Home town history V (i)

​My dad and my two grandads were coal miners. One of my grandads, Frank (my mum's dad), worked on the surface of South Leicester colliery, in Ellistown, He was a blacksmith. Back in the day, he used to shoe the pit-ponies, but latterly he mended the metal instruments and tools that were used at the pit. He worked there for 45 years. When he retired they gave him a miniature working Davy lamp; his name and my nanna’s name, and the date were engraved on the front: ‘Frank and Freda 1985.’ They also gave him a full sized Davy lamp. I have these two treasured momentos of past life and times in my home. My other grandad (my dad’s dad) was also a miner, but I don’t know anything about that as he died when I was very young. I do know that my dad came from a large family though; there were eight children. Grandad Frank got my dad a job working at the pit. My dad was originally a quarry shot-firer, which meant he worked with explosives blowing up granite and stone. So, when he worked at the pit he set explosives to make the tunnels and shafts. Just before the closures in the 1980s, dad arranged for me to go down pit to have a look around. I remember the long, dark descent in the rattly cage, and feeling quite scared. My ears went momentarily deaf due the change in air pressure, like when you go up in a plane but the opposite. One of the miners gave me a polo mint to suck on. It was really windy at the bottom of the shaft due to the up- draft, and then it was really quiet; the deafening type of silence that presses on your ears.