The tall chimney was from the gas works coke house, can you remember the smell? The hut partially hidden by the bushes was the tally cabin, where the miners would have picked up their lamps and their tallies before crossing the bridge in the foreground to enter the mine. I am sure some of you will remember Fiery Jack that worked in the tally cabin. A. N. Andrew has advised: “Miners only collected their tallies from Fiery Jacks, all miners made up their own lamps at home before going to work. I used to polish my stepdads lamp.”
Image courtesy of the Pem Holliday Collection, thanks to A. N. Andrew for the update.
As far as I remember when youngsters, on the Loftus Bank side just near Horse-muck terrace, there was a small bridgewith a shallow stream. We unfortunately found the spot where the Minors used to empty the Unused KALLY (I hope this is the correct spelling). It was VERY TOXIC and one of our company (a young Girl) got burnt by it. It wouldn’t be allowed today.