South Yorkshire Times, September 26, 1942
Hickleton Main Colliery was visited by a party of A.T.S. girls on Sunday morning when the girls saw for themselves something of the difficulties and dangers of the mining of coal in the course of a three-hour underground tour.
The visit had been arranged in connection with the Army Education Scheme, the object being to give military personnel an opportunity of seeing at first hand the work of one of our greatest and most important industries.
The Army Education scheme aims at giving troops an insight into the principal Industries of the region in which they are stationed at the time, and it was in pursuance of this principle that Sunday’s visit to Hickleton had been arranged with the co-operation of the Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries, Ltd. It was an opportune visit In that it provided the Service representatives with an autumn reminder of the fuel economy campaign, and the A.T.S. girls left the pit with a more personal realisation of the implications of the campaign.
Before going down the pit the girls were shown a plan of the workings by Mr. M. Le Brun. Joint Agent of the Hickleton and Brodsworth Collieries, who told them that Hickleton Main was producing thousands of tons of coal per day. Mr. Le Brun outlined on the plan the four miles’ tour of the workings which had been arranged for the party and explained how the Barnsley Deep Seam, which they were to inspect, lay between 80 and 90 feet below the Barnsley Seam, due to a fault caused during old movement of the strata.
Pit Ponies Inspected.
Clad in overalls. miners’ safety helmets, and with their hair fastened up with scarves or silk handkerchiefs the A.T.S. girls then descended the 550 yards deep shaft to the Barnsley Seam and were first of all shown the stables where some 80 pit ponies are quartered.
They found the animals sleek and well groomed, munching contentedly in airy stalls. Mr. J. Dearden (Agent), who with Mr. T. Dodd (Assistant Manager), conducted the party, explained away the long-exploded fallacy that pit ponies are blind. Later, the girls had a chat with the burly head stableman. Passing deeper into the workings they next had a mile and a half journey on the “Paddy mall,” followed by a half-mile walk along dusty but reasonably high roads where their only comments were on the warmth of the atmosphere and the occasional bumps against low girders from the effects of which their helmets protected them.
This brought them to the Barnsley Deep Seam, and after Mr. Dearden had showed them how the conveyor belts brought the coal from the face to the main haulage road, they made a short circuit of the coal face which involved crawling on hands and knees. The seam at this point is about 3ft. 3ins. thick, and for most of the distance the girls crawled along the stationary conveyor belt, but later they stepped off the belt and crouched opposite the face while the belt was set going for their benefit. They were a little startled, though not visibly disconcerted, by the whine and clatter it made in the confined space, and took the opportunity of throwing some of the loose coal from against the face on to the belt and watching it carried swiftly away towards the waiting tubs.
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