Horses In Coal Mines by Albert Clarke of Risca
From the earliest days of deep mining through to the coming of mechanism, horses were important in the production of coal, they being the means by which coal produced at the coalface by the face workers (colliers) was taken to an assembly point for transport to pit bottom using engine power. Whilst at the same time supplying them with the means of supporting the roof, e.g. timber roof supports and drams of rubbish.
Upon reaching working age, they were taken from green fields and daylight to a grim hard life in almost perpetual darkness for the whole of their working lives, firstly by rail in a shaking, clanking cattle wagon, then on to the surface of the mine, a place of terrifying sounds and strange movement. Steam blowing off as winding engines puffed and strained to raise drams of coal to the surface; signal bells ringing and clanging together with the sound of the drams clanking and banging as they ran down to and tipped onto the screens, into the dark noisy blacksmiths shop to be fitted with iron shoes of which two pairs were made, one to be worn, one to be kept as a template as all future sets were made on the surface to be fitted cold in underground stables.
When pit bottom was clear of drams of coal, the animal was lowered down the shaft to pit bottom, doors were fitted both ends of the cage (lift) and the bottom covered with canvas feed sacks to prevent slipping. With the animal secured and a signal given to the winding engine men, the cage was lifted off its supports; the cage was dropped down the shaft into total darkness to land on pit bottom, 500ft down in under a minute (a terrifying experience, even for a human). With the gate opened, the horse unable to see in the poor light was led stumbling and falling over steel rails and fallen coal to the stables, a distance of half a mile.
The stables were stark and functional, each horse having a stall 7ft high and 8ft long, wide enough for to lay down, the floor being pitched with bricks, having at the head end an iron trough divided into two compartments for food and water, together with a chain to tether the animal. In the food compartment was a piece of rock salt which the horse licked to provide minerals lacking in its diet.
Food consisted of chaff (chopped hay and straw) mixed with crushed oats and beans with once a week bran mash, bran mixed with hot water, this was to keep the bowels open. A large percentage of the oats and beans did not reach the horses, it being eaten by the rats and cockroaches vermin that infested and overran the stables. One or more men depending on the size of the stables fed, watered and groomed the horses and mucked out the stables; in charge by day was the Head Ostler, he was who attended to their cuts, bruises and general welfare.
Before a new horse was put to work, all hair, tail, mane together with the feathering around the feet was cut off; this to prevent it matting in wet conditions and the accumulation of dust in dry.
Whilst horses used in mines were known as “pit ponies”, they were true horses, short legged and strong bodied called, I believe “Cobs”, but most mines had one or more ponies kept for working in and around the stables and in working places too low to be entered by larger animals.
A new horse was placed in the charge of one haulier (horse driver) and often the partnership lasted until the animal reached the end of its working life. In control of all the hauliers were the master (doggy) hauliers. When a new horse was broken in to work he would accompany it soothing and leading the nervous creature, as a haulier gave the commands he taught what to do, on the command ‘stand back’ he pushed it backwards to be attached to a dram, ‘see back’ meant turn right, ‘come here’ left, a click of the tongue or ’come up’ pull forward. Once trained in the basic skills horses would pick up, such as breasting a dram ( pushing it with its chest), shafting (steadying drams down a slope by lying back on the britch strap), and standing beside or passing drams in narrow places, a few even learnt to count.
On clean level roadways, a horse could pull up to four drams at one time, these being joined together by means of “shackles”, these when tightened gave off a loud click, one click meant that two drams were attached to the horses, each additional click meaning one more dram. One horse I remember, was a three dram animal; when hitched (fastened) to the drams he would move slowly forwards, should there be mores than two clicks, he would stop and move backwards until one of the drams was removed.
Horses were supposed to work six shifts a week with an occasional “doubler” (two shifts in one day) and sometimes a weekend shift; this overtime was supposed to be rotated, each animal doing its turn, but whereas a good horse could do two or more “doublers” a week, a difficult animal would do the bare six shifts. Whilst a difficult horse knew better than to play up its regular handler, it would lead a stranger a merry dance!
To give an instance, one Sunday night, one of the hauliers did not turn in for work, two jobs having to be done; a simple one taking rubbish to an unloading support the roof. The other being complicated was beyond the skill of the volunteer driver, so horses and jobs were exchanged. The horse taken over was one such difficult animal, for a time all went well, I, myself as deputy, spending as much time as possible with the strange haulier, then it happened the horse stopped on a level length of road, where the dram would not overrun him, it then keeled over and fell.
A horse that has fallen cannot rise again until its “shaft” has been removed (the shaft being a U shaped piece of iron to which the horse is fastened, being the equivalent of the shafts of a cart). With all the hooks unfastened and the dram moved out of the way, the dram was pulled from under him using a ‘turfo’ ratchet, as the shaft began to move he gently eased himself up to avoid being hurt.
All our attempts to get him to rise failed, he was sprayed with water! Prodded and pushed, as a last resort the “turfo” was attached to its collar and tightened, the only result of this move being a low moaning; we had to stop as he was in danger of choking and he settled down with a contented sigh.
I stood at the end of the dram, too fed up to even curse, suddenly I remembered that horses underground developed a greater sense of danger from roof falls than humans. Quietly picking up a handful of fine dust, I threw it into the air so that it fell onto him, he tensed, looked up at the roof and satisfied settled down again, a few seconds later I repeated the action using coarser rubbish, where upon he heaved up and walked away from the spot having delayed work for almost an hour.
The affinity between a good haulier and his horse was often very close; Joe and Blackbird was one such pair. I never remember seeing Joe strike the horse, he carried a six inch length of chain should Blackbird misbehave, he would shout at it saying “yes, if you do not behave I’ll beat you with this” and the horse would cower like a child.
Men eating fruit or having food left gave the remains to a horse (this being a great treat for the animal), should you offer it to Blackbird when he had misbehaved, Joe would say “he is not to have it he’s been a bad boy”
Their work was a hard, heavy grind especially the hauling of drams of coal up the slope from dip workings; stalls (working places) led off the dip at intervals of 12 yards. A number of horses each pulling a empty dram would descend the dip each one in turn entering one of the stalls to pick up a full dram of coal, attached to the back of each dram was a “barhook” or “drag”, this being a safety precaution in case of a mishap. The first horse would start up the slope and on reaching the entrance to the next stall would stop and slowly and steadily ease the dram backwards until the ‘barhook’ caught hold and rest, each horse following repeated this movement thus only one horse was moving at a time.
Thirty six feet may not seem a long haul, but when one remembers that the dram was made of iron and contained one and a half tons of coal, this distance was enough to extend a horse to its limits. Another hardship suffered by the animals was the fact that during their working hours, they were unable to raise their heads above shoulder level, the roof being so low.
Deliberate cruelty towards horses was not widespread in coalmines; it happened, but should a workman see a haulier brutally beating a horse, he would warn him “ you hit that horse again and I’ll hit you” and sometimes they did. Such men did not last long, word would get back to senior officials resulting in his dismissal.
All horses had a sweet tooth, men who ate sweets shared them, their favourites being boiled sweets and mints, but they ate anything offered although they did struggle with toffees. Some even acquired a taste for Twist (chewing) tobacco which they chewed with a look of bliss on their faces. Should a horse be responsible for the death of a workman it was taken to the surface, supposedly never to be used underground again. However, should a horse that was older and clearly well trained come down a mine, the haulier in charge of it was wary of and careful with it.
Accidents were caused in a variety of ways, the following being a few; a haulier whose horse was a willing and eager worker stopped him in order to open an air door, as he led the way through the opened door, it started forward, as he did so he trod on the hauliers heel causing him to stumble and fall. Unable to stop it trampled over him and pulled the dram with the haulier under it a distance of between ten and fifteen yards, resulting in a fractured spine together with internal injuries from which he died.
Horses were entering the stables at the end of the working shift, one horse playfully nipped another standing in its stall where upon it lashed out kicking the haulier following behind fracturing his pelvis and puncturing his bladder leading to his death. This particular animal was one of the best horses in the stables having no vices and able to do almost any task. Efforts were made to keep him working but to no avail, he had to be raised. He loved to chew tobacco and on the day he was raised, every one entering the stable treated him to a chew.
Thankfully these days are past; at one time 28,000 horses were working in the Welsh Coalfield, but today the number employed can be counted on the fingers on your hand and these are brought to the surface at the end of each working day.