In all mining areas it used to be common
for local people to pick over the 'pit banks'
for coal discarded by the collieries
Hilary���� On the phone I was talking to you about the �pit bonks� (pit banks)
Jeffrey��� Yes, we used to go coal picking on the pit bonk.� We had a very bad winter, and my grandmother and grandfather were next to the Greyhound at Castle Gresley, and they couldn�t get any coal whatsoever.� But I used to go regularly to the pit bonk at Gresley coal picking and we used to wait for the trucks to come along the bank to deposit it all, and you used to position yourself.� If you wanted the big coal, towards the bottom, and if you wanted the small coal, at the top as it was coming out.� And the bank below was on fire, at times it was red hot and I can remember one time coming home, and half my Wellington it had burnt away.� But I got three bags of coal, equivalent to about three hundredweight, and this particular time there was snow, and I put it on the sledge at Gresley and I pulled it all the way up by Greens and right across the main road, and when I got to the top end of Woodville the road had vanished and I virtually pulled it across the hedgerows to get it there for them to have some coal.� I used to sell it, I got a penny a bag from anyone who wanted it, of course a penny in those days was a lot of money, but again you couldn�t spend it on anything because there was nothing to buy.
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