Friends of Bestwood Country Park
.
  • Home
  • Places
    • Mill Lakes
    • Main Park >
      • Seasonal Canine Illness
    • Japanese Garden
    • Winding Engine House
    • Dynamo House
    • Alexandra Lodge
  • History
    • Mining History >
      • Lighting
      • Shovels
      • Motties
      • Pit Ponies >
        • Pit Ponies at Bestwood
    • Bestwood Ironworks
    • Bestwood Brickworks
    • Memories of the Pit Ponies
    • Timeline for BCP
    • View from 1980
    • Local History Story Collection
    • Charles Beauclerk
  • What's On
  • Peter...
    • Item 1 - Mining Lamp
    • Item 2 - Mining Shovel
    • Item 3 - Snap Tin
    • Item 4 - Miner's Token
    • Item 5 - The Canary
    • Item 6 - Miner's Helmet
  • People
    • Dynamo House Volunteers >
      • Recipe Book
    • The Voles >
      • Brick
    • Heritage Offier
    • The Greenwood Community Forest >
      • Greenwood 2019
      • Greenwood Volunteer Awards 2014
    • Wild Things
    • Forest School With Hollies Day Nurseries
  • Meetings
    • AGM 2019
    • AGM 2017
    • AGM 2016
    • AGM 2015
    • AGM 2014
    • AGM 2013
  • Maps
  • Gallery
    • Photos of Events - 2022
    • Photos of Events - 2021
    • Photos of Events - 2020
    • Photos of Events - 2019
    • Photos of Events - 2018
    • Photos of Events - 2017 >
      • Calendar Submissions
    • Photos of Events - 2016
    • Photos of Events - 2015
    • Photos of Events - 2014
    • Photos of Events - 2013
    • Archive photos sorted by location & subject
    • What The Papers Say
  • Contact
    • Archive >
      • News stream pre - Nov 2021
      • News stream pre - Nov 2020
      • News stream pre Nov 2018
      • News stream pre Nov 2016
      • News Stream pre Nov 2015
      • Old Forum Archive
  • Mini Miner Activities
    • Paper Flower
    • Milk Bottle Elephants
    • Easter Bunny Cards
  • Previous Events
  • Volunteering in BCP

DIGGING THE COAL

Up to the introduction of power loading machines in mining to cut and load the coal, the main tool for loading the coal was the miners shovel. In the very early days the miner would have used a “Screen Fork” to load coal so that only coal of a minimum size could be loaded. This was because the mine owner wanted bigger coal and would not pay for the so-called “Smalls”.


With the advent of steam boilers a market was found for smaller coal they began using shovels at the coal face. The Screen fork was not used at Bestwood colliery. The three main types were:-
1 The Gumming Shovel

2 The Colliers Shovel 



3 The Rounded Shovel
A flat pan with a long handle for cleaning under the cut coal

With a square raised pan and used on the coal face where the coal had been machine cut leaving a smooth flat floor. This was known as a number 9 shovel. In mining a man with big hands was said to have “Hands like a No 9 shovel”

With a rounded nose end for shovelling from an uneven floor as on “Ripping” gate work. This was known as a number 6 shovel.
See Below for the range of shovels available and the Bestwood type examples - images from Liveleek.com.
A sample collection of shovels
The Gumming Shovel
The Colliers No. 9 Shovel
The Round-Nosed No.6 Shovel
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.