South Yorkshire Times, July 27, 1957
Above and Below
Denaby Miners Had Two Walks.
Indirectly. The bus strike caused a stoppage in the afternoon shift in the Barnsley seam at Denaby Main Colliery on Wednesday.
After the miners had walked a distances of up to 6 miles to work, because of the strike, they were asked to walk another 4 miles underground because the paddy mail train which normally carries them to the coalface from the pit bottom was not able to run.
A pileup of six trucks near the pit bottom cause the rails to be blocked and prevented the paddy mail running either to or from the coalface. About 100 men refused to walk to the coalface.
About 200 who had walked to the colliery for the morning shift and had done a day’s work, had to walk from the coalface to the pit bottom and then had to begin walking home from the colliery.
About half the afternoon shift refused to what the coalface after their walk to the colliery, and they set off to walk home instead, but about 100 men did walk to the coalface for the afternoon shift. The paddy mail was running again for the night shift on Wednesday and for the day shift yesterday (Thursday), and the seam was working normally.
County Coun. G. M. Hanson, N. U. M., Branch secretary, estimated that about 500 tons of coal had been lost. He said the accident had happened that the awkward timing between the morning and afternoon shift, as the coal from the morning shift had to be brought out before the paddy mail could start running, thus delaying the running of the paddy still further. He said he had heard that the NCB were organising lorry services to take the men to and from work, but he had not seen any at Denaby and thought all the workmen had had to walk to the colliery, wherever they came from.