'd only get about a year out of it, so it was a lot of money really you know.
(didn't last long)
About a year, and that was with mending them, with solder, you know. Used to get a bit solder, off the fellows at work you know, used to gan to the shops, the blacksmiths' shops I think, and they had a way that you didn't need to use solder, they used to lap it ower like that, lap it instead. But if they put the solder in, it kept it in shape better you know, because when you just lapped it over they used to get out of shape. Aye
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And we used to take wor bottle, you know, a tin bottle - you'll have some of them have you? - used to take either a can - mine was always a bottle, like, but some used to take cans, they were posh fellows, you know, if they could afford a can. Some of them even had an enamel can, you know. And you used to put a bit candle underneath, you know, just about an inch of candle, and put it on a bit stone each side and warm it that way, warm your tea that way.

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