BS: Black Gold

Subject: RE: BS: Black Gold
From: Raggytash
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 08:33 PM

"Even Queen Victoria made the train commute from Slough to London in record time."

Wow................ thats on a par with Mussolini!!

I'd like to know the evidence for that bold statement.

Subject: RE: BS: Black Gold
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 06:43 PM

lyrics in DT - https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5724

TESTIMONY OF PATIENCE KERSHAW
(Frank Higgins)

It's good of you to ask me, Sir, to tell you how I spend my days
Down in a coal black tunnel, Sir, I hurry corves to earn my pay.
The corves are full of coal, kind Sir, I push them with my hands and head.
It isn't lady-like, but Sir, you've got to earn your daily bread.

I push them with my hands and head, and so my hair gets worn away.
You see this baldy patch I've got, it shames me like I just can't say.
A lady's hands are lily white, but mine are full of cuts and segs.
And since I'm pushing all the time, I've got great big muscles on my legs.

I try to be respectable, but sir, the shame, God save my soul.
I work with naked, sweating men who curse and swear and hew the coal.
The sights, the sounds, the smells, kind Sir, not even God could know my pain.
I say my prayers, but what's the use? Tomorrow will be just the same.

Now, sometimes, Sir, I don't feel well, my stomach's sick, my head it aches.
I've got to hurry best I can. My knees are weak, my back near breaks.
And then I'm slow, and then I'm scared these naked men will batter me.
But they're not to blame, for if I'm slow, their families will starve, you see.

Now all the lads, they laugh at me, and Sir, the mirror tells me why.
Pale and dirty can't look nice. It doesn't matter how hard I try.
Great big muscles on my legs, a baldy patch upon my head.
A lady, Sir? Oh, no, not me! I should've been a boy instead.

I praise your good intentions, Sir, I love your kind and gentle heart
But now it's 1842, and you and I, we're miles apart.
A hundred years and more will pass before we're standing side by side
But please accept my grateful thanks. God bless you Sir, at least you tried.

From the "Generations" CD, by Sally Rogers. This CD has yet another version
of the Sojourner Truth speech, along with a number of other powerful songs.
Sally's notes say that the words to this song are derived from a transcript
of testimony gathered by the Ashley Mines Committee from 17-yr-old Patience
Kershaw in 1842. By then, Patience had worked in the mines for most of her
life, the effects of which are clear in this song....the song was written by Englshman Frank Higgins, whom Sally was unable to locate. JO

Also recorded by Frankie Armstrong
@mining @English @work
filename[ PATKRSHW
JO
oct97

Subject: RE: BS: Black Gold
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 04:41 PM

I didn't hear all episodes, but one I did hear (on the subject of the children employed in the mines) mentioned the testimony given by 17 year old Patience Kershaw.

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: Black Gold
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 07:57 AM

Does anyone remember steaming their tea kettle with coal?

Subject: BS: Black Gold
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 02:16 AM

Released On: 01 Jun 2022
Available for 29 days

Writer and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman’s vivid and compelling social history of how coal 'made' Britain read by Adrian Scarborough.

Episode Three: The Power of Steam

In today’s episode coal is now the powerhouse that drives the nation. ‘Steam made speed paramount’ and ‘engineers were the new heroes of the age’. The first mainline railway opened in Britain and revolutionised transport. Even Queen Victoria made the train commute from Slough to London in record time. Steam also radically changed the navy as engines replaced sail. It was unparalleled as a fast and formidable force. But feeding the engines with their appetite for coal required a vast network of coaling stations around the world.

In Black Gold Paxman explores the stories of the engineers and inventors, landowners, entrepreneurs and industrialists who saw the potential for innovation and wealth. For centuries it was the driving force behind our economy and trade and the preoccupation of politicians. It fuelled the industrial revolution producing everything from carriage wheels to needles, it warmed and lit the nation’s homes and powered our steam trains and ships.

Underpinning all of this and central to Paxman’s book is the history of the miners themselves who toiled in appalling conditions to hack the coal from the underground seams and the mining communities that formed around the pitheads. He also explores the terrible human cost of coal with the filthy, polluting air it produced as it burned and the inevitable and multiple accidents that happened to those working underground.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton and produced by Julian Wilkinson
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017tbq