Well done to Year Three who were amazing in their ‘Vanishing Village’ assembly this morning. You performed beautifully and everyone really enjoyed hearing about Whitburn Colliery.

Here are some of the facts about Whitburn Colliery:

Young children were given the job of ‘trappers’ They had to sit squished in a small space to open and close doors to let air into the mine and allow wagons through.

These children sat in the dark for 12 hours per day! It was a very lonely job.

As the children got older some were promoted to street sweepers, hurriers or thrusters

The hurriers and thrusters had to pull or push the coal cart along. They often had chains around their waists.

There were two other jobs in the mine which were mostly done by men.The Hewer used an axe to get coal from the rock.The Getter then had to load the coal into the carts.