0:00:02 > 0:00:05My interest in the mining business stems from when I was a small boy.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09A lot of people don't realise that in this village just down the road
0:00:09 > 0:00:13there were about nine collieries of one sort and another.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17There were once a company called the Darcer Lever Coal and Terracotta Company
0:00:17 > 0:00:22and most of the people who owned these pits lived in this area. This were the posh end, you know.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25The bit down the road they used to call Dolly Tub City, cos I
0:00:25 > 0:00:31think they took washing in, you know, to subsidise the poor money they got.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35There are no less than about nine collieries down there
0:00:35 > 0:00:39and when I were a small boy I used to go howling bricks down the shafts
0:00:39 > 0:00:42and unless you've whizzed a brick down a mineshaft...
0:00:42 > 0:00:46very unbelievable noise. Boom, boom, boom.
0:01:12 > 0:01:17When Fred Dibnah was a lad, coal was king and Britain still had a flourishing mining industry.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Mining and all the engineering that was involved always fascinated Fred.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29The basis of it must have come, because it was born out of the skills
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and the sheer toughness of the miners,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35almost like a glamorous profession to Fred.
0:01:35 > 0:01:42He'd look at a miner as being some kind of larger than life hero and he had great respect
0:01:42 > 0:01:46for anybody such, as Alf Molyneaux, who had been a miner in the past.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50To Fred, that was the definition of a proper man -
0:01:50 > 0:01:56somebody who could do something that required a great degree of violence
0:01:56 > 0:02:02and skills and tenacity really, and being a hard man.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Those things were important to Fred.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Getting down to the coal face always excited him and before the miners' strike
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and the pit closures of the Thatcher years,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16there had been plenty of coal mines for him to see around Bolton.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This is Astley Green Colliery near Manchester
0:02:21 > 0:02:25and I've visited this site on many occasions over the years
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and the very first one was 20 odd years ago,
0:02:27 > 0:02:32when it were still actually going, it were in the throws of being closed actually,
0:02:32 > 0:02:38and into that engine room over there and I must say it were quite a fantastic sight.
0:02:38 > 0:02:45Watching the engine revolve at great speed, you know, when it still had ropes down the 1,000-yard deep shaft.
0:02:45 > 0:02:52Then, on the second visit after that, dereliction, you know, the scrap man had been and all the windows
0:02:52 > 0:02:57were broken in the engine house, and the rain were going in at one side and out at t'other and they'd nicked
0:02:57 > 0:03:04all the brass off the engine and it looked very sad and only beat the scrap man by the skin of its teeth.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Now, of course, things are looking up for it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:12There's the dedicated body of enthusiasts and grants from here, there and everywhere.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16They had a lot of bother in 1908 when they sunk it.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22- The water...- Water, yeah. - It's seven eighths lime with cast iron tubbing, innit?
0:03:22 > 0:03:25Yeah, I've rode this shaft. I worked here for a spell at '60s.
0:03:25 > 0:03:31Yeah, this was coal mining shaft this and I believe they're in process of getting monies together
0:03:31 > 0:03:35to get it repainted and refurbished properly.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Better hurry up, you can see a few holes in it!
0:03:38 > 0:03:43Being as it is it's the last one in Lancashire really, you know, it's got to be worth...
0:03:43 > 0:03:49- Its worth saving, innit? - A big grant from lottery people to keep it stood up, you know.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53If you wanted to open a ballet school there'd be millions for it, you know,
0:03:53 > 0:04:00but nowt for paint sommat like that, which has kept a lot of families in bread and butter for a long time.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Hardly 20 years ago, there used to be
0:04:02 > 0:04:06the most modern pit in Europe, Mossley Common.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08What they did, when they closed it,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11they just buried everything and hearsay is
0:04:11 > 0:04:14there were millions of pounds worth of stuff under there.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Today there is very little trace of this great industry other than
0:04:18 > 0:04:25the remains of collieries like Lady Victoria near Edinburgh, which now houses the Scottish Mining Museum.
0:04:27 > 0:04:33Yeah, this is the area of the pit where the maintenance men did all the stuff, you know.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37On this level, they got all the locomotives down and all the bits and pieces.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41And this is the bell that did the signalling.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44I don't think anybody will come no more though.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49This is the bottom of the great head gear here,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52and then, of course, the top of the shaft,
0:04:52 > 0:04:57which went down, I think, for 1,500 feet
0:04:57 > 0:04:59into the bowels of the earth.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02All very quiet.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10And round here, this is where everything got sorted out, you know,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15all the coal got sorted out and some went to the washeries
0:05:15 > 0:05:20and some I suppose got loaded up onto trucks and sold around the town
0:05:20 > 0:05:22and the immediate neighbourhood.
0:05:27 > 0:05:35This is a bank of eight Lancashire boilers that once generated the steam to drive the winding engine.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40Of course, when they were first installed in here they would be hand fired with coal, you know.
0:05:40 > 0:05:48Now at a later date for economy's sake it's just coal dust which were actually blown in with a fan system.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53So really it all run for nothing other than the maintenance of it all.
0:05:53 > 0:06:00Each one of them is eight feet diameter and 30 feet long and weighs about 35 ton,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02lot of scrap iron, really.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08In fact, it's a miracle that they haven't gone because it's one of the few places left
0:06:08 > 0:06:12where there's such a big bank of these things still intact.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23Once it would be the scene of unbelievable activity
0:06:23 > 0:06:29with a million number ten coal shovels flying about and now it's quiet and peaceful.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33I think I'll go and look round the back, see if there's any economisers
0:06:33 > 0:06:38or wear pumps or anything mechanical of such nature.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45All me life I've been interested in, sort of, the mechanics of it all and the history of it all.
0:06:45 > 0:06:52How like the mineral like coal and lead and tin and slate were extracted out of the ground.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56- Can I have a go? - Well, I'm not going to stop you. You're too big to fight with.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58Can you get up?
0:06:58 > 0:07:01I can't get bloody up! How much did you pay a week for this?
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Nowt, you're on nowt today.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Freemans.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09The other thing Fred brings over is the comradeship amongst the people.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It was the people
0:07:12 > 0:07:14that made this industry what it was
0:07:14 > 0:07:18and Fred's programmes don't just focus on the archaeology,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21but he brings to life some of the people as well.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23DRILLING
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Can I have a job? LAUGHTER
0:07:30 > 0:07:35What do you mean it's not too hard? You've only done two minutes. What about the next seven hours?
0:07:35 > 0:07:37'Fred always admired professions'
0:07:37 > 0:07:41where the ordinary sort of workman had quite an arduous task.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43The harder it was, as in mining,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46the more he admired the men who had to do these jobs.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51The danger as well, the fact that these men had to go underground for eight or ten hours a day
0:07:51 > 0:07:55and every day potentially they might be killed during their working day.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58They had a very arduous job to do, a skilled job.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04Not very long ago, England once had a vast mining industry, you know.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08It's very sad to say it's practically nearly all gone, you know.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12There's still lots of places, like Caphouse Colliery here,
0:08:12 > 0:08:17where you can actually still go below ground and see how it used to be, you know.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19It's quite exciting.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Still got a wooden head gear, you know, which is wonderful to me.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25WHISTLE BLOWS
0:08:28 > 0:08:30- Now then, David.- All right, Fred.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Aye, not so bad. See you've still got a wooden head gear.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Aye, we have. It's one of the only ones left in Europe now.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. What year were this made?
0:08:40 > 0:08:43This engine was installed in 1876.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45- Yeah.- And regularly used until 1979.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47Yeah, and it's still running.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Aye. And the indicator there tells us roughly whereabouts the cage is in the shaft.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55As I start to come towards the top now, I start looking at
0:08:55 > 0:08:59the side of the drum for me marker so that I can stop to the inch.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02I'm looking for the letter T coming round. There it is look.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04That means that the...
0:09:04 > 0:09:08- little lines in the cage are level with the...- That's right, aye.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13If you leave a step in it, they're not long in asking what you're playing at or words to that effect.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17I read in a mining book, near us in Wigan,
0:09:17 > 0:09:22winding coal they actually went at 57 miles an hour, the cage in shaft.
0:09:22 > 0:09:29When you looked at pictures of it, the size of wheels on top of head gear and it's about 34 diameter.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31Big wood, that were a woodener.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35All very sad really, innit, that's it practically all gone.
0:09:35 > 0:09:36Well, it is, aye.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42- Aye, Lancashire, there's no pits left at all.- No, no. - No, they're all shut, yeah.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Yeah, anyway we're due for a trip down into the bowels of the earth.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Yeah, we'll go and have a look at our mine.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Right, this is a pit bank, Fred.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Oh, this is it, where we descend.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58This is the brass riding check, so we know how many people are underground at any one time.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02- So if anything terrible happens, you know where I am.- That's it.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04Right then, off you go, Fred, in you go.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Obviously, people in mining did understand the industry, because
0:10:08 > 0:10:11it was their living, that's how they made their living, of course.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13But people from the non-mining areas,
0:10:13 > 0:10:17I think he did raise the profile, as it were, tremendously, yes.
0:10:17 > 0:10:23And his understanding of mining engineering was tremendous.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27And around here we've got some of the drilling machines that we use, Fred.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31You can see there's a very early hatchet one.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34- Aye, I've got one of them. - Hydraulic and compressed air ones.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40This one's the portable electric drill, it's the miner's equivalent of the Black and Decker this one.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43You get it up there, one chap would hold it up here on his shoulder
0:10:43 > 0:10:46and you'd have about three of them shoving at the back, aye.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50And that were all instead of one of them fancy props.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Set off with a drill like that, that sort of length,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55then finish up with one about eight foot.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Get the haul in, powder in, strim it up.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02- Is that metal?- No, that's just rolled in the bit at the end,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05- that's tungsten tip at the end. - Yeah, yeah.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Just put a bit of wire through there and that holds your bit in.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Don't leave it down the hole!
0:11:10 > 0:11:14- Right, we'll move on then, Fred. - Right, come on.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21- See on the conveyor belt at this side, Fred?- Yeah.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24The coal that we've got on it and if you have a look at this,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26you can see here...
0:11:26 > 0:11:29They used to throw that away in the olden days, didn't they?
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Yeah, but that's what they want at the power stations,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36so we alter the discs on the machine to give us that type of coal.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Fred had a real enthusiasm for mining.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44Up until Fred made his series of programmes,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48people all saw stereotypical mining areas
0:11:48 > 0:11:53as dirty places where people used to come to work for 12 hours,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56go home, have a bath in front of the fire.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59I think what Fred did, he raised people's awareness of the fact
0:11:59 > 0:12:05they're actually fascinating places and the enormous amount of industrial heritage that we've got
0:12:05 > 0:12:12and the archaeology that was there, where the remnants of these places have been left behind.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16So I think really Fred's raised the interest of people in so much as
0:12:16 > 0:12:20they now understand that they were fascinating places to work.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Now then, Fred, this is the business end of the job,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26that's the shearing machine and that's your disk there.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31- Now that's designed to give us small coal for the power station. - Yeah, it's like a grindstone.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Just grinds it up into powder here and you can see the powder on the conveyer.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39That machine cuts your coal off, goes right down to the end of the face,
0:12:39 > 0:12:45turns that cowell over, comes back up this way, putting the bottoms up there.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49As it cuts that up, leaves a gap there at the front of the face side
0:12:49 > 0:12:53and we've got to move these roof supports over then into that gap.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57I'll just show you what type of noise that machine gives off as we go down.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00LOUD ROAR
0:13:00 > 0:13:03That's the noise that's going off all the time.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Sounds like my wireless when it's gone wrong.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09'We're getting well over 100,000 visitors each year,'
0:13:09 > 0:13:15likewise the Welsh Mining Museum, they're approaching 200,000 people they get through their doors.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21It's purely because people such as Fred are raising people's awareness of our industrial heritage.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24People are actually now starting to find it interesting.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29What happened at the back here when, you know, all this lot's advancing along?
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Once that had moved forward, everything at the back caves in,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35that's solid cave-in, total cave-in we call it.
0:13:35 > 0:13:41- Yeah, yeah.- Now the colliers, they liked it to drop, flush up, flushed right up to the back.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45They didn't like to be able to look back there and see a football field hanging up.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48- An awesome sight, waiting. - Certainly was, aye.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52And when it did break, just sounded like an express train coming down the face.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56- Millions of tons of... - All coming down at once, aye. - Like a steam hammer.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Colliers were all trying to get off the face at the same time.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Get out the way, let it settle before they come back.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06And the amount of dust that it displaced as well, couldn't see your hand in front of you.
0:14:06 > 0:14:13No, no. Yeah, it must have been quite scary if it didn't all come down fairy early, you know.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16- Bet some of them had a day off work in anticipation.- Oh, aye.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Afternoon shift would ask day shift if the gob had broken
0:14:19 > 0:14:22and if it hadn't, they'd think, "Shall we or shant we?"
0:14:22 > 0:14:24And they were all a bit nervous about it.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27- Superstitious lot, the miners. - Certainly were.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31- The old stories about Mondays and Fridays.- Oh, aye, yeah, yeah.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37I don't think I would have ever liked to be like a hugher of coal or like a miner,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40you know, sort of the technical term is.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42But I would like to have been in on the sort of
0:14:42 > 0:14:47the beginnings of sinking a big pit like this one here behind us, you know.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52The shaft 1,000 yards deep and 22 feet diameter and all the problems that they had, you know.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56Half of this shaft is lined with cast iron tubbing, you know,
0:14:56 > 0:15:01like a big cast iron tube in sections, a bit like the underground in London.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05I do believe they actually froze the ground around to keep the water back
0:15:05 > 0:15:10while they got through it into the more solid stuff down below.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13I think sometimes industrial history, engineering history,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18is played down too much. People get excited about kings and queens,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20but not necessarily about the great men and women
0:15:20 > 0:15:25who made Britain the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And when he takes us to somewhere like the coal mining museum, he shows us how coal was essential
0:15:30 > 0:15:34for steam production and that was essential for steel production,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38and the whole thing fits together and suddenly your eyes are opened.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42This is Big Pit here in Blenavon and here you can actually see how
0:15:42 > 0:15:47coal and iron industries altered the landscape of the South Wales valleys.
0:15:47 > 0:15:55Blenavon iron works is situated just behind me over there and it was the growth in iron production
0:15:55 > 0:15:58that led to the great increase in the demand for coal.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04If you look behind me over there, you know,
0:16:04 > 0:16:11all them pit heaps, 100 years ago, it must've been an unbelievable site of, you know, the mining industry
0:16:11 > 0:16:14and then you look a bit further sort of south
0:16:14 > 0:16:17and you can see where the iron works were, you know.
0:16:17 > 0:16:22They were definitely all there to feed the hungry mouths of the blast furnaces on the iron works.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24'A lot of people think that Fred'
0:16:24 > 0:16:28was just a hands-on sort of approach type of person.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Really Fred was quite well read
0:16:30 > 0:16:35and any information he could find out on any subject that took his fancy
0:16:35 > 0:16:38he would pursue avidly, sort of thing.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Often, when I worked at the mining museum,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45I'd carry out a bit of research for him on different aspects of engineering and mining
0:16:45 > 0:16:50and he just soaked up any new knowledge, really keen.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52- After you.- Right.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58This originally had a wooden head gear.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01How long has this iron one been here?
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Well, since 1922, it was changed from wood to iron.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09But it's like anything else, like us all, all getting older.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14It used to be repaired and kept in good order, shall we say.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17- Nice windy day you picked anyway. - Yeah.
0:17:17 > 0:17:23- I wonder how many pits there were over there when you think about it. - 62 I think there was at one time.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27As well as levels, loads and loads, hundreds of levels.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30When did they actually disappear, you know?
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Well, they've been there for a long time, you see.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The coal is right near the surface,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39came along scratched in and had what they wanted.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Yeah, just did little drip mine and all them little coal heaps.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46All them heaps where people have been busy helping themselves to some coal.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52- Here we are then, Fred, welcome to my world.- Aye.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55- It's exciting stuff up here, isn't it?- That's right.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00Here we are on top of the winding gear of the Big Pit in Blenavon, you know.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05- What diameter are these wheels? - I'd say about 16 feet, Fred.- Yeah.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10I know you were telling me earlier you're going to have to lift them up to put some new bearings in.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Going to change the bearings, yeah. That'll be a nice little job.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17- Yeah, yeah.- Up the ladder.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19What sort of gear, what will you use?
0:18:19 > 0:18:22- Oh, couple of lifting box. - Like just chain blocks?- Yeah.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Whenever you had to get one down, you know, they had to force...
0:18:26 > 0:18:29- A crane I would think, yeah.- Yeah.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Bit awkward to get a crane up here, but we'll manage I suppose.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39I wonder how they went on, you see old pit head gears and there's no...
0:18:39 > 0:18:44- None of this.- Yeah, no gantry over top, you know, and yet they got the damn things up, didn't they?
0:18:44 > 0:18:46- That's right. - Must have just have had fair poles.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51- You have the one half, I'll have the other. - Be a ton or two in one of them.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Ah, few ton, yeah.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Because of Fred's personal interest in the coal mining industry,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59it's been really good the way Fred has reminded people
0:18:59 > 0:19:05how important our mining industry was, sadly recently lost.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09So Fred has highlighted what remains around the country
0:19:09 > 0:19:14and obviously the building of his mine in his own back yard,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17in a sense, that shows you the extent of his enthusiasm.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20And that interest really has spread wider,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24widely to people who didn't really know much about mining history.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28It is really a bit unusual to have a pit head gear in your back garden,
0:19:28 > 0:19:33you know, especially if you live in a reasonably residential area.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36Not everybody got one, you know.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41The thing is that I've got a grand plan and this pit head gear is part of it.
0:19:41 > 0:19:47I've got this plan to actually build a replica coal mine
0:19:47 > 0:19:51in me garden which I've had for a long time, you know.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56I hope, you know, the powers that be will let me do it.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01This idea sort of gradually emerged that Fred would obviously
0:20:01 > 0:20:05like to have a mine of his own and Fred said he needed an illustration
0:20:05 > 0:20:08of a traditional pit head gear, a wooden one,
0:20:08 > 0:20:13say about 30 foot high, that possibly he could duplicate.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16I tracked one down of a colliery at Blackrod near Bolton.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18I showed it to Fred and he was very excited.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21He said, "Oh, yeah, I can make one of those."
0:20:21 > 0:20:27- And off he went and made a start. - Wherever you went to a preserved colliery that had shut
0:20:27 > 0:20:30and they'd decided to make it into a museum,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34it weren't really quite like what it were like,
0:20:34 > 0:20:37because they didn't wind coal any more
0:20:37 > 0:20:42and there were always violent activity at the top of the shaft had nearly all gone.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So he wanted the pit, that sort of thing,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48but he wanted it moving as well. He wanted a tub of coal
0:20:48 > 0:20:52come up the shaft, go onto an haulage system,
0:20:52 > 0:20:59run down the hill, in the tunnel and back up the shaft to show something actually moving.
0:20:59 > 0:21:03It's when very sad when you go to all these preserved collieries and
0:21:03 > 0:21:07you look at them and they're like a shadow of their former self, you see.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11The top of a mine shaft in the olden days,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14when they were winding tubs up, it were very violent, you know.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17There were unbelievable action and really quick
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and a lot of bell ringing and clanging and what have you.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22Boom, boom, ding, dong, dong and gone!
0:21:23 > 0:21:28What I want to try and create is a scene like that.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34We've got all the ingredients, we've got the fans, we've got everything we need, really.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37We've got saws for sawing pit props up,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41we've got saws for, you know, doing everything really,
0:21:41 > 0:21:46and our own metal working machinery which, of course, will help with all the...
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Every good colliery had its own blacksmith's shop
0:21:48 > 0:21:52and mechanics shop where them men were second to none.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56They could build you anything you wanted, because it were necessary.
0:21:56 > 0:22:03It's a great shame what happened to our coal industry, really, now we're breeding a nation, I'm afraid to say,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06who won't even know what them men did, they've all gone.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08It's going to break now.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12A few months ago and this were all a dream.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17I didn't really think we'd have got on so good in a way.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Got a good team.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Yeah, I know. Real mining men.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27I'm in me best waistcoat here.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29Should have a bowler hat on really.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35To me a bit.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40There's lots of good pictures of shaft sinking like this where they're all stood around, you know.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45There's always one old guy with a big belly and a waistcoat with a gold watch chain.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47I'm in charge.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49We have one of them.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Aye, I know.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54I think Fred liked to see himself as the colliery manager,
0:22:54 > 0:23:00sort of stood there with his waistcoat on and overseeing operations really.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05- Hello, my love.- 'And we were sort of his miners, in a sense.'
0:23:05 > 0:23:10I weren't answering because I was working with Fred and we're in a very difficult situation.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12I think it's fair to say that the only time
0:23:12 > 0:23:15that Fred was truly happy is when he was in his garden.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18There was just so much that he wanted to achieve here,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23certainly in the last year of his life, when he started wanting to dig his pit.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28It's a great pity really he didn't the get chance to finish that.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32I wasn't very happy about it at first, I must admit.
0:23:32 > 0:23:39When he came up to me with the idea of digging 150 foot in our back garden, I was absolutely terrified,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43because it's only several feet away from the back door.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49I consider myself I might be in a position where I woke up one morning and the house was sliding down,
0:23:49 > 0:23:54but, of course, Fred had all this great engineering capability and skill,
0:23:54 > 0:23:56and he had many friends who were ex-miners
0:23:56 > 0:24:02and I think it's fair to say that if he'd accomplished that, carried on to do it, he would have been OK.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05I don't think we'd have had any major landslides.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11We started really in secret to sink the shaft.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Me wife initially kicked up a bit of a stink,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17but she just thought, being a woman, you know,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22I was just going to dig an hole and not support the sides and the garden would disappear
0:24:22 > 0:24:27and the house would disappear, which is a load of nonsense, you see.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30I've got about three sets of mining management books, you know,
0:24:30 > 0:24:34from the great days of when they actually did it
0:24:34 > 0:24:36and at the bottom of all this brickwork,
0:24:36 > 0:24:43there's a big iron ring that's got an hole in it the size of the inner diameter of the brickwork.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48The modus operandi, that means how you do it, I think,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53is to get the ring, set that up at ground level, like we did here at the top at first,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56and then lay about two foot of brickwork on it.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01And then dig down about three feet to lower the ring into the ground.
0:25:01 > 0:25:08It was the graft, sheer hard graft that was important to Fred. If you could do that...
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Like when he started digging the pit outside,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14if I'd have showed willing and gone down there
0:25:14 > 0:25:20and shifted several tons of earth, I'd have been in his good books.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23But digging the mine shaft wasn't just hard graft.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Fred enjoyed the challenges the project presented and he came up with his own unique solutions,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33like his method of surveying how deep the shaft would have to be dug.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36There's only one important measurement that we haven't got
0:25:36 > 0:25:41and that's the difference in height in between the garden down there and the river.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45- Oh, right, yeah. - Where the tunnels going to go. I've had a brilliant idea.
0:25:45 > 0:25:46You'll like this.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51- If we get a bow and arrow... - A bow and arrow? - A bow and arrow, yeah.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55- Go on!- And a plank, and we get the plank and we mount it up
0:25:55 > 0:26:00so it's like a theodalite, you know, all these surveyor fellas have them.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02This is surveying in its crudest form,
0:26:02 > 0:26:08and we level up the plank in garden facing out over the valley and then we get the bow and arrow
0:26:08 > 0:26:14with a ball of string and we fire the bloody string over a tall branch down in the valley.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19- Thinks he's bloody Robin Hood! - What you laughing at?- Go on!
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Yeah, I reckon if we get the ball of string,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26I've had a little practice with it,
0:26:26 > 0:26:31it'll come off there really, really fast.
0:26:32 > 0:26:38We just undo this bit of slack what's not wrapped on it proper.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Right.
0:26:46 > 0:26:52- That'll come off there, I reckon, really easy, you know.- Yeah.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54First job is the arrow.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Now the grand plan is to fire it
0:27:00 > 0:27:06as high up to that limb that's going out over river as I can,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11and hopefully, the arrow will come down somewhere in the middle of river.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15- If there's nobody, you know... - I have every confidence in you,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18- as long as I'm this side of bow. - Wait a minute, that's it.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Now there's one man across river in cemetery digging a grave,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25wait till he's dug it before you fire.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34You nearly bloody shot us.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37- Where's it gone?- There!
0:27:37 > 0:27:39You nearly shot us.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42It's tied a knot round there.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46Well, that's cos you had it over top of string. Eh?
0:27:46 > 0:27:48We'll have another go.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51But the thing is, it's not like a projectile, is it?
0:27:51 > 0:27:53There's no weight in it.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57You want a nut squeezing on end of there, you know.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01- Let's have a look at size. - Yeah, yeah.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04- There's I think... - Quarter sommat.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09- Well, we'll all look and then we might find one.- A quarter.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Definitely not heavy enough.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Done it. Brilliant.
0:28:29 > 0:28:31And it's going down, going down.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33Going down, it's doing the job.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Ha-ha! Success!
0:28:49 > 0:28:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 2006
0:28:52 > 0:28:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk