Warwickshire Coalfield (inc. pit accidents)

Yes, you are quite right. There wasn't a pit called Bermuda. For more details of the pits in the Griff area see this.

Very interesting post and enjoyed reading about the Griff coalmines and the local canals. I was shot firer at Newdigate colliery and during training I went down Griff to see how slate coal was blown. A much harder coal than the two yard and rider that we were mining at Newdigate. The Griff hard coal was reduced down and blown into the Electricity Boards boilers as that was the best way of burning it. I don't think that Francis Newdigate ever owned Newdigate colliery but it was on his land and he received a pay out for each ton of coal brought to the surface. In the link above a couple of shots are of Newdigate waggons that ended up in the canal. The boat waiting to get through is heavily loaded and the boatmen would say that "The sparrows are drinking off the gun'alls"

Before the turn of the twentieth century Potters Green was known as Wyken of the Sowe, mainly farms and fields with only a scattering of houses, but mainly the men worked at the Pottery just two fields away and the Wyken Collieries, Alexander-Victoria and Craven. But Alexander shaft ceased in 1870 time and Victoria shaft in 1907. The Craven was much larger, known after Lord Craven of Coombe To accommodate the colliers more houses were built and rented out at about six shillings a week, the houses themselves were substantial - the kitchens were the back rooms looking over the scrubby back gardens and the ash-pits, the front room became the dwelling room. The colliers I believe worked in the little gin-pits, donkeys plodding wearily in a circle around what was called a gin bringing the coal to the surface. Some boys went down the pits when they were only ten years of age, risking their lives daily. Most of the miners drank heavily, most stayed in the pub Friday, Saturday and Sunday till closing time, but they rarely missed work from their drinking. The men worked in stalls, so many to a stall, depending how good they worked they moved to different stalls, some stalls the coal was thin and hard to get at, their wages dropped and there was shadow over their families. The money would be short on Friday. Most miners gave their women 30 shillings to cover everything, they never saved or gave their wives a chance to save, it all went on drink. Schools closed early on Fridays to give the kids a chance to collect the wages if the man could not get there. I think they were paid from the front room of one of the managers' houses near the Jolly Colliers. Post copied from topic Woodway Lane and Potters Green on 12th Jun 2018 6:05 pm

Kaga - you paint pictures with your words. I can almost visualise the fields and ashpits surrounding those houses. Thank you.

In 1944 I was taken down Exhall coal mine, there was a vacancy for an apprentice electrician. I hated being underground, the heat, the enclosed feeling. I thought miners deserved every penny they made. I chose the Army.

Kaga, as a past-resident of Aldermans Green, could you give me some insight into how deaths at the nearby coal pit were regarded? I have found an ancestor who died underground at Victoria Collery after being struck by a coal truck. The local paper graphically reported his serious head injuries, and the fact that his body was taken to the nearby Greyhound PH for the subsequent inquiry. I'm sure this would be headline news nowadays, but I get the sense that these accidents were so frequent that nearby communities just accepted the consequences of the risks these workers faced? My research seems to suggest that Victoria was not the safest place to work - I have uncovered several records of fatalities underground there, with many young widows being made in the process! Are you able to give me a sense of how the community did react to such news Kaga? Thank you.

Kaga, I totally agree with you. When I started at Aldermans Green Power Station in 1970, a group of us were taken down the Exhall coal mine to see where our fuel came from. It was a chilly winters day with ice and snow at the surface and I was surprised how hot it was at the coalface. The continual sound of cracking as the ground compressed once the coal was removed from the face and the jacks moved forward was very impressive if a bit disturbing to say the least. I returned to the surface a little dusty!

Oddsock, First let me say I am the oldest resident of Aldermans Green Road alive today as far as I know. Would love to know your background, school, family etc, I was born July 1927 at the foot of Tusses Bridge, next to the railway line. The same year I was born the railway became disused beyond AGR at the closing of Craven pit. Yes, accidents in the pits were of every day, people just took them in their stride. Same as children, people could not afford medication in those days. Way back in 1865 my relation owned 'The Bird in Hand' pub opposite May Mitton's. A boatman died after leaving the pub and crossing the 'Slough' up to the basin. Accidental death verdict.

The Victoria closed because of repeated flooding, and all the Wyken pits were prone to flooding, a constant danger.