Out for 5 year and them got a job at Sorn Mine. Became good friends with the Miners Inspectors. Mr Thomas, Mr Langdon, Mr Derbyshire. .More
A last day amongst us all.
A great bunch of men to work with. Were producing the equal of the best Collieries in Great Britain. No coal produced on the last day. We got drunk at the miners club in Catrine.More
Early Years
The Funniest thing
The pit mouse. Started at 15 with four brothers. Highhouse and early working just after nationalisation in 1947. It was all narrow drivages. There was no coalface. More
The Barony
The deepest pit in Scotland. A hard pit to work in. A dangerous pit. You had to watch every move. The waste coming down was like the end of the world. More
Number 19
700 full ones coming outbye.The auld rickity, The miners were craftsmen. They were brilliant miners. Jimmy McGhee's section. A horrendous place to work. A lot of pick and shovel work. More
The North Mine
Clipping at a 1 in 3 haulage. The runaway hutches. You had to be quick. 1952 in Quentin Shaws section. A woodboy with Jock Lyle and Bill Hendry.More
The serious injuries
I always looked after my head. Telling men to put supports up. There were many serious injuries. Men were losing fingers. Old Papa Morton dying on the pit bus. Taking his body back into the baths. .More
A trade union man.
A youth delegate at the Barony. Invited to all the meetings. The Mining Schools at Perth. Safety was paramount at all collieries. George Montgomery, Abe Moffat, Mick McGahey, Johnny Stewart. Great union men.More
The Sixties
After the disaster.
The sorrow was unreal. They were personal friends. The recovery effort. Men being displaced to other pits. The Polish miners helped reopen the pit. Many men wouldn't come back to the pit.More
England
I left Barony to go to England to Bagridge. Ponies and lots of coloured miners in that pit. Back up the road to Mauchline Pit. Bobby Johnson the pit manager." If he's here ah'll no be here' Got back to the Barony and became delegate .More
Led by yours truly.
The development at the Barony after the disaster. Huge facelines and the dust. Men coming in from other areas. Lots of men were injured. Not used to powerloading coming from the smaller pits.More
A man doon the shaft.
I worked with the men. Not taking a lift from the manager.A chap at the door and hurrying to the pit. The pit was idle for 2 days. No3 shaft was a horrendous shaft for families. More
Framed up and fired.
Scurrying to catch the train. Stopping the loco at the loop. They said I jumped onto a moving man riding train. The villain of an Undermanager. More
Alex Mills - Sorn Mine
Sorn Mine
^To listen to Alex press play.
So I was out for 5 year and eventually went back and got a job in Sorn and from there we didn't look back. After a wee while working there, I think my name had went before me and the men wanted me to become the pit delegate. So I became the pit delegate. I became the delegate in Sorn roughly a year after going there in 1974. The Colliery manager who was on Barony as deputy manager came over to Sorn. So you can imagine the situation there. He was the man that sacked me and now he was the manager at Sorn. The Chief Inspector of Mines became a very good friend; Hew Thomas and I can assure you management got away with nothing with that man. Mr Derbyshire, I called them all Mr and they all called me by my 1st name. And they knew and spoke to me and told me why I was sacked out the Barony. I was too militant. I had the best wages and conditions in the Scottish Coalfield; And that became true of Sorn. Mr Langdon, all Chief Inspectors of Mines. When they were coming to Sorn Mine they would ask the manager, make sure Alex Mills is there. So I could give them the truthful version of the state of the colliery. And I was proud of that. We'd go with them and the reports would be signed. But to their credit Sorn Mine hadn't many faults with it. You would have thought that it was all scripted for me. I started in Highhouse when I was 14 and it was all pick and shovel, stoop and room, narrow drivages. Rickitys, only there were no rickitys in Sorn. Although it was a conventional colliery with two 300 feet faces it was full of narrow drivage places and it was 6 feet jibs at this time. And the seams were between 6ft outcropped in many places, 7ft, 8ft, 9ft.
A last day amongst us all.
^To listen to Alex press play.
It was a great pit to work in… and in Sorn mine they were a unique group of men. I would say they were characters in their own right a lot of them. They were also clever at their sports. Joe Devlin, Wullie Devlin, John Fleming they were all bowlers. Joe and John Fleming were international bowlers who played for their country.We had Jimmy Malcom who was a boxer and if Jimmy had left the pits when he was a boy, no doubt in my mind that he would have been a World champion. Brilliant manpower, men would shift between 15 -20 -30 ton, pick and shovel and primitive machinery. And it was proved beyond all doubt that those men in general, the colliers 15 ton a man and the developers. Were producing the equal of the best Collieries mechanized in Great Britain and that went on for many years to June 1983. 20th June 1983 there was no coal produced I can assure you of that. No Coal. The men didn't bother producing coal as they knew it was closing. Adam Blair and the Under manager were all broken hearted when Maggie decided through Bert Wheeler, the villain that he was. The chairman of the board to close it. Only for badness. Because it was producing all the coal that was required. Good household coal to. 25 to 30 years under the existing arrangements.Over a million tons. Over a million tons. We had a day in the miners club, a last day amongst us all. And we all got drunk. Understandable down at Catrine. I said to them I'll get a job back in the Barony but they told me there no job for you back in the Barony but you can go to England if you want. I says I'm no going to England. Well the boys went to private mines up at Craigman, it opened up. Boys traveled to Longannet up in Fife. No job for me though. Could you call it redundancy because they stole the 5 years off me when I was out the Barony. I got very little. I think it was a bout nine and half grand and I gave it to my wife. I think it was 23 years service but if you had broken service. That was them they just decided they would manipulate everything and that's what they did do. But they didn't stop me, It only made me more resilient. Oh yes.
The Miners Strike
The Dumfries Gasworks.
Harry Holland in the 1972 strike. Away down to Dumfries. Standing through the night. The gas works had been closed for 20 years.More
The Nottinghamshire miners.
The Spenser Union in the 1926 strike. Arthur decided were no trusting them. Couldn't take the chance again. A lot of good union men in Nottingham. Our communities have never recovered.More
The strike
To save our jobs and communities. Thatcher wasn't going to replace the jobs. Helped out at the picketing. Yuill and Dodds.More
Hatfield and Hunterston.
The men were exemplary Soldiers dressed up as policeman. Rodney Bickerstaff. We went to Ravenscraig and Hunterston to try and save our jobs. They were next.More
Bugged by Bond
I knew MI5 were bugging my phone. I used to sing to them.More
We were beat.
We were beat: We knew we were beat. Men started to go back. She used every method against us. Families are still not talking to each other. I'll never forgive the Tory government. .More
Maggie Thatchers Children
Maggie Thatcher created a new culture. Families ripped apart during the strike. The redundancy money was soon gone. Men went to other jobs and are doing brilliantly.More
Thatcher's Aftermath
Opencasts
They didn't want many miners. 6 million went out the economy when the pits closed. The minerals trust is not a bad thing. More
The Retired Branch
Tommy Coulter the miners agent from Fife. Some of the Doctors where anti-miner but the majority were fair. The dust question.More
The Fattest Cats
A multitude of sins against the miners. The lawyers have raked millions from the bones of dead miners. A shocking indictment of this Labour government. More
The Insurers
When a wrongs wrong. It should be put right. The NUM allowed Irish insurers to destroy the families argument. They should have came to a fairer agreement .More
Not blowing hard enough.
Miners were being turned down by healthcall in Drongan. The majority of miners have been paid a pittance. More
Cash for honours
Capita Insurance. Chairman resigns because of his link to the cash for honours scandal. The long wait for justice. The scheme wasn't fit for a dung midden. Many people have had nothing.More
The Saddest Case
Very very few people have got the correct compensation. The DSS in Ayr would have turned down 99% of my claims. More
The drugs have taken over.
Looking after the poor souls who have turned to drugs. Drugs have taken over all the communities. There is no fight and that's sad. I'm a miner and I'll always be proud of that. You're only one week away from the dole. .More
become the pit delegate. So I became the pit delegate. I became the delegate in Sorn roughly a year after going there in 1974. The Colliery manager who was on Barony as deputy manager came over to Sorn. So you can imagine the situation there. He was the man that sacked me and now he was the manager at Sorn. The Chief Inspector of Mines became a very good friend; Hew Thomas and I can assure you management got away with nothing with that man. Mr Derbyshire, I called them all Mr and they all called me by my 1st name. And they knew and spoke to me and told me why I was sacked out the Barony. I was too militant. I had the best wages and conditions in the Scottish Coalfield; And that became true of Sorn. Mr Langdon, all Chief Inspectors of Mines. When they were coming to Sorn Mine they would ask the manager, make sure Alex Mills is there. So I could give them the truthful version of the state of the colliery. And I was proud of that. We'd go with them and the reports would be signed. But to their credit Sorn Mine hadn't many faults with it. You would have thought that it was all scripted for me. I started in Highhouse when I was 14 and it was all pick and shovel, stoop and room, narrow drivages. Rickitys, only there were no rickitys in Sorn. Although it was a conventional colliery with two 300 feet faces it was full of narrow drivage places and it was 6 feet jibs at this time. And the seams were between 6ft outcropped in many places, 7ft, 8ft, 9ft. 
was a boy, no doubt in my mind that he would have been a World champion. Brilliant manpower, men would shift between 15 -20 -30 ton, pick and shovel and primitive machinery. And it was proved beyond all doubt that those men in general, the colliers 15 ton a man and the developers. Were producing the equal of the best Collieries mechanized in Great Britain and that went on for many years to June 1983. 20th June 1983 there was no coal produced I can assure you of that. No Coal. The men didn't bother producing coal as they knew it was closing. Adam Blair and the Under manager were all broken hearted when Maggie decided through Bert Wheeler, the villain that he was. The chairman of the board to close it. Only for badness. Because it was producing all the coal that was required. Good household coal to. 25 to 30 years under the existing arrangements.Over a million tons. Over a million tons. We had a day in the miners club, a last day amongst us all. And we all got drunk. Understandable down at Catrine. I said to them I'll get a job back in the Barony but they told me there no job for you back in the Barony but you can go to England if you want. I says I'm no going to England. Well the boys went to private mines up at Craigman, it opened up. Boys traveled to Longannet up in Fife. No job for me though. Could you call it redundancy because they stole the 5 years off me when I was out the Barony. I got very little. I think it was a bout nine and half grand and I gave it to my wife. I think it was 23 years service but if you had broken service. That was them they just decided they would manipulate everything and that's what they did do. But they didn't stop me, It only made me more resilient. Oh yes.