robbie1003
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- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
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good photos of a place where iv passed so many times. keep saying we must investigate the place.
nice find, any idea on what the leather aprons and underground machinery were used for??
Presumably if this property was owned by Bram Pashley then this is his second mine, the drift mine at Newmillerdam - opened up when compulsory land purchase for the M1 extension closed his original shaft in 1967.
From some of the comments in this thread I can see that nobody is old enough to remember the 'good old coalman' - the Clean Air Act removed some very colourful characters from our streets. The photographs indicate that this property obviously belonged to a coalman at some time in the past, the 'shed' with its large hopper was obviously used to fill the 1cwt bags with coal. The leather 'apron' with its attendant studded leather back protector was standard wear for all coalmen, and easily recognisable to any 'towny' of my age! You try handling 1cwt bags of coal all day for a living without wearing that piece of kit! Did Mr Pashley also sell his coal by the legally weighed 1cwt bag, or if this property was not owned by him which local coalman did own it?
Stables were another necessary part of the coalman's property for many years, even in the late forties/early fifties many a ton of coal was delivered by horse drawn dray. I know of one instance where smokeless fuel deliveries took the place of the traditional coal and allowed the business to continue well into the nineties, the dray horses in the stables being replaced by the grand daughter's prize show jumpers!
I could be wrong, but I suspect that the flat roofed brick 'workshop' originally had nothing to do with the cottage and other buildings on this site. It looks like it could have been a pump-house or something similar - one really needs to look at the 1930/1940 maps for the area and see if some Utility built the structure.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that the flat roofed brick 'workshop' originally had nothing to do with the cottage and other buildings on this site. It looks like it could have been a pump-house or something similar - one really needs to look at the 1930/1940 maps for the area and see if some Utility built the structure.
may I ask where you got your info?
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