The Sad Death of 26 Children at Huskar Pit 1838

[Bellejazz]

 

Seven, Eight and Nine year olds working underground! 
I have a 10 year old daughter and her happy carefree life is just so far removed from that of these poor children.

- Belinda.

[liverpool annie]

I am moved to tears reading this post ...... Tomkin you amaze me sometimes 

And you're right - they do deserve to be remembered !!

Please let us know what happens !!

Annie

[dennford]

Thanks Tomkin for bringing this thread to my attention. As you may imagine I know (as you must too) Silkstone only too well. One surprising thing is that the event was almost forgotton and untill recent many locals knew little of the incident. Let's hope it doesn't get forgotton so easily again.

By the way I made mention of it some time ago in this post together with a couple of links
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,139198.0.html

Denn

[dennford]

One of the links is modified here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/makhist10_prog8a.shtml

[Bellejazz]

Reading those links I only just realised that the Huskar Colliery is near Barnsley. This is the area where my Husband was born. In the 1950's there were basically 2 jobs for a lad in those parts, the coal mines or the railways. My Husbands parents decided to come here to Australia to give their sons a better life.

They left England when my Husband was 9 and in 40 years he has never been back but we are going in April, if we have some spare time I may try to visit this memorial.

- Belinda.

*ETA* I just went and checked google maps, 11.9 miles from my Husbands village.

[dennford]

Reading those links I only just realised that the Huskar Colliery is near Barnsley. This is the area where my Husband was born. In the 1950's there were basically 2 jobs for a lad in those parts, the coal mines or the railways. My Husbands parents decided to come here to Australia to give their sons a better life.

They left England when my Husband was 9 and in 40 years he has never been back but we are going in April, if we have some spare time I may try to visit this memorial.

- Belinda.

I must ask, living where you do, does your husband work in the mines?

Secondly I was back in the Barnsley area a few years ago and was surprised at the vast changes there. The mines and the slag heaps have dissapeared to be replaced with Englands green and pleasant hills. Mind you I shall never - CAN never forget those days working in conditions that although infinitely better than our forebears had, were still nonetheless a far cry from what we expect today. Even when out of the mine, all around was dirt and grime. I'm sure Tomkin and others remember well the grey snow that we had.

There was much dissent when "Maggie" shut down the pits, but I wonder how many now after those few short years would go back down the mines?

Denn

[Bellejazz]

I must ask, living where you do, does your husband work in the mines?

Secondly I was back in the Barnsley area a few years ago and was surprised at the vast changes there. The mines and the slag heaps have dissapeared to be replaced with Englands green and pleasant hills. Mind you I shall never - CAN never forget those days working in conditions that although infinitely better than our forebears had, were still nonetheless a far cry from what we expect today. Even when out of the mine, all around was dirt and grime. I'm sure Tomkin and others remember well the grey snow that we had.
There was much dissent when "Maggie" shut down the pits, but I wonder how many now after those few short years would go back down the mines?

No he doesn't! 
We operate the Mining Museum that is here right next the the SOG pit.

We used to work at a Tourist Mine in VIC and he did underground mine tours. It used to be a big joke between him and his Dad, that they left Yorkshire to spare the boys a life in the mines .... and here he was in Australia ... working in a mine!

- Belinda.

[Christine in Portugal]

This is such a sad story  and brought back memories of things my father used to tell me about working in the mines.

He started work in the mines, Huddersfield area, at 14 in 1931, still in short trousers he told us  and the work was still really hard.

He used to spend a lot of the time working in areas where it was so low you had to spend all the time laid on your stomach and crawl around.

He stayed in the mines until he was 50, the early retirements and big pensions hadn't started then. When he finally retired at 65 he used to receive 19p a week from the coal board.

Christine

[Nutty1966]

Those poor souls, may we all remember them  makes me think of my own two children enjoying a happy life, I will show them this article later


Jane