Seeing this thread is a reminder for me.. I need the odd kick up the arse to get going and a long time ago, I promised myself I would write a song about Whitsuntide at the pit village I come from.

Back in the 1920s, my Mum remembered as a child the ponies being brought up over the Whitsuntide weekend for a scrub and annual vet check on the Saturday, grazing in Foxe's field Saturday and into Sunday morning, then the children being given rides on them after church on the Sunday. Monday morning, the poor buggers were back down.

As an apprentice, I did my underground training at an old pit (Orgreave) that still had the stables etc in the pit bottom, albeit empty, although the pit I worked at didn't have them in the seam we were working. An old seam, flooded by then had them in the pit bottom but I never saw those.