Re: Who remembers?
 

The men who worked at Altham coke works left work blackened too.
After leaving school I worked for a short time at Mullards Simonstone and we shared a works bus with them. Their muck got rubbed off on your sleeves if you shared a seat with them

Re: Who remembers?
 

was there not an old drift mine at altham? way back.

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As near as I can remember Blackburn didn’t have a pit. Maybe the guys that you saw weren’t miners but workers in a coal yard where domestic coal was bagged. They would get just as mucky as a miner, as would the coalman who delivered the coal to the houses. Apart from Scaitcliffe pit in Accrington there was a pit at Huncoat, one at Hapton and a drift mine at Read, then Burnley.

It was very difficult to get rid of the coal dust embedded at the base of the eyelashes. So miners would look like they were wearing eyeliner makeup. Most never bothered to try during the week.

If you tried using soap it got in your eyes and stung like blazes. We were told to use Vaseline.

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just come to me west-ender, way back there used to be barges stop on the leeds n liverpool canal in a little bay where the "Coke ovens" are situated, could it be some of the guys that used to load em? used to be a little pub just past bridge street,workers were known to frequent that.(forget name):confused:

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Weren't the Australian were it cashy, might have got the wrong name, but
Ernie Gribble was the last landlord before they pulled it down, he then moved to the White Bull, up New Lane

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nah australian was on the "Pleck" off Bull Bridge" Accy, still see the last landlady occasionally.:)

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was it called the navigation

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They'd have had a long walk from Hapton. :(

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These blokes wore white helmets with torches on the front so I think they must have worked down the pits. I'm going back to about 1949/50 and there was always about a half dozen of them waiting for the bus at Church around 4.30 p.m. I don't think they were still around in later years.

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Ya spot on DD couldn't think of it, as soon as cashy said where the Australian was I knew I had it wrong, although I remember Ernie teling me about his days in the Navi as he used to call it, sadley he's no longer with us

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I think there was also a colliery in Rishton at one time , somewhere near Walmsley St. supposedly the workings extended as far as Gt. Harwood and were responsible for the subsidence in the Park Rd. area where the houses were pulled down near to the gas works

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just come across this link showing all the collierys in operation North East lancashire in 1908, surprised at the number in Accrington and Ossy
lom08lan1

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Good link Jack
seeing that Ossy had mines until 1930, I have been inspired to google more.
Wikepedia has a list too
List of collieries in Lancashire 1854-present - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have always wondered where the Ossy mines were , because on moving here 6 years ago, a neighbour who is an industrial history fan, told me that the open land around our flats could not be built on due to old mineworkings being too near the surface,

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noticed it says one in ossy...red walls
where is that?