Andrew McDickens
Trapped with no way out
It was about half past seven on the 7th September and we were on the backshift and there was a man McDonald running the tubs down to us to fill. He says “Right you’ve all to meet at the pit bottom” about half past seven on the Thursday night. So we made to the pit bottom but we just got halfway out and there had been a locomotive ran into the sludge, that was coming down from this field that had caved in and they were coming slowly in the mine. That was a full locomotive with 40 tubs and it was coming slowly in shoving them back in the mine. We went right to the front of that and we just thought we would be better to get back into the turn: we couldn’t get to the pit bottom. We knew there was no way out, we knew we were trapped. We went to what was called the West mine turn and there was a 119 (113) of us sitting there, when they all got together and they all got word to make their way. He was there (Andrew Houston – Oversman) he had been up, and him and Andy Cunningham – Andrew Cunningham, they both got medals by the way but they went up to the pit head and as far as I know and what I got told, they were putting a fenced roundabout where the field was beginning to come in and they had to run for their lives: The fence and everything caved in. Everybody was just sitting round about you couldn’t do anything; we were all together. We knew the phone was working but though time after a day or two, the phone was getting weaker and weaker all the time. It’s what I said… I’ve done a radio interview and I told them if the phone hadn’t been working; I don’t know what would have happened. Because we wouldn’t have known what was going on or nothing. Me and Dave Jess and another two I just forget who they were and we went away up round about these workings and we came back as there was no escape and we done the wrong thing as I don’t think we should have even been away because that stuff was beginning to run all round about. Oh there was no way out – we knew that, we knew that there was a… the only the only chance we had was about 20 or 30ft of coal between the Bank No6 mine and through to Knockshinnoch. They knew it was the only chance the men had of getting out because they would never get out going and getting up the pit in the cage or anything like that. I never was down Waterhead dook at that time but some of the men had been giving them a hand when they decided to break through, there was two or three working from this side and some from the other side. But we knew that there was a lot of work going on at the other side. We knew what they were doing and they had started dogging their way through.
The rising gas and the rescue
But there was an awful lot of gas… Oh well we knew that the gas was coming through and it was a right body of gas, I mean it hadn’t been worked for 20 to 30 years! And there was a lot of gas came through. Eventually, Davy Park come through with one of these heavy… they tried light, you know the masks and they didn’t do and they had to go to Coatbridge and get heavy equipment and they were about 50lb or something. A big heavy thing that was pumping air round about… So Davy Park came through with one of them on and that’s when everybody was a bit happier. Well I remember there were two or three thought they could make a run for it. But he told them “ You’ll not get 100 yards… on you go and you’ll not get 100 yards ; it was two or three younger ones. That was the 1st one that came through; Davy Park. But there was two or three rescue brigades came when they decided everybody was getting out 4 at a time; we were getting out 4 at a time. There was a wee space between one and other, they never went quick. I don’t know if they had many of these heavy masks they had; there was no panic or anything. The older ones got there first and they tried to get all them out 1st. I was maybe in the last 20 or something like that; It was it a good while. We knew there was plenty gas there… at the finish up we were lying down, you couldn’t stand up. When we got his apparatus fitted on, we just made our way down that dook and by the way there was somebody supposed to be sitting there waiting on us coming down and there was nobody sitting there when we were there and we were down by it. Going straight down into the dook and you couldn’t take your mask off, you couldn’t shout or anything and I just gripped Geordie, I gripped him and I told him lets go back up there and we had to come back up. We were down by the hole where they went through, there was somebody supposed to be sitting there. Aye when we went back up there was somebody there but they weren’t there when we went down bye. They were just with you, walking with you, going down there. We had a good bit to walk to the foot of the No6 mine and we had to go up in these trolleys, you know the hutches. And I’ll tell you I didn’t like it as they had been two disasters there with that, in 1938 and 1920? These bogies had run away with men in them.
Going back to work at Knockshinnoch
There was plenty of folk about, I mind of that, but we were took into the baths and we had a wash and we were taken straight to Ballochmyle, we weren’t allowed… we were just into the baths. We were all just in a big ward, we were all sitting down on the bed and the Doctors came… and we weren’t in that long. I only off about 6 weeks, I was just desperate to get back to work, and you had no money or anything; I was the only thing that was there for you. Well that’s what I was saying; we were just filling these bogies with the sludge cleaning out the pit as they started going in from the pit bottom, a good lot of work had taken place. It went fully half way into the West Mine, I’d say about… 800 yards but I remember once we were filling away and Jimmy McClatchie, the safety man and we were filling away these tubs and he came in and put up his stuff. “Right boys, you better get out of here its full of gas!” So that was it shut for a wee while after that. Getting out… It was a sad time. It didn’t affect me much, I just wanted to get back to my work get on with things as usual. We knew it was shutting down anyway… Whenever they started putting in Power loading stuff into it, you knew it was shutting, because you hadn’t the conditions for power loading. Just the conditions wasn’t there. It was full of faults and one thing and another. Now I was 17 years in Knockshinnoch and I finished up in 1985 at Killoch.
