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Woodhorn Colliery: Miners at Work
Hundreds of miners worked at Woodhorn Colliery and at its peak nearly 2000 men were employed here.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries mines were worked under a 'three shift system', each lasting eight hours.
The foreshift began at 2am and finished at 10am; the 'backshift' or 'dayshift' ran from 10am to 6pm; and the
nightshift, from 6pm to 2am. During the foreshift, the coal seam was undercut and holes drilled for the explosives
that would bring down the coal. The backshift would fire the explosives and shovel the loose coal onto conveyor belts
or into tubs. During the nightshift the seam was advanced moving props, access tunnels and conveyor belts forward to
create a new coalface.
There were many different jobs to be done at the coalmine, both above ground and below. Here we have reconstructed
some scenes from a typical working day and you can take a tour to find out what they do using still images and video
clips.
Click here to start work, read a letter about
the shifts, or browse through a miner's photo album.
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