In
the long history of mining there are many large scale disasters that made the
news - scores of lives taken in a single, horrible incident. But there are also
thousands of individual accidents where men were taken. On 21st February 1935
my great-uncle Jim Hooper went to work at Parkhouse No 7 colliery in Clay Cross
(known as the Catty Pit) and never came back. I did some family history
research and uncovered the full story in a newspaper article of the time. This
poem is a simple retelling of that article - the thing that was so striking for
me was that he was so close to the end of his shift.
"Just
one more tub
Give
it a shove
Ten
minutes we'll be done
Get
out of here
at
ten o'clock
And
we'll be going home"
But
fate had plans
For
a mining man
No
journey home for Jim
His
pals were scarcely
yards
away
when
the roof caved in on him
Thirty
tons of
rock
and coal
A
groan was all they heard
His
comrades dug
and
cleared in vain
their
desperation shared
The
doctor came
down
in the mine
Four
hours it took in all
But
life had gone
when
he was found
The
doctor made the call
Around
the quiet
grave
they stood
His
grieving widowed mother
Teddy,
George and
My
grandad Bill
His
three surviving brothers
His
sister, girlfriend,
working
pals
they
came to say goodbye
Just
a lad
a
score in years
They
must have wondered why..
In
a Clay Cross pit
he
was lost
One
more brave mining lad
Swallowed
whole
in
the quest for coal
What
life may he have had?
Ten
minutes more
that
was all
Jim
would have walked away
From
the face
back
to his mum
To
live another day
When
he'd return
to
that dark place
To
hew the black coal seam
Day
on day
his
life to pass
Ten
minutes killed the dream
(c)
Tim Fellows 2017
In
memory of James Ernest Hooper 1915-1935
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