South Shields Sanddancers Forum

Can anybody remember the the s**g heaps that used to be at Whitburn Pit (where Souter car park is now). Me and my dad would take his bike and a few coal sacks and go scrambling around the tips looking for pieces of coal to put in the bag during the winter. You would be half way up the heap when a wagon would arrive at the top and dump another load down on top of you if you were not careful. When two bags were full my dad would put them on his bike and wheel them home to Grotto Road whilst I continued to fill the other sacks. When he came back the other two sacks would be loaded and the both of us went home. We did this every other day for a few weeks but the coalhouse never seemed to be getting fulller. We find out the reason for this was that my mother was selling buckets of coal to the next door neighbour in exchange for money to buy fags. He would be sitting by his nice warm fire that cost him next to nothing while me and my dad had bleeding hands and practically chillblains collecting the coal. We did not go much after that.
comeonthen

We used to collect sea coal.

Put it on the fire, then make sure our extra strong fireguard was in place,
Then wait for the splutters and flying sparks to start.

Yes i remember that baldy, mini explosions all night

Pilot wrote:Yes i remember that baldy, mini explosions all night

We're not talking about your digestive problems pilot.

Why would you buy a fag there are plenty
over there anyway Elton John springs to mind
and he was Knighted for it
cheers

freon wrote:Why would you buy a fag there are plenty
over there anyway Elton John springs to mind
and he was Knighted for it
cheers

Roll on ,will we get this when we have Shari Law in this country.
BBC news
Page last updated at 10:30 GMT, Monday, 13 April 2009 11:30 UK


Fears over Iraq gay killing spate



Gay Iraqis fear for their lives
The Iraqi government must do more to protect homosexuals in the wake of a reported spate of killings of gay young men, Amnesty International has urged.

In the last few weeks, 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or were perceived to be, gay, Amnesty said.

In a letter to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the rights organisation called for "urgent and concerted action".

It also criticised the government's failure to condemn the killings.

'Corpses found'

The recent killings are said to have been carried out by armed Shia militiamen as well as by members of the tribes and families of the victims, Amnesty said.

It cited reports that three corpses of gay men were found in the Shia area of Sadr City last week - two of which were reported to have had pieces of paper bearing the word "pervert" attached to them.

The letter also raised concerns that religious leaders may be inciting violence against members of Iraq's gay community, and over reported statements by one senior police officer that appear to condone or even encourage the targeting of gay Iraqis.

Amnesty called on the government to bring those responsible for the killings to justice and to afford effective protection to the gay community in Iraq.

Can remember people gettig Coal from Boldon Colliery pit heaps.

land rovers still go onto the beach at seaton carew and get loads of coal

Where does sea coal come from? Does it get washed overboard
from bulk carriers or something? Is it ok to burn after you dry it out?
thanks
cheers

my dad and his dad used to drive a lorry up the coast to northumberland to load it with sea coal, my dad reckons that it used to be bloody freezing doing that all day

Freon there is no need to dry it out, it used to go on fire as it was. Used to go with my father picking sea coal on Marsden beach in the early 50s, he told me it was from ships bunkers that were sunk during the war and from colliers cargoes as hundreds of them were mined or torpeodoed off the North East coast. Since the late 80s never noticed much coal on the beach at Marsden.
Another source of sea coal was from colliery waste dumped into sea, favourite spots for this was Blyth, Dawdon and down as far as Seaton Carew. If you ever watched the Michel Caine film Get Carter it has a scene showing waste getting dumped in North Sea, the coal being lighter sepeated from the stone waste and washed ashore. We used to have ships that took the waste from our local pits and dumped it a couple of miles out to sea, but with the closure of all the pits in Northumberland and Durham that is all a thing of the past.

There is an iconic film called Sea Coal made by the tyneside studio Amber Films, its a bout the community near Lynemouth Colliery who collected sea coal as a living, many call them travelers (gypsies) but i don't think they were although they lived in caravans and had horses

http://www.amber-online.com/exhibitions/seacoal-1985

Amber films made some documentry style films about life of certain communities in the North East where the sandancers live, a great one was shot about a traveling family who lived very near to Baldy, they are the Coulsons from Crag Head.
Check out the catalogue on the web site

thanks Pete thats interesting
cheers