Description
Object description
British civilian in Birkenhead, GB, 1939-1944; Bevin Boy at Birley East Colliery, Shire Brook Valley and Wollerton Colliery, Radford, GB, 5/1944-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Birkenhead, GB, 1925-1939: family; education. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Birkenhead, GB, 1939-1944: German Air raids on Birkenhead; role as cycle messenger for Air Raid Precautions; bomb damage in Birkenhead; public morale; use of air raid shelters; German Air Force use of chandelier flares. Recollection of period of mining training at Birley East Colliery, Shire Brook Valley, GB, 5/1944-7/1944: call-up for mining work, 5/1944; types of jobs Bevin Boys allowed to do; lodgings in Woodhouse; training programme; discipline; water discipline underground; use of tally to collect lamp; use of Davy Lamp to detect gas; sensation of descending in cage.
REEL 2 Continues: disposal of human waste; attitude of mining community towards Bevin Boys at Woodhouse. Recollections of period as Bevin Boy at Wollerton Colliery, Radford, 7/1944-4/1945: starting work, 7/1944; under-tub haulage; roof-falls he attended; drawing off timber props; spreading gypsum to keep fire-damp down; danger of shot-firing; over-tub haulage method; screening of coal on surface; contraband search for cigarettes and matches; miner's chewing tobacco habit underground; Aspects of period as Bevin Boy in Birley East Colliery, Shire Brook Valley and Wollerton Colliery, Radford, GB, 5/1944-4/1945: use of pit ponies at Birley East Colliery; rats in pit; packing and ripping jobs; marshalling area in pit.
REEL 3 Continues: danger of coal falling into sump at base of shaft; accusations at Birley East Colliery that Bevin Boy should be in armed forces; miner-employer relationship; attempting to convince miners of ownership of pit after nationalisation; reasons for his being prevented from joining National Union of Minerworkers; problems for Bevin Boy who suffered from myopia; reasons for being invalided out of mining industry, 4/1945; question of how being a Bevin Boy effected his going to university; style of management at Wollerton Colliery; attitude to having been a Bevin Boy; solidarity problems among miners; firing boilers at Birley East Colliery.