Bryn Martin
Bryn Martin ~ my Dad ~ was born: 29 December 1912 in Wales 
Here is his story:
My village was called Llanhilleth; it was up in the valleys, off the main road.
Everybody was poor and we had to start work when we were only boys.
When I was 14 the only work in the village was in the coal pits. I had
to walk four miles into the village, over the mountain, to the mines. I
woke up at 5 a.m. and got to the pit at 6.45 a.m. I went down in the
cage with 12 men. The cage went down the middle of the pit. The pit was
shaped like a wheel and the coal was around the rim. We had to walk a
long way to the coal. Each miner had their own place where they worked.
In the mine where my father worked, there was a main road and roads
leading off it; this was known as Martin's Deep.
At 2.45 p.m. I started coming back up out of the pit. By the time I
walked home it was dark. I walked to work in the dark and came home in
the dark. At home, I had to have a wash in a tin bath in front of the
fire, even if there were visitors, as I was filthy with dirt. I wore
short trousers.
We took our food in a "tommy box" (a tin box) down the mine. We had a
tin can with water in it. We never had margarine or butter – just bread
and cheese. The food was nailed to the timber ceiling, on a string. A
mouse sometimes crawled down the string and ate the bread. Horses and
ponies went down the pit, the mice used to eat the horses feed. There
were also a lot of beetles down the mine.
The mineshaft used to be bricked all around. There were no electric
lamps. We had the old Davy lamps (oil lamps). There was gas, released
from the coal, down the mine. The foreman used to test down the mine
for gas.
We couldn't use a naked light or there would be an explosion. Now they have electric lights down the pits, like in the subways.
Hitting the granite with the pick would cause an explosion; this could
cause a spark and set the gas off. They had one pit in Wales - Senghenydd - where there was the biggest explosion ever in a coal mine. 439 men died in the explosion.
Near where I worked, 50 men died in
an explosion in a mine.
The men used to go on strike if anyone died in the mine.
Once, my brother broke his leg in a mine.
You had to keep your head down to avoid being gassed (all the gas rose
to the top) It was difficult for tall men to work in the mines.
It was dangerous work but the men were only paid £2.10 (shillings) £2.50 a week now; the boys got 19 (shillings) or 85 pence now.
The coal was extracted from the mines with a pick. The coal could be 6
feet thick which was good because we didn't have to get on our hands
and knees. Nowadays they have machines to cut coal.
The men had numbers, you had to fill up a dram on wheels. When the dram
was filled up we put our numbers on the dram. You got paid according to
how many drams were filled. The drams of coal came up the pit in the
cage; they went into a drum, which tipped lump coal onto a screen.
Loose coal went straight through the screen.
We only got paid for lump coal. In addition to pay, the workers got a
ton of coal a month. It took four horses to deliver a ton of coal to
the workers houses. They tipped the coal outside the house. We then had
to carry the coal into the coal cellar. Boys would be paid sixpence to
carry the coal into the house.
In the summertime I played football, after having a bath.
Every Christmas Day I had a football made of hard leather.
As a boy, I used to play snooker, go to the pictures, and buy sweets
with my pocket money of a shilling (5 pence) a week. When the first pit
finished I was out of work and had to find another job.
I lived in a three-storey house. The rent was 4 or 5 shillings (20/25
pence) a week. I had no money, so my landlord got me a job in another
pit called Hafodrynys. I worked there for a few years, then that pit
finished.
My older brother and father worked in the Llanhilleth pit. I went to
work there until 1930 when I was 19. Then the family moved to London,
Colindale. My two older sisters were servants in service.
My first job was tiling bathrooms for which I got £1 a week. I have
lived locally (Colindale/Hendon/Mill Hill ) since 1930, 69 years.
I was called up in 1940. At first I was in the Suffolk regiment which
was on foot. Then I was in the tank force, the RAC - Royal Armoured
Corps, driving a Churchill tank. I first served in Algiers, Africa then
we moved along North Africa to Tunis. In 1943, just before Tunis, I got
wounded in an air raid; I had only been in service a few months. I was
sent to hospital and was picked out to bring German and Italian
prisoners of war back to Britain. When I got home I married Naomi Pusey and I
have been married for 57 years. I was sent back to North Africa and
from there we went over to Italy as the Germans were there. We landed
at Naples and I was in Italy until the war ended.
First of all we went up the west side of Italy then we went over to the
Adriatic towards Yugoslavia, I was driving a Sherman tank then. We had
to cross the River Po in amphibious tanks. We had to wear a diving mask
and carry air bottles. The tanks had sails all round them to cross over
the river.
When I had my leave I went to Rimini, spent a week's leave in Venice,
and had a few trips to Rome, I managed to pick up some of the Italian
language and can remember a few words still!
Bryn Martin passed away 25 February 2002
Dad loved his crossword
1997
age 5 ish
1940 ish
Bryn & Naomi
1990
IamBryn.com
contact ~ me@tonymartin.org