We have miles of seams around these parts and some of the deepest shafts in the UK, one chap used to catch a bus into work which took 40 minutes then it took him 20 minutes to get to the right level and then he rode the pit train all the way back to where he had caught the bus from the difference being he was underground. as for the flooding some pits have lots of water but the three pits surrounding where i am are still having the water pumped out 24/7 if they didn't pump the water out we would have a major landslide! a few years ago we had a vent shaft collapse at hardplatts and a chap lost his garage and his sportscar down the hole. The last pit at silverdale colliery still had pit ponies down there in 1982, in some ways it was satanic down the pit and i think if a pit today was to try and operate like they did in the 70's the health and safety people would have it stopped before it started.
oh what a can of worms I opened. gd - just to put the record straight, at the time I was living in a coal mining rural village however it was in Nottingham. My family on the other hand originated from coal mining stock in Barnsley and yes it did break villages, but if you don't bend thats what happens and they were just not prepared to compromise. Pete - as to other countries getting away with it, one reason could be that here in the UK we still don't break any rules. All the ridiculous rules made up by the EC, everyone agrees to them because no one other than us Brits adheres to them! Its a funny old country we live in but I love it.
I used to love it Waco but things are wearing a bit thin these days. Still got the good old British fair play though, but still, everyone hates us, or is that just the impression I get?
They're all rushing to live here though Pete!! Can't move for the Poles on building sites. We have one who's a trained Paramedic in Poland on our site, he now lays floors for an hourly rate - which sends his kid to college back home and keeps his family!! Can't blame him - if the tables were turned I'd be the first on the boat to give my family a better life :rolleyes: I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world - despite our problems,which are small compared to other countries
oh Pete how sad - however when I talk to people who visit from the South to our holiday cottage they say its like going back 50 years in time comming to our village. as to the Poles, around here they show that British seaside hotels don't all have to be like Faulty Towers!
And what was wrong with Fawlty Towers. :D Good old British hospitality, can beat it. Yes I have visited you part of the world Waco and it is just a little shielded from what is going on in other parts, long should it remain.
I used to think I could change the world, then all I could do was just about hang on to being British, now all I can controll is my own back yard! May be thats why we all have a keen intrest in gardeneing, we have all shrunk and adapted to our own little plots as we mature. Now I am going to get depressed if we get any deeper !
This country despite its faults is a beautiful place (when its not raining)although i couldn't live in a big city i prefer a rural community.Any way the can of worms has now been opened i am not a communist and i agree that the miners had got a good pay dealfrom the labour admin, i just think its easy for people who were not directly affected by the terrible things that happened to view the situation differently,lots of other EU governments heavily subsidise their industries and whine at us for doing it althoguh we are now subsiding former national industries whilst they are in private hands which i do find dissapointing. In these parts there is a lot of far right extreme politics and on local and even parish councils we have far right politicians,which is a sign of the times, but if i was living in a third or second world country and i had the choice i would come to the UK.Politicians have a lot to answer for, consider the worm can empty and the worms are now running amok
Such a good thread I remember the school dentist at my infant /junior school with horror:eek: She came in her caravan and was excactly as others have described, she would poke around painfully and then if your parents had a dentist she would tell you to go there. But that wasn't any better, I had to have a tooth out I was only about 5, all I can remember is three nurses holding me down and this huge gas mask coming towards me...how barbaric! they didn't manage to take the tooth out though. I think my Dad ended up taking me to a "better dentist" and the deed was done but talk about fear of dentist it obviously started from the caravan. I have a lot of people say to me that England is finished but personally i love it and I love our traditions, the pomp, the royalty and to my friends disgust I also back "The Hunt" not the killing of the fox but all the tradition that goes with hunting. I can also remember having a bath in the tin bath which was bought inside into the kitchen where the water had to be heated up very laboriously nothing on tap then, we also had an outside toilet, mind you as a child it used to be quite fun sitting in there when it was raining as you could hear it pitter patter on the tin roof but not so much fun at night when it was dark and scarey.
Hey stingo we still have a hunt in these parts there is a big social calender for members we have several shoots and this provides local employment albeit seasonaly, and having our royalty is brilliant and its even better because it annoys the yanks although Britain was made of of immigrants we are the most eccentric nation on earth and i love it
gd - I certainly do not think you are a communist and very much respect your view - thats the other good thing about GB - oh and why don't we call it that any more, its such a positive description of out country Great Britain! As to the dentist, I remember years after I had left school getting on a train to London and this man cam into the carriage and sat opposite me, I had to leave as I felt so sick - it was my old school dentist. For years I would not go, I used to pass out just making an appointment. Luckily I have the best dentist you could wish for now. Stingo you are very brave to bring up the subject, for many years I have hunted and had a love hate relationship with the fox. since the ban hunting has never been so popular and I suspect because of all the publicity over it. The thing people don't seem to realise is the amount of social life attached to hunting - not for the toffs, but the everyday labouring farmers and farm workers that give themselves a day of once a week to air all their problems with their mates - it can be a very lonely place the countryside in winter. We are back full circle, taking the heart out of any long standing traditional way of life should be done with extreme caution. well I have rabbited on way too much!
i liken the dentists waiting room to being on death row!! i hate it,on the fox hunting theme foxes are vermin and anyone who doesn't realise that is kidding themselves out of 80 foxes tekn in the last two years the vet found hookworm in everyone and some had TB if you keep animals as we do the fox is an unwelcome pest.
Thats a good point Pete i suppose the answer is to find a way of pleasing everyone,fox populations are on the increase and one chap down the lane from me lost 30 birds in one from a fox visit, if the government no longer want people to hunt foxes or pursue a blood sport they should put measures in place to counter the side effects of their changes which is where they continuously fail us all.The government should have provided financial help to small buisnesses that need now to erect fox proof barriers then fox predation wouldn't need to be an issue like the miners provide an alternative means of income before closing the pit that way it wouldn't be a massive problem, As urban fox populations inevitably get larger the risk of disease spreading to domestic animals increases why should innocent pet owners have to put up with dirty disease ridden foxes living in the vicinity? provide a feasible alternative and i would gladly take it it is a bind continually repairing fences and filling in holes that foxes have dug probably the alternative is to wind up the business and sell the land to a developer and sit back and do nothing at least the stress will go away? whilst we are encouraged to keep our native hedgerows in good order what use will the hedgerows be when we are no longer able to afford to keep livestock on the land,One hunt has dissapeared from the area but when it was in existence the hunt would investigate any allegation of fox damage and pay fair and proper compensation to the owner of the livestock that had been lost. Now they would get the terrier man to locate the fox that had done the damage and if it was in an area that was not feasible to hold the hunt they would remove the fox fill in the den and the fox would be despatched somewhere else what we called a win win situation now the ban is in force there is no compensation for innocent livestock owners and valuable time has to be given over to trailing about in all weathers looking out for fox damage perhaps the people who no longer want foxes to be killed should pay the compensation to the livestock owners? if things continue the way that they are more and more animals will have to be expensively vaccinated against heart worm and hookworm that foxes carry and guess who foots the bill? rural communities there is no clear answer but the government is still pouring millions of pounds of public money into a private railtrack company which will only benefit shareholders of that company so why can't farmers and small holders be compensated for their losses which are a direct result of short sighted vote grabbing policies?
I agree with most of your points gd but hunting foxes with a pack of hounds in the name of entertainment can never be justified, tradition or not, although I cannot offer a solution.
