A way of life that has gone

Miners at Cadley Hill Colliery in South Derbyshire pictured in 1984

There is no other darkness like being down the pit, says ex-miner Gerald Hunt .

“You cannot imagine what it’s like. If your lamp went out you could see nothing. Whereas if you stand outside – however black the night is – you can still see.”

Mr Hunt remembers: “It was dark, dusty and smelly.”

But the 79-year-old, who spent 40 years working as a miner, said there was always someone close by.

He said: “There was always somebody to help you. It was great being altogether. The comradeship was marvellous – it’s difficult to understand if you have never worked in the mines.

“The conditions were rough at times but you made the best of it. It was the life you knew.”

Mr Hunt, of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, said you would remain down the pit for the whole of a seven-and-a-half-hour shift.

“There were no toilets down there. We were like cats and just had to go where it didn’t interfere with somebody else. The smells could be terrible at times.”

Part-way through their shift they would come off the coal-face, where they were on their knees for most of the time, to stop for some “snap”.

Mr Hunt said: “I remember someone would always bring an onion with them and no matter what sandwiches you had – whether it was cheese or jam – you would have some onion in it. We laugh about it now. It must have sent us barmy being down there.”

Mr Hunt said people did not complain.

“Your joints ached after you had been down the pit all day but after you had got out and had a bath, you were fine.

“We were all down there to work and it was our job.

“Round here we were all connected some way or other with the pits. People still shout me when I’m out from those days.

And it’s a way of life that has now gone.”

Mr Hunt is one of the more fortunate ex-miners. He does not have any work-related health problems apart from sore knees.

But he remembers men whose eyes had been damaged from life down the pit.

“They had their caps pulled down and they squinted.

“You always thought it would happen to somebody else and not you.”

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