Please allow me to congratulate the surviving 'Bevin Boys' on finally receiving recognition for their service during the war. During my short career down the pits I grew to appreciate the very difficult conditions the Bevin Boys worked under and the hardship they endured which until now has not been officially recognised as a vital part of the war effort.
During the war years the workforce down the mines had been seriously depleted as the young miners left to join the armed services, by 1943 a radical solution was needed and the Rt Hon Ernest Bevin the Minister for Labour decided that 10% of all young male conscripts should be sent to the mines for the duration of the war to ensure the vital supply of coal.
When I was demobbed from the army in 1946 I returned to my original job as house painter but in the winter of 1947 work was scarce and I was laid off. After two weeks signing on the dole and with the only employment advertised at the Labour Exchange down the mines, I decided to give it a try.
My memories of my short time as a miner are not good at all. I received a few weeks training and was sent to work in Black Park Colliery at Wrexham. The bus collected us at 6am and took us to the pit head. We descended into the mine then we walked the rest of the way to the pit face where I worked alongside an experienced miner renewing pit props and pushing the tubs of coal for about a mile up hill to where the ponies took over and carried them to the surface.
The pit shafts were hot and dirty places with dust everywhere and most men stripped to the waist, shaft ceilings were low and I was six foot so I spent my working day bent over and trying to avoid scratching my back on the ceilings. By the end of the shift my back was aching and I was covered in cuts and bruises. The floors were covered in coal dust and rats were running around which did help either. When I finished work at 3pm, I was ready for a bath but that had to wait until I reached my digs, as there were no pit head baths just a coal allowance to give the landlady. I survived these conditions for four months when fortunately for me the doctor advised I should give up the work because my health was suffering.
I was lucky, I went to work in the mine out of choice but the 'Bevin Boys' could not refuse when they received their call up papers, if they did not go they faced imprisonment.
