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Scotts the Coalman

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:30 am
by andysfootball
Anyone remember them delivering coal in the hesian sacks on the back of a truck.

He would load them in the bunker and then at the end you used to get a bundle of sticks.

I can remember it happening in Fenwick Avenue, Simonside and then in Marion Way, Cleadon in the late 60's. I think it stopped because of natural gas coming in probably very early 70's.

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:37 am
by memor
Yes I remember them. He used to leave each hessian sack in the corner

of the yard after he'd tipped them into the coal shed. So my Mama could

count them and show he'd delivered the right number.

Coal Fires Bloomin awful fiddly to get started great heat when they were on but as soon as the coal burned away the house went cold again

And it always seemed to be my turn to get another bucketful of coal just as there was something good on telly

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 11:19 am
by Jarrow Pete
Always remember one of the essays I had to write while at Redwell for the mock GCE exam was to describe how to light a coal fire. A bit like I have to do now with my work in producing a method statement for Health and safety regs.

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:11 pm
by Delilahcat
Our coalman was Smithson's. My mother used to watch them like a hawk to make sure that the 10 bags she'd paid for were delivered and they didn't only deliver 9. What a hard job it must have been carrying sacks of coal all day.
I got married in 1963 and after a year of coal fires and all the mess involved changed to gas. Used to come home at 5.30.pm light the fire and the house didn't start getting warm until bedtime. Coal fires are nice to look at but that's all.

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:25 pm
by Barney
Yup, I remember Arthur Scott well.
He used to deliver coal to our house before we got the gas central heating.

He lived on Mortimer Road - number 76.
I know as I used to be close to his daughter, Mavis.
Nice lass, she was.

Ah, them was the days!!

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:32 pm
by Jim_in_France
My Dad worked at Monkton Coke Works and used to get a coal allowance. I remember it was tipped from an NCB truck in the street and it had to be shifted to the coal house. Cant remember how much we got free? People from around the doors used to come and ask to buy a bucket of coal. I think the going rate was a shilling a bucket.

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:23 pm
by memor
Monkton Coke works killed my Father.

Whenever anyone developed a bad chest and went to the local Docs in

the area he asked them where they lived and then put a pin on a local

map. The pins formed a tear drop of where the prevailing wind blew

smoke from the stack. Bad chests were just the tip of the ice berg the

smoke was carcinogenic.

Thank GOD people had the sense to close it down.

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 11:35 pm
by Jim_in_France
memor. My dad died of brochiogenic carcinoma (cancer) in Australia about 10yrs after leaving the coke works. He was there 17 years and I'm sure it is what killed him. I was told to put in a family claim over it, but I was out of time. I remember it as very dusty.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:14 am
by Jarrow Pete
My father in law worked there until he retired, he is now 86. Memor and Jim the coke works was there long before the houses were built. When the council applied to build the houses around the works the coal board objected because they knew about the discharges from the gas production would upset people living near by. It went to a hearing in front of a judge who relucktantly gave the council planning permission. He added a statement to the council saying "let it be on their heads for pushing to build so near the plant"

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:30 am
by Barney
That place used to light up the night sky when we were kids. It was eerie and awesome at the same time, especially on low cloud cover nights, when all of the western sky would glow from the flames of the burn off.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 5:05 pm
by Babooshka
memor wrote:Yes I remember them. He used to leave each hessian sack in the corner
of the yard after he'd tipped them into the coal shed. So my Mama could
count them and show he'd delivered the right number.
Coal Fires Bloomin awful fiddly to get started great heat when they were on but as soon as the coal burned away the house went cold again
And it always seemed to be my turn to get another bucketful of coal just as there was something good on telly
I'm trying to remember the name of the coal merchants who used to deliver to us..my mam used to go and pay at the offices near the Lord Clyde but I can't remember the companies name. We got a gas fire too in the 70's and it was great to be able to just switch it on.. no more faffing about with blazers etc. I have an open fire in this place but use coalite or logs, when I use that room.
Anyway happy days playing on the coal-house roof :lol:

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:24 pm
by memor
Jarrow Pete your Father -in Law is one lucky man. My Father died of Bladder Cancer.

One of the Chemicals in that smoke causes Bladder Cancer.
My Father worked in the area at Reyrolles.



Babs I not sure where Mama Maplin pay coal bills. I always remember after coal man had been she have big coaly hand prints on her buttocks.

She tell me coal man had mistaken her for bag of coal.

It could be true....!!!!!!!!

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 6:31 pm
by Cisco
I'm not sure Babs but I think there was a silkburns coal merchants in that area.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:55 pm
by Babooshka
memor wrote:
Babs I not sure where Mama Maplin pay coal bills. I always remember after coal man had been she have big coaly hand prints on her buttocks. She tell me coal man had mistaken her for bag of coal.
It could be true....!!!!!!!!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Cisco's
I'm not sure Babs but I think there was a silkburns coal merchants in that area.
that's the one!! your memory is top notch

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:54 pm
by Cisco
Good long term memory Babs but a bad short term one.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:10 pm
by Babooshka
Went passed the other day and Lords tool hire is there now.

For some reason always remembered the coalmerchants had a yellow door

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:17 pm
by Cisco
I knew a couple of lads who worked for Silkburns Babs.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:14 pm
by anna
Its great to have instant heat,when ever we want it,but you carnt beat a coal fire,its so cosy . Wouldnt swap my gas fire, :D but its nice to see a coal fire burning. I remember my mam used to sprinkle sugar on it to make it catch,? :?

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:25 pm
by Babooshka
Cisco wrote:I knew a couple of lads who worked for Silkburns Babs.
I can still see the flat bed lorry that used to hold all the bags of coal ready to carry
off - the coalmen used to get scruffy - remember their black faces :lol: :lol: :lol:

Image

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:09 pm
by Cisco
The two lads I knew Babs, one was a big well made lad called Reuben Ford the other one was called John Bell
You'll probably not remember them you been only being a young girl at the time :lol: