Mining Terminology

Ligged [out] : Asleep/ laid down.

Manhole: A hole blasted out of the roadway wall, like a sentry box at intervals of approx 50yards. For men to escape and seek refuge, escape from runaway mine cars etc.

Inbye: Walking or making your way to the coal face and away from the pit bottom.

Outbye: To make your way to the pit bottom and away from the coal face.

Tailgate or Returngate: The air would be very warm (return air). It would come down the mine shaft, travel along the Maingate or Loadergate roadway’s etc, then through the coalface, returning to the upcast mine shaft. All the heat generated off men and machinery etc, would make the return air very warm.

Maingate or Loadergate: Where fresh air went into the mine, usually a supply roadway.

Gate: A roadway hundreds of yards long, sometimes even going for miles.

Dudley: Old fashioned miners water bottle, made of galvanised metal, circular in shape with a little ‘spout’ on it to drink from, similar to what cowboys have in old films.

Whickham minecar: A ‘man riding’ mine car, they would be several coupled together to make a ‘paddy mail’. Made of ‘angle iron’ with wood planks for men to sit on. They were very flimsy and ‘buckled and twisted’ easily on impact with anything.

La’ loo The Pit Ghost: Every pit had its ghost. Silverwood had its own along with nearby Manvers Main and It was La’ loo. Over the years at Silverwood many miners had ghostly experiences. It held the grim nickname ‘the widow’s pit’. In its Hey- day there was a miner killed every week at Silverwood.

Gob: The void left when coal was removed. It had to be filled in or ‘packed’. If not when the roof of the void fell in behind you, the dust, noise etc! Hence the term ‘gobsmacked’.