The Industry of Souls (2013)
“The coal seam we were following began to narrow and turn and, whilst the rock above remained firm, that beneath it became friable and richly fossiliferous. This made the coal easier to chip free from its surrounding matrix but it was still heavy going for the tunnel was less than one and a half metres high and three wide. Only one of us could work at the face at a time, back distorted and neck cricked, smashing the pickaxe sideways to lever the rock and coal loose.
We organised ourselves into a... strict shift rota, based not upon time – for none of us possessed a watch – but upon effort. The worker at the coal face swung the pickaxe sixty times then surrendered the implement to the next man who started to labour at the rock as he moved to the sledge, waiting to tow it away. One person was usually absent with the second sledge, delivering the previous load to the central gallery and bringing back thirty centimetre square timber pit props when they were needed and fresh water, if he could find any.MoreLess
We organised ourselves into a... strict shift rota, based not upon time – for none of us possessed a watch – but upon effort. The worker at the coal face swung the pickaxe sixty times then surrendered the implement to the next man who started to labour at the rock as he moved to the sledge, waiting to tow it away. One person was usually absent with the second sledge, delivering the previous load to the central gallery and bringing back thirty centimetre square timber pit props when they were needed and fresh water, if he could find any.MoreLess
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