Coal Mining Prints - The Air Leg

Coal Mining Prints - The Air LegSigned Print 38 x 28cm "I worked in the drifts at Whitburn Colliery. These drill rigs were powered with compressed air with water as a lubricant. There were no ear defenders in those days so we 'Drifters' tore bits from our shirts and plugged our ears. There were often three of these drills going at once in a very confined space." Bob Olley

Men and women armed with shovels

Signed print size: APPROX 59 x 39cm

a dip in the North Sea

If his oil lamp

In earlier times the sugar content in the jam was the only way to quickly boost energy levels

"I attended Westoe Secondary Modern School for boys

Tyne and Wear

Musical instruments

With its cement rendered walls and cast iron cistern

while a cheeky diver bares his bottom and breaks wind

"As full coal tubs were loaded into the cage at the shaft bottom they pushed the empty tubs onto the steel flat sheets where a young lad would guide them onto the rails where they would be assembled into sets of 30 to be allocated to the various districts of the mine

His makeshift cleaning tool