1900 - 1994
Dedicated to the Miners of Silverwood
History of the Mine
SIMPLY THE BEST
Hollings Lane
Thrybergh
South Yorkshire England
Webmaster John Doxey
Main Photos Jonathan Dabs.
Additional content Mick Carver
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Dedicated to the Miners of Silverwood History of the Mine SIMPLY THE BEST |
Hollings Lane Thrybergh South Yorkshire England Webmaster John Doxey Main Photos Jonathan Dabs. Additional content Mick Carver |
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ROBERT PEPPER Presented by Joyce Longden [Nee Pepper ] |
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Robert 'Bob' Pepper was born at Pontefract Yorkshire in 1900 and and the family moved to the Rotherham area by 1903. He attended the new Whinney Hill School at Thrybergh before starting work. As yet little is known of Roberts early life or what year he started work at Silverwood. There is a wage slip from an unknown year in the family possession Robert had saved it, the wage was for the princely sum of 1/2 penny. He worked for a short time underground prior to 1936, but Roberts wife was fearful he may have shared the same fate as many other miners if he continued working underground and Robert gained employment on the surface to give his wife peace of mind.
In 1936 which is the year his daughter Joyce was born
Robert and his family were living at number 38 East Crescent Sunnyside, and
he was working on the coking Plant at Silverwood. Moving to Ravenfield for
18 years, before finally moving to Bramley Village near Wickersley.
Robert was from the old school who worked very hard to provide for his family, and never had time off for illness as he believed work was more important than illness, and felt privileged to have a job as there were many men who were not employed. He was never keen on the idea of striking and apparently was never asked to strike.
In 1960 just five years away from retirement Robert was transferred from Silverwood to the Smithywood Coking Plant near Chappeltown a cruel twist of fate indeed for a man of his age. The move broke his heart, as he had loved his work at Silverwood, and the comradeship he had found there, none the less with great reluctance he took up his new position. This meant he now faced a considerable journey by bus to Rotherham, then on to Chappeltown, and then to the coking plant, quite a change for a man who had always been able to walk to work from his home. He had purchased a bike during better times at Silverwood, but now when things should have been easier in his life he would face that long journey to and from work by bus. This meant an increase in his working day of three unpaid hours lost in travel, not to mention the bus fare involved.
So for the next five years Robert worked at Smithywood the coking plant built in 1929, and he retired age 65. In 1979 Robert Pepper sadly passed away a man who often remarked that Silverwood would last forever, thankfully he would not see the fate of Silverwood and other mines, how sad he would have been had he done so.
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Many thanks Joyce for sharing Roberts story here. |
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