1970's

John Berry started at Silverwood straight from school in April 1970, aged 15 years. He trained as an electrician, and completed his apprenticeship at 19 years old and continued to work as an electrician until April 1994. Like many with the closure of Silverwood John had to seek work outside the mining industry, and is now a Group Health & Safety and QA Manager at Advance Security UK Ltd. In a recent email John writes "I have just viewed your Silverwood Colliery web site and have been transported back to a very special time of my life."

A wry comment from Geoff Illsley who supplied the following information who realizing that between 1950 and 1970 the workforce was cut by 50% "it seems that if you halved the manpower you needed to quadruple the management!"

Manpower; below ground – 1089
above ground - 321
General Manager - Mr F Thompson
Deputy Manager - Mr R Edwards
Undermanagers - Mr SM Halder, Mr H Pitchford, Mr CJ Dorlin, ;Mr JA Brown, Mr R Sherwood and Mr RC Watson
Source: Colliery Guardian - Guide to the Coalfields 1971

During 1971 Jack Bowen a driver who had worked at the mine since 1928 died at Silverwood, I do not know the cause of death at the time of writing.
Youngsters like Colin Winfindale started in 1971, he later left and joined the Royal Navy, Colin returned and went back down the pit in 1978 until 1988 as a Beltman. Colin came from a mining background of mining, as his older brother by 18 years Thomas Winfindale worked at the mine pre 1970. Dickie Winfindale was his father a miner of 41 years, passed away in 1988 of lung dust. Other Winfindale's Arthur, Sammy and David who also worked at the mine were Uncles.
In 1972 the Barnsley scheme was exhausted making the Swallow Wood seam the main supply of coal for Silverwood, with further development this seam in 1978 placed Silverwood in the Million Tonner Pits listing, producing in excess of one million tonnes of coal per year. Later years saw the additions of larger winders, better manriding and material handling systems, making Silverwood one of the most efficient mines in England and Europe.

One of the characters at Silverwood was Tom Reed otherwise known as Tommy Toddles by the miners, he was in charge of the cage and checked the men on and off.

Dave Edwards worked at Silverwood from 1955 to 1971 starting as a haulage hand in the pit bottom then went onto coal face and became a deputy . He emigrated to Australia in 1971 with his wife and 2 children. He writes: As a young deputy I was privileged to work with officials like Danny Jones and Bill Turner who were always willing to give advice to anyone who was willing to listen. Albert Tuke was the manager at Silverwood in my later years at the mine, one of the best managers Silverwood ever had. I believe his father also worked at the mine and he was rightly proud of his son . It would be great to see their names added to the list, they should all be proud to have worked at Silverwood when the mine was breaking all sorts of production records. I will watch with great interest your web site.
I started work at Appin colliery NSW where I stayed until I retired. Regards David Edwards Australia "Retired out to grass"
Dave also had quite a few relatives who worked at the mine starting with his grandfather Edmund James Edwards, his father Edmund James "Eddie" Edwards, great uncle Bill Edwards who ended his time at the mines training centre as an instructor. Uncle Bill Edwards who lived behind Whinny hill, brothers Eddie Edwards, Terry Edwards, and Adrian Edwards who possibly would have been there until closure.

During the 1970's the N. A. C.O.D.S Executive were:- J. A. Hale Branch Secretary, H. Marsh Branch President, T. K. Mellor Branch Vice-President

and F. Schofield was Branch Delegate.

The Management at the time prior to the Queens visit were;- J. Aird Production Manager, P. Lawrence Colliery General Manager, D. Taylor Deputy Manager, the undermanagers were G. Taylor , R. Sherwood, R. Melluish, R. Turner , and G. Newton. M. j. Cawkwell was the Mechanical Engineer, B. Fleet Electrical Engineer, H. Shaw Colliery Surveyor, C. Critchlow Assistant Manager Personnel, R. Norman Safety Engineer, and K. Smith was the Administrative Officer.

Wilfred. Bartholomew was a locoman in the 1970’s,Wilfred nicknamed the “Honey Monster” due to his large size, thick ginger hair and his bushy ginger beard. Unfortunately is now [ 2007 ] deceased.

Many Miners were dying from industry related disease's like Joseph Walker a member of the well known Walker family of Thrybergh. Joseph died in 1973 of the coal dust disease silicosis, after working all of his working days at Silverwood.
In the 1970's a young Electrician died whilst carrying out repairs to the Washers on the surface, a sharp reminder that tragic deaths were not confined to working underground.

Michael (Mick) Shaw started work at Silverwood Colliery from 1972 to October 1993.
From 1972 to 1974 he was a collier at the pit & then from 1974 to 1993 worked as a deputy & acting overman. During this time he was also a miners rescue member.
Today 2007 Mick states "I loved working at Silverwood and would go back tomorrow given the chance. I miss the atmosphere & camaraderie with my workmates."

In 1973 another wage dispute was to arise on the12th of November 1973 The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) began an overtime ban. This panicked the Heath Government and a state of emergency was declared on the following day.
With a lot of maintenance occurring on the week-ends it came as no surprise that on the 26th of November over a 1,000 Northern miners were sent home without pay due to the stoppage of production because no weekend maintenance had been carried out..
The situation was now becoming desperate and no agreement was agreed on the pay dispute in a meeting between the NUM and the National Coal Board on the 27th of December 1973 . By this time 400,000 workers in England and Wales had been laid off due to the fuel crisis. In a further meeting on the 2nd of January 1974 an offer of 40p and 70p per week on top of the current offer was rejected by The Pay Board.

Edward Heath the Prime Minister in a letter of appeal to the president of the NUM on the 24th January 1974 pleaded with the miners to accept what was offered, return to work, and return to negotiations to discuss improvements. Having no confidence in the Heath Government and its promises the NUM decided by 16 votes to 10 to put the matter to its members by a ballot for a national strike. On the 4th of February 1974 Edward Heath met with the TUC in a final effort to stop the impending strike but again he failed. Nine days later the vote was cast and the miners opted to strike from midnight on the 9th of February.

The strike and Edward Heaths decision to call an election was to be the downfall of his career, the election on the 28th of February was a win for Harold Wilson and the labour Party.

The strike was to end on the 11th of March 1974 the miners were victorious, as for the Government, well they did what was expected and raised the price of coal, blaming the pay rise for the price increase.

In October of 1975 the Rotherham Advertiser carried an article by J. L. Ferns, in that article he states that :-

"The seam being worked at Silverwood at that time, (1975) is at 900 yards. Above it are 29 other coal seams separated by various rocks and sedimentary material. Seventeen of these seams are less than 20" thick and eight more are less than 30". " The seams are not horizontal because of the many convolutions as the strata were laid down millions of years ago. That and the presence of methane gas in the Barnsley Bed has made for difficulties in mining."

William Newey (bill) who had been a Foreman at the colliery sadly passed away age just 48 on the 24.12/1973, son of Ben and Ethel Newey of Dalton. Ben had worked at the colliery from the early 1920's and had four other sons who also worked at the colliery Jack Newey, Tom Newey, Joe Newey, and Ben Newey jnr.

In 1975 Silverwood was one of the first mines to introduce a Dosco Mk2a roadheader, which is a light duty borer developed for mining, James Williamson a Kilnhurst Colliery miner did some of his training at Silverwood so that he could work with the Mk2a. This roadborer is still in use today and are found for sale worldwide, though the series has been updated quite a few times by the manufacturer Dosco

As other local Mines closed some Miners were transferred to Silverwood, men like Leslie Hartley a Deputy who was transferred in 1977 from the New Stubbin Colliery, and remained at Silverwood until its closure in 1994.
During this period of Silverwood's history the National Coal Board Chairman was Mr. D. Ezra.

On the 31st of July1975 Queen Elizabeth visited the 2200 metre deep coalface at Silverwood Colliery. The cage was lowered very slowly for the descent into the mine. Miners are usually lowered at around 50 feet per second, her majesty was lowered around 25 feet per second. Along with Prince Phillip they rode 1/4 of a mile to the coal face where the Queen was given a freshly cut piece of coal

As a Preparation for this visit anything at the mine that didn't move was painted green. Some of the men were to joke that a lot of foremen and undermanagers were painted green. The Manager at this time was Peter Lawrence [ On photo with the Queen right ] and the Mechanical engineer was Mr. M. J. Cawkwell.

Billy Frith, Freddie Powell, and Fred Hartle, amongst others had their photo taken with Prince Phillip.

George (Tupper) Featherstone, who probably worked at Silverwood pit throughout WW2 and definitely did after WW2 until his retirement was the man who drove the Queen on an underground train on her visit in 1975, and lived at Gullingwood Drive in Thrybergh until his death in 1991.

Now apparently the Royal Couple spent the night sleeping in the sidings on board the royal train, so another legendary tale emerges of the night the royal family had a kip at Thrybergh.

The mine still had its characters like Joe Mcdermott, who worked at Silverwood from 1977 to 1989,and was known for his singing on the chair coming out of the mine. Now that must have sounded awesome and I am sure well appreciated by his work mates. Joe came from the Mcdermott family of Dalton and Thrybergh who established themselves at the mine around 1920.

Alan John Riley started at the mine in 1977 and became a fitter working there until 1988. He spent most of his time in the pit bottom. Then did 9 years in the Selby coal field where he went from fitter to site foreman fitter. Following that he then moved to Maltby pit as a pit top fitter / fabricator on the coal prep plant. Presently [ 2007 ]Alan now works on the railways as a site supervisor with an old Silverwood friend Nigel Walker who is also a site supervisor. Alan tells me that thanks to this website he has found that his grandfather and four uncles worked at Silverwood, and that in keeping up the family tradition his son Steven is presently [2007 ] working at Maltby colliery in the control room.

In 1979 Mike Mcgann became undermanager and stayed until 1987, his father Hugh had worked there since 1923 and his Grandfather John had worked at the mine as a Shaft sinker when the mine was first sunk.

Silverwood saved a lot of money when it started using free natural gas to heat up the water in the Pit head Baths in 1979

Many miners were very flexible and versatile in their employment and would learn many aspects of mining during their years at the pit. Brian Whitehead who started in 1979 was such a man and his son Chris informs us that his dad worked as a conveyor attendant, supply man, belt man and latterly as a face and heading man. Brian finished at Silverwood in 1992 shortly before it's closure.

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