Pit Head Baths To Be Opened by Yorkshire Miners President (picture)

February 1948

South Yorkshire Times February 14, 1948

Denaby Pit Head Baths
To Be Opened Tomorrow by Yorkshire Miners President

first begun nine years ago, pithead baths at Denaby Main Colliery were going to use for the first time in the morning shift on Monday. The baths, completion of which was stopped for more than seven years by the war, will be opened tomorrow (Saturday) by Mr JA Hall, M.B.E., J.P., Yorkshire miners President.

Sunday afternoon and evening will be review time for Denaby miners, their wives and families.

Facilities for 1300

The ground floor accommodation has now been completed and facilities will be available for 1300 employees. The remainder, all surface workers, will be accommodated when the first floor is finished.

Mr, T Batty, secretary of the management committee, told a `South Yorkshire Times’ reporter yesterday that it was hoped that this would be completed during the summer. The 1,300 men to be served first would be all the underground men and the workers on the screens — “the men who get black.”

Mr. Batty explained that the baths were due to have been completed in 1939, but owing to the shortage of materials prior to the outbreak of the war, the contract was not completed and the baths not finished. The shell of the building, however, was completed, but was requisitioned by the Ministry of Supply for use by Messrs Edgar Allen and Co., Ltd , Sheffield for war purposes.

This building was derequisitioned in August 1946, and the Miners’ Welfare Commission let the contract to Messrs. P. P. Taylor (Doncaster) Ltd. Owing to shortage of supplies further delay had been occasioned before the building was ready for opening.

To Morrow’s Ceremony.

Tomorrow, Mr, W. A. Woodlands’ divisional architect for the Miners’ Welare Commission, will hand the Trust deeds to Coun. J. T. E. Collins, chairman of the Management Committee and Mr Hall will declare the baths open.

Short speeches by N.C.B. and men’s a representative, including Mr Tom Smith, NCB north-eastern Divisional Labour Director, will follow.

Trustees for the scheme are Councillor J.T.E Collins, and A Mee (men’s representatives) (picture) and Mr J Halford (manager of the pit) and a fourth yet to be appointed.

The management committee consists of the four trustees and Messrs C J Pickett, R Miller, A Millthorpe and T Bramley.

Yesterday afternoon the Trust and committee were given a demonstration of the showers at work.

“It has taken a two years fight to get the building into operation,” a member said.

Baths superintendent is Harry Yardley, (formerly of Thurnscoe and a cousin of Norman W. D. Yardley, England and Yorkshire cricket captain) who will have a staff of four attendants. A fifth will be appointed when the first floor is completed.

The baths, modern in design, have been handsomely completed. There are separate rooms which contain lockers for clean clothes and pit clothes. The bath house adjoins the locker rooms, and there are 1,296 clean lockers and 1,296 pit lockers, with sufficient accommodation to enable all the men on the largest shift to take their baths without delay.

Clothes hung in the lockers will be dried by a current warm air continually passing through the lockers.   Adjoining the baths are boot cleaning, boot greasing and bottle-filling rooms. In the clean entrance lobby there are drinking fountains.

Facilities will be available in the attendants for giving first aid treatment , and work is now in hand on a complete mines treatment centre, which will contain the most up-to-date equipment of its type. The centre will be housed in a building which was originally intended to be a dry canteen.