Category: Workforce

Transferring; Moving or travelling?

When the Selby Coalfield was ready to be staffed a transfer system was created to ensure the smooth transition of skilled mining men from closing collieries in North Yorkshire. A phased closure programme of pits in Wakefield and Castleford created the first wave of men to move to the new Selby Coalfield started in 1979 and continued in the late 1980s. The men who were asked to stay in the industry from the closing collieries were given options to either travel or move house to the Selby area.

The first option at some of the closing Wakefield collieries was to travel by coach. This mode of transport to the pit had  always been an option around mining areas for a very long time. We called it the Pit Paddy in the Barnsley area and it ran thousands of miners to work every day for decades on the Tracky buses (Yorkshire Traction).

The Selby Mines were a substantial distance from the closing collieries so privately contracted coaches were used instead of the public services buses used previously.      

Another option for the transferring men was to travel in their own cars to the new coalfield. A payment was made for the extra travelling distance, in miles, between your existing Colliery or from your home which ever was the nearest to the new Selby Mine of your choice. This option was very popular due to the flexibility it gave you to work overtime especially on the night shifts. Many men used this option for the life of the coalfield.

The third option available was to up sticks and move house to the Selby area. The criterias were that you had to move to a home within a certain distance from your new pit and that the mortgage or rent at your new house was greater than the amount you were already paying for your old house. The amount you received was up to £48 per week with a further one off payment for resettlement which we called Carpet and Curtain Money. You were paid the mortgage assistance for 5 years. The money paid reduced by 25% for the next 3 years until year eight when it ceased. Some men I knew used this option to rent a house from the new housing association estates to see if they settled in the area. If they decided it wasn’t for them they could move back and restart the travelling allowance again. Hundreds of miners and families moved to Selby into the new houses being built in the villages near to the new mines. Selby, Thorpe Willoughby, Hambleton, Brayton, Barlby, North Duffield, Riccall and Hemingbrough had new housing developments and were all very popular with the mining families. Sherburn in Elmet, Cawood and Wistow were popular with miners transferring to Gascoigne Wood and Wistow Mines as they were sited west of the River Ouse.

One difference between the villages to the East and the West of the River Ouse was there was no mains gas supplies in the East but a big bonus was you had no Selby Toll bridge to contend with on afternoon shift on market day.

Staffing The Selby Superpit

The Selby Complex of mines was a huge project involving many aspects. The individual mines were developed over a prolonged period of time and staff were required as the project progressed. Mining contracting companies were initially used for shaft sinking and development drivages with supervision provided by officials at the pit sites and management from the N.C.B. North Yorkshire Area Headquarters, based at Allerton Bywater. Deputies, for the shaft sinking, were the first staff to be transferred to the sites. As the Gascoigne Wood Spine Tunnels progressed and shafts were sunk at the five individual sites men were needed to staff the mines.

The N.C.B. needed to to provide the staff, from existing collieries, to ensure the pits had experienced supervisors, miners, craftsmen and management to run the new mines. A phased closure of the older collieries in the North Yorkshire Area was planned alongside a recruitment plan of local people. These staff were called green labour with no experience of mining. The colleries to be closed were all from Wakefield, Leeds and the Castleford area initially.
Having worked at Riccall Mine and having one of the Deputies, on my shift, who supervised the shaft sinking contractors, I acquired some information about the shaft sinking supervisors deployed at Riccall Mine, who all transferred from Walton Colliery, in 1978 when sinking commenced.
The first men to be transferred were the Deputies / Shotfirers to supervise the contractors during the shaft sinking operations. These men were released from individual collieries before they closed and were experienced in shot firing, used during the sinking process.
The North Yorkshire Area colliery closure program started in 1979 and continued through the 1980s until all the staff were needed for full production to commence at the new Selby Complex. The list below is not exhaustive but contains the main pits used to staff all the Selby Mines with closure year.
Walton Colliery, 1979.
Peckfield Colliery, 1980.
Lofthouse Colliery, 1981.
Manor Colliery, 1981/82.
Park Hill Colliery, 1982/83.
Newmarket Colliery, 1983.
Rothwell Colliery, 1983.
Ackton Hall Colliery, 1985.
Saville Colliery, 1985.
Fryston Colliery, 1985.
Glasshoughton Colliery, 1986.
Ledston Luck Colliery, 1986.
Wheldale Colliery, 1987.
Nostell Colliery, 1987.
The collieries chosen to staff the Selby Superpit were very old collieries and were virtually worked out. The miners from these pits were often working with equipment from a previous era of thin seam mining so the transition to very heavy duty mining equipment was to be overcome.
A documentary called There’s Life North of Watford was made in 1982, two years before the Great Miners’ Strike in 1984 / 1985 and contains interviews with two miners and their wives talking about the difficulties of the transfer to the Selby Coalfield and living in the new area, in a village near to Selby.

The first mines to be staffed were Wistow Mine and Gascoigne Wood Drift Mine. Stillingfleet, Riccall and Whitemoor Mines were staffed in that order with North Selby Mine being the last to be staffed. In the early development of the complex and subsequent need for staff, entire groups of miners from closing collieries were transferred to the newly opened mines at Selby. Examples of this type of mass transfer were Lofthouse and Manor Colliery men went to Wistow Mine and Newmarket and Park Hill Colliery men went to Riccall Mine. When the men were transferred, transport was made available for the men by using coaches. Other men would use their own vehicles, often sharing the driving due to large amounts of overtime being worked. Some of the transferred miners moved to live nearer the new mines in the villages in and around Selby.

When collieries closed and staff were needed for staffing later in the development they were held on secondment at other collieries until positions became available at their chosen mine.
After the Great Miners Strike, collieries closed at a very fast pace. As places became available at Selby, miners transferred from the Barnsley area. The colliery closures progressed and miners from many parts of the country transferred to the Selby Mines. This resulted in a huge mix of men, from different areas as diverse as Scotland, North East, Wales and the Kent Coalfield, all working in the Selby Mines.
At Riccall the workforce changed from the late 1980s and men from Nostell, South Kirkby, Betteshanger, Askern, Sharlston and Prince of Wales all came to work at Riccall as the industry was decimated by the closures due to the government energy policies.