Mr Jackson

Talking to a group of children about the mining life. Going into the pit, the different jobs involved. Increased mechanisation. Journeying underground. Conditions - mice, water, injuries, taking care, strikes. Northumberland accent. Housing, water supply and cleaning clothes. Pocket money. Soup kitchens when no work. Sacked for fighting in the pit.

County: Northumberland
AUD2004-11

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Transcript of audio:
The only bits that got rats in was what you call drift mines, with a shaft, they could go on through the drift you see, but not down the shaft. They couldn't get down the shaft, you see. And if they were seen going into the cage, they would be caught at the bottom you see, and killed, and killed before they got any chance to move around. But there were plenty of mice, plenty of mice down the mine, plenty of mice. In my time, they used to come down with the bags of choppy. Now choppy - know what choppy is? Well you know what hay is, it's dried grass. Choppy is chopped up into very small pieces, with a proper chopper, and they put it into bags and send it down the mine, with beans and corn with the, mixed in with it you see, for the ponies to feed on. The mice used to come down with the bags of choppy, you see, they would be in the bags of choppy, see. I've seen them jump out many a time.
(that would give you a fright in the dark, wouldn't it!)
([omitted question: did you work with pit ponies?]
Work with pit ponies? Oh yes, pit ponies, got to have ponies down the mine. I had a little one about that high, called Robin, a little pony, a black pony about that high called Robin. He was a proper pet down the pit. When I were first starting down the mine, there was about fifty ponies down the Eccles Pit, and there was four horse keepers, and each pony, you used to send them away from the shaft when they were on their own, they up in the dark to the stables, and each pony knew his own stall.
(even in the dark?)
Even in the dark, he never went to a wrong stall, he knew his own stall. They were clever, the ponies.

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