Industrial Developments

Huthwaite pits didn't need women and children when pony power hauled railed coal tubs. Harnessing, driving and taking good care of those animals would typically be a young miners first underground job. Conveyor belt extractions started 1960's retirements.

Adding time it took descending below surface, there'd be no surprise finding many Huthwaite miners had longer underground walks to the coal face than they did between home and work. Chancing modernised dangers and penalty riding back sat on the conveyor belt was not unheard of, until equipping New Hucknall Colliery with one of the very latest underground passenger manrider trains.

Providing underground workers with breathable fresh air was one main reason why deeper collieries used at least two pit shafts. Keeping a fire burning beneath one shaft had been basic method of drawing air through another working shaft; until steam power.

Steam powered ventilation fans were superseded by more powerful electric motors. And when tunnelling greater distances beneath Huthwaite, additional booster fans shown from 1959 NCB archives work alongside existing safety precautions against the high risk of underground fires. Ensuring trap doors like those were always re-closed would have been an earlier job given youngest children.

Date stamped 1967 by New Hucknall Colliery are photographs of one worked coal seam little more than two foot high. This might have been worth extracting when still using age old method of hand pick and shovel. Disused face offers an historic demonstration.

Technique drilling a bore hole demonstrates inserting an explosive charge. That highly skilled job was simply aimed at bringing down the unwanted layers above. That gave safer working access to a thin coal seam below, before mechanisation.

Fully mechanising entire process of coal getting became safest and most productive advancement. Huge machines assembled underground replaced back breaking manpower. Modern miners were more like skilled operators or maintenance crew specialists.