Wullie Baillie

Barony and Kirkstyle Collieries

The Blind Pit at the Barony 1931

When you 1st went to Barony in 1931 and if I remember right I think you said it was one of the deepest pits in Scotland?
The Barony was about 2000ft deep, the both shafts went down the same but No1 shaft was as deep but it came off at a level higher up about 60 fathom.
I remember you also said; I remember you telling me at that particular depth, the water that went right up to the top of the pit, if there was a burst at the bottom of the pit the force of the water would be such that coming out you could take an axe to it and it would be like hitting a steel bar!
Well coming out it would be about 900 lbs to the square inch; between 8 and 900 lbs square inch. The pump that pumped the water from Barony No1 to the surface was 660 horsepower (hp) When we were going to start up on the backshift, we had to phone the power station and they had to put on an extra alternator to take that pump and yet it was only pumping 800 gallons a minute because of the tremendous height and the pressure. But the wheel for opening it, the man had to have a 6 foot lever to turn the wheel because the pressure on the one side… See with turbine pumps you have got to get the pressure equal, a turbine pump has to build up its pressure. It was an 8 or a 9 stage pump, each stage put so much on to it and it got to build up its pressure to you got pressure equal on both sides and then it starts to pump the water. When I went to Barony 1st I was an Oversman in the section up from the pit bottom on the dayshift. I was in that section for several months. Then they required an Oversman on the backshift for the whole pit. So I took over the whole pit on the backshift along with No2 Barony; I was responsible for both pits. We produced coal on the back shift, we had actually to produce coal on the backshift to. I was on the backshift for quite some time, and then I was ultimately brought back onto dayshift and was then sent into what we called the Blind Pit section.  This was a section that was way up almost into Highhouse, actually it holed through into Highhouse and we could actually walk from one pit to the other. Its interesting to note that  Barony had no mice or rats but after we holed through into Highhouse the mice came through into Barony Pit, they came right down into the stables in Barony pit bottom. The Blind  Pit was a shaft underground, which it would be about 180 feet deep and we dropped or lowered the coal from the higher level to the lower level. The full tub brought the empty tub up; it was very interesting. It was made up the side of a fault and what happened was the hutch went onto the top and it brought the empty tub up. There was a man on braking it of course, it was really the load of the coal was the difference. The men had to go up ladders, a whole series of ladders up the inside in a compartment along side the winding shaft and they zig zagged right up, so everybody had to go up the ladders and come down the ladders. They only thing was they could have went away further round with the air. The air came from Highhouse actually, down through into Barony and went to Barony shaft and the section was aired from Highhouse. I was up there for some time and then I was brought down and sent to another section what we called the North Level.  

In the dark with a broken arm

The management used me for quite a while in Barony from going to one section to another. A section got out of order and I was usually pushed into it and brought it back into order and then I was transferred into another section and ultimately I went into the main section which hadn’t been doing too well. In fact they had 2 Oversman before me and things weren’t doing too well. I was only about a fortnight in when I got my arm broken. I was walking up the conveyor belt, the pans as we called them. I was walking up the shaker conveyor, when I was in the dark because in those days they wouldn’t allow us to have electric lights, we worked with safety lamps and they were a very, very poor light. The Deputy and Oversman worked with safety lamps and yet the men could work with electric battery lamps. The Group manager thought that if a Deputy had an electric lamp he would leave it, he would leave his safety lamp hanging somewhere and he wouldn’t carry his safety lamp. Which was not the case because in latter years… Nowadays everybody carries there safety lamp and their electric cap lamp. We had electric handlamps in those days and they wouldn’t even let us carry a handlamp. While I was backshift Oversman they would sometimes when the pit wasn’t working at the weekend, I’ve seen me in Barony No1  no other body underground but myself and yet I was supposed to go round and count props when the pit was idle. What I did, I carried 2 safety lamps just in case I went into the dark, because in those days there was no sparker. In those days you had to go back to a central point, to a haulage or that where there were a battery and you put your lamp onto the battery and lit  it from the battery. But there were not lighters on the lamps so if you went in the dark you had to cover long distances in the dark with no other body in the pit but yourself. There was a stone about 9ft long and about 18 inches thick and I was going up these shaker conveyors and  I staggered a bit and put my hand  out on the face side and this stone fell on it and the shakers were still shaking! My body was shaking back and up and down and my arm was underneath the stone.  I was taken to Ayr county and was  in Ayr County for three weeks. I came back home after 3 weeks; I got out on Christmas eve 1933. I had what they call a Thomas Splint  and I still get a lot of bother with that arm. It was what they call a Thomas Splint and it was an iron splint which was way out past… about 9 inches past my fingertips. I had what the call a comminuted fracture, a compound fracture of both bones of the left forearm. Now comminuted was when the bone was smashed,  the bone was sticking out through the skin  and I was up in this particular section at the Barony, it was the biggest section in the Barony. I didn’t want to stop the haulages or the tubs coming in, so I went down the aircourse and I walked back to the pit bottom.  They young officials got a doing from the Mines Inspector for allowing me to walk. I came out on Christmas eve and I wanted home. The splint was like a Spanish windlass and they had a bandage onto my wrist  and onto the end of the splint and they twisted this round and they tightened and tightened it and pulled your arm out to put what they cry extension and counter extension onto it. The sister and I fell out about it as she was always packing up my elbow and it was all torn and black and blue. The day after been three weeks lay flat on my back on the bed with my hand and arm tied to a chair! And I lay like that for 3 weeks and the sister came in the day I was allowed off, the sister came in and took that off and bent my arm! I was 11 weeks off and restarted as they had put nobody on my place when I was off. The manager and Under managers carried on amongst themselves and I went back to the section I’d been in and restarted; I was in it there until I  left Barony in 1934.

Working waist deep in water at Barony

The 1st year I was in Barony that year in 1931, I was Captain of the Fauldhead team in the spring of that year; we won the RL Angus cup. When I went to Barony the management asked me to start up an ambulance team. So we picked a new ambulance team and I trained them during the 1st winter at Barony the 1931-32 winter. We went to Kilmarnock and we finished second to Fauldhead; Fauldhead won it again that year. The following year I still kept on training the team and by that time my team were getting more and more experience and we won the Angus cup and it was the 1st time Fauldhead had lost it in 6 years; from 1929, that was the 1st time they had lost it. We won it and the year I left Barony we won it again in 1934. While I was in Barony my wage was £3.10 a week after I had been three years in Barony; my wage was still £3.10 a week!  I was working 8, 9 and 10 shifts a week. I was out at weekends and I asked to get into the shaft to give me shaft experience and I learnt all my shaft work in No2 and No1 shafts in Barony. I was going out at weekends and getting no extra money. I had a set wage and it didn’t matter how many shifts I worked. It made no difference in fact  I once had a burst of water in a section and I was out at 7am on the Sunday morning and we installed a pump. We worked to the waist in water and I was there until 1 o’clock on Monday afternoon dayshift from 7 o’clock on a Sunday morning. I went home at that time and I wasn’t long home  and I got word, your mother got word I was to go back to the pit  at 6 o’clock, there was a meeting at the pit. I went back to the pit and we had a new group manager who came on at that time ; Ritchie. Ritchie came up from the Glenburn district and we were at the meeting and the section that I was in charge of  that day, I was at home of course in bed, the sections hadn’t  got on and something had happened and they didn’t get stripped.  Ritchie turned round and asked me what went wrong with No7 today. I said I don’t know I was home in bed. He said what was wrong and I said I was out since 7 o’clock on the Sunday morning until 1 o’clock today. He said When I was a young man I could do 4 shifts at the pit! So that was me back to the pit at 6 o’clock after been out all that time. 

Undermanagers job at

Kirkstyle Colliery Kilmarnock  

Well I got word that... somebody sent word to see if I would interested in going as Under-manager to Kirkstyle in Kilmarnock, they were wanting an Under-manager and they wondered if I would be interested in it.  I went up to Hurlford and I met  the general manager and the chairman  and I was offered the job as Under-manager, which I accepted as it was £5.10 a week. It was about £2 a week more!  I should say before that having £3.10 a week  and Murray always said that the way they were using me I should have more pay. It was time they were giving me a rise. He said I’ll speak to Mr Logan who was  the general manage and about three month  before I left Barony  they gave me a rise of 3 and sixpence per week, which is 17 ½ pence in today’s money! I went up and saw the chairman and he said it was the Under-managers job but I would be in charge of  the pit. I would have a say in everything and I would make all the arrangements and contracts and be in charge of everything inside the gates. My wages had to be £5.10 and it was to be a monthly wage. I came back to Barony and I told them at Barony that Mr Ritchie I mentioned before had taken over as group manager. Well he was looking after Barony but he was still in charge down at Glenburn and Prestwick area. When I was in seeing the manager and finishing up. Ritchie said I was foolish to go to Kirkstyle, If I went with him down the country, I would have landed up with a manager’s job through time.  But I said I had promised to go down to Kirkstyle and I wasn’t going to break my promise.
If I remember right Kirkstyle was a pit where people came in, the contractor’s came in and bought the coal.
Over 90% of the coal was bought by contractors, there were horses and lorry’s came in and it was a 1st class house coal and over 90% was actually at the pithead sale. When I went to Kirkstyle there was no house available, so I had to go into digs. In fact I was in digs for a matter of 7 or 8 months. I went there in June 1934 and had quite a lot to do. The chap who was on in front of me, the Under-manager in front of me was an old man of 72 and the pit had got run down pretty badly, so I had quite a lot of work to do. But unfortunately I was only there… I was home in October for your mother’s birthday  and when I came back up on the Monday, unfortunately I got my neck broken and that’s when landed into the hospital.

Breaking my neck between two tubs

What happened was … it was the clipping, the clips were attached to an endless rope haulage and they were two 16 year old boys at this junction and they handled all the traffic from the pit was handled at that junction. It was fairly low; it was only 3ft 10 inches where the boys worked and a full tub came down from this particular section and it had dropped off the road at one end and I was leaning down lifting it on and I never heard the other tub with the clip and it squeezed my head into my chest. I knew what had happened right away because I both felt it and heard it. I could hear my neck breaking and I felt it. When I fell I fell in a heap with my cap lamp shining on my hands, my hands were completely paralysed and I couldn’t move them everything was completely paralysed and I was lying curled up. They got help of course and they straightened me out and one Deputy who was there had a man who broke his neck two or three years before and he was told he should carry me face down. So they put me onto the stretcher face down and unfortunately I couldn’t breathe and I made them turn me onto my back. I could speak ok I was conscious. I was only paralysed from the neck down; I was able to speak alright.  I made them turn me back onto my back because I was lying on my chest I couldn’t get breathing, the weight on my chest I couldn’t breathe. If I was going to live they would have to put me on my back on to the stretcher; I was able to breathe after that. They carried me out to the pit bottom and on the road out just before we got to the pit bottom, the Dr had arrived, Dr Hamilton from Hurlford had arrived, he came underground and he saw me. He couldn’t do anything for me of course but he examined me and they took me into the pit bottom and the cage was a small single hutch cage; it would only be about 5ft x 4ft. The stretcher couldn’t get onto it. There was no way a stretcher could get not the cage, the only way you could put the stretcher on what we called a Heath Robinson stretcher that was sued in latter years. We hadn’t such a thing. So I gave instructions to them and I sat on two men’s knees and I got one of my deputy’s; a big tall chap to pull on my head and keep my head up all the time, what we call extension and counter extension. We got to the surface and I still gave them instructions until they put me onto the stretcher and I was taken to Kilmarnock Infirmary. I told them of course that my neck was broken and they looked at me and they just put me into bed and left me there.  It was 9 o’clock at night before they decided to cut my clothes off and I always mind that when they came round after they cut the clothes off the sister came and said to me “Is there anything we can do for you?”  I said “I’m awful hungry, I want something to eat!”  So I think they gave me switched egg and brandy or something like that. I haven’t mind what it was.

Paralysed in Kilmarnock Infirmary

There was a quite a pain in my neck! I had no pain anywhere else because of the paralysis. There was no pain in my feet or legs or anything.  The next day they decided that they would put me plaster, so they put my neck in plaster and plastered my head down to my waist and put me upstairs into the ward and I was up there for about two days. Then they thought it wasn’t suitable, well they put me under an anaesthetic  of course when they took me into the theatre and the next time when I came around the bed was raise about 18 to 20 inches at the top. I was strapped by the chin to the bed and my body was left hanging on these straps to give me extensions and counter-extensions. They had cut-off the plaster, there was no plaster at all and they just let me hang there. I hung there I think it was almost 8 weeks. The Dr’s came in and periodically talked things over, in fact when I had the stookie on and I was lying in bed. They were discussing round the bed how they would fix me to the top of my bed when they were going to tie me  on the bed and I would listen to them I suggested that they get a rescue brigade skull cap from the rescue station and that’s what they did. They got a rescue brigade skull cap from the rescue brigade at Kilmarnock. That’s what I wore on my head the whole time I was hanging and strapped to the top of the bed.  The 3rd cervical was fractured transverse process was fractured on the 3rd cervical The 4th and the 5th cervical were partially dislocated and the 6th cervical was fractured right through the body. We discovered later on that the partial dislocation… after several weeks about a month… they made tests and they discovered, I could tell what fingers they were touching by the tests. So from that we discovered that the sensory nerves were not being present and the motor nerves the one that sends out the messages, the one that was being pressed on, so I couldn’t send out any of those messages for movement or anything;  That why I had the paralysis.  I could tell them when I require a bed-pan, I could tell them if I wanted a bottle and because the sensory nerve hadn’t been damaged. After about a month in they asked me , was there anything I could do, they were always willing to help and they did anything they could to help me, the Dr’s. So I asked them what about a masseur?  So they started to send a lady masseur in everyday after that and she massaged my body my leg and my arms.  About 6 weeks after I was in, I began to get slight movement in my finger, in one of my fingers and thumb. I was able to slightly move a finger and thumb. So the masseur concentrated on that and then we gradually worked from the next finger till I was able to move my finger, thumb and my hands. The rest of my body was still paralysed and then I was gradually be able to lift that arm, it was a week or so afterword’s I was able to start the other one. Then from there they gradually came back.

A long time in hospital

They brought a surgeon down, a specialist down from Glasgow and he examined me and I got x-rays taken. He decided he would take me down to the theatre, he would cut into where the bones were dislocated and he would try and lever the dislocation back into position. It was a Mr Davidson. So they got me all ready for the theatre, they lowered the bed down, put the theatre socks on and was all prepared to go to the theatre, when word came in at the last minute to leave well alone and let nature take its course. So by leaving me hanging there in extension, the bones gradually healed up of course. My movement began to comeback a wee bit at a time. The hands were the 1st, then I began to lift my arms and one of my arms was longer coming than the other one, after it started I tried to get to the top of the bed, to hold onto the top of the bed. One of the days the Dr was round, the Dr said "What can you do this morning?" We had 4 Dr's came round, a team. I said I can catch the top of the bed. So he says "Well done" and the other Dr says "Pure determination" The 1st exercise after I began to move my finger and thumb, I was so weak that I could only move and then stop. So the masseur gave me a safety pin on my pyjama jacket. The exercise I got to start with was to open a safety pin but I didn't have the strength to shut it again. I had to lie and wait I was like a dying battery, I had to lie and wait to the strength came back and I shut it, then I opened it. That went on and that was an exercise during all my waking period, that was the exercise I got was opening and shutting the safety pin till I was able to do it without any trouble. It took me nearly a week before I could go to the other fingers, before I was able to touch the other fingers. I was about 8 weeks before I began to draw up my legs and to get movement. I was still hanging by the neck; they still kept me hanging up and I was still strapped. I've always mind the barber use to come in twice a week and shave me but the straps were round my chin he could only shave a wee bit of me. One day there was a young barber came in and I'll always mind he had to stand up on a stool and he was above me with an open razor and his hand was shaking; He was afraid to shave me! They decided after about 9 weeks that they would let me get up. They let me get up but they thought it would be better to go into stookie to support my head. So again while they were discussing it around my bed, they couldn't understand what they could use because I was going to be stookied from the top of my head right down to my waist. So I made a suggestion for over my head that they use a balaclava helmet and they talked amongst themselves later and they made a thing of their own. They got a stockinet thing that came right down over my head. In those days they used to put stockinet over when they were going to plaster a leg, so the sister made a stockinet which fitted over my head.

Going back to work at Kirkstyle

I was six months off exactly with it and I mind going back and seeing the boss, the chairman and I said that I was ready for starting work. I went back, he was actually a coal merchant from Troon and they got most of our coal. While I was off I got word to go in front of the compensation people in Glasgow and went up and we had the stookie off by this time. I said to the Drs in Kilmarnock “I want to start work but they don’t let me” So the Dr says “We’ll decided when you start work”. This was the compensation Dr, In fact that Dr got up off his chair and helped me on with my jacket and he was very surprised when I told him that my neck was broken. When I saw the General Manager he said “Well if your Dr’s at the hospital give you a clean bill of health, then you can start” So I went and saw the Dr and he gave me a thorough examination and then wrote out a certificate saying that I would be alright for work as far as he was concerned. I’ll always mind that I thanked him, Dr Frew for what he done for me, he was the chief… Frew said “Don’t thank me, thank yourself, you did far more for yourself than what we did for you; The person to thank is yourself. He knew that I had been going in for 1st aid work and he said “Was you interested in your x-rays?” I said I was and he said “You go up to the hospital and tell the sister and tell her I sent you up and you’ll see all your x-rays” They used to take them regular every other day and I saw about 30 of my x rays, so they showed me them at the hospital. I went back to work of course and restarted; the pit was in a damned able mess. The wee chap that followed me when I was off, he had his under-managers papers but he was of a poor type and he was trying to boost up his morale with all the coal he could get his hands on but he just about wrecked the pit. I started… I mind of going down to the pit on the Saturday morning, I was starting on the Monday and on the Saturday morning I went down to the pit, the pit was idle and I descended to the pit bottom and I’ll always mind I went down the shaft to the pit bottom and my knees were knocking going down the shaft! I went down and had a look round the bottom and came back up. I started on the Monday morning and they kept the other lad who had been on my job til the Wednesday and then they took him away and left me with the pit! I was only three days started when I was left on my own. So there I was left on my own and going in the haulage road because the road was very low you had to bend down, it was only 3ft high and with the weight of your head on your neck, I had terrific pains in my neck and I could only go from man hole to man hole; a matter of ten yards.  Then I had to sit in the man hole and straightened up my neck and rest a minute or two and then go on again and then rest.  I went into the junction where the accident happened, that was the 1st place I went to. The manager had promised to get it repaired when I was in hospital but there had been nothing done to it.  It was only about 3ft 10inches high and the 1st job I laid on was I got the whole of that junction made to over 6ft!  I laid on all that and got it over to 6 feet. As I said the pit was in a damnedable mess but it was a challenge to come back to.