Jimmy McCreadie

Going up to Knockshinnoch.

We were all on the dayshift and we were home. Wullie Jolly was our Captain and he stayed next door to us. Tam McMillan; he stayed in Ochiltree, Gordon Thorburn; he stayed at Netherthird and Jock Duncan; he stayed at McCall Ave. We didn’t know anything about it till we were called out on the Thursday night and what we were told was that there had been an accident at New Cumnock at Knockshinnoch and you’re all getting picked up. So we don’t know the time but you’ll get picked up at the door with the coal lorry to take us up to Knockshinnoch. So we arrived at Knockshinnoch, you passed the Dr 1st and then you had to wait on getting an apparatus: a Proto. So we had to wait till they were ready and then get your order to go down the pit. We were up at Knockshinnoch just about 9 o’clock. We never actually seen anything, we just was put into the baths, pass the Dr then we had to sit and wait to get the apparatus because they were sorting them up for you; cleaning and testing them and all that. So the time we got our apparatus and then there was a meeting; the Captain of the team goes to the meeting and he gets told what’s what and then we went down the pit. They told us we were going to go down the pit, down the mine and they would get somebody to carry our apparatus. Then we had to go into Bank, we had to measure a certain distance and make a hole out through to Knockshinnoch. We would hear them working from the other side, so we did that and with the measurements that we got from the top and we started away. Know you cannot talk when you’ve got an apparatus on, so it’s actually all written out in chalk and anything that’s handy. So we had started and we got word in that we were in the wrong place; we had to re-measure it and start to make the hole out through. But while we were doing that we could hear the boys from Knockshinnoch on the other side working away. So our time was up, so we got up the pit and that was us by till the next morning. Well we were the 1st team into Knockshinnoch to see the men and see the condition of them and then report to the inspector how they were. Well when the hole was made out through to them and it had to be screened off. That was us going in again the next day, marking the road. We were told directions and it was good conditions, the conditions were good. It was good high… it had been an old road, airway and it was all packed at the side and dry, conditions were good. But you had to make sure that you were marking the road for the next man coming, because into the right was another dook and you didn’t know where it was going but you knew it was a dook. So you kept to the left and was you coming onto what was the transport road for the hutches, so you got onto that and you were into the fresh air, because everything was trapped and you get take your apparatus off. But you just took it out your mouth, you kept it on then you walked in. 

We took Dave Park inbye.

The hole was out through, we went into Knockshinnoch and we took a Mr Park with us; Davy Park. And he had been an Undermanager or something at one time. So he went in with us and we had to go into the Bank through the area that was opened up, mark where we were going the route into the trapped men with chalk, because nobody had been in there before. So we had to do all that and we went into Knockshinnoch out through the Bank into Knockshinnoch into what we called the railway. We could take our apparatus off because it was fresh air, it was all condensed in and walk in. Well we walked into that and the men were all  sitting on this railway junction and there were some with their wee lamps on, some were talking and the phone was there: that was the communication to the surface. The man who was Oversman, Houston he was there and he was taking readings with the lamp for the gas… and I’m afraid they weren’t very good because all the men seen it. The lamp was filling up – I would say it was about 5%. It was too dangerous for the men in there if anything had went wrong; a wee silly spark… The Inspector said later on what was on the Bank side, if it had ignited there would have been no New Cumnock. He said it was about 30 odd % of gas there and the men had transported a fan down, manhandled it after it came off the haulage, right up the hill to where we were and I mean a fan; it’s some pull. They got it in to where it was going to be installed and this Inspector come in and said “What are you’se doing?” “We’re going to…” “No you are not – You are not installing that fan in here, you’ll just take it away back down and send it back up the pit” and that is when we discovered what the %age of the gas was; Because he came and told us he came and told us. You were losing pressure with the hole being open and the folk going out and in. So if you lose it in one way and fill it in with another; if you lose the ventilation pressure you’re filling it up with gas. They tested for gas an all the men were sitting and all the senior men, well they were quite calm but there were a lot of younger ones… and they were starting to feel the strain. Now when they lighted this lamp and when they seen it in the lamp, that was when the panic started! And of course a lot of them knew our vice-captain Wullie Dick “If your’e going out there Dick your no going out with that apparatus on, were going out with you” But you can’t go out with one apparatus oh well we’ll take it off you” and that was when Dave Park says “I’ll just wait boys” and he took his off and he put it down to calm them down. Because if he hadn’t have done that God knows what would have happened; They kind of calmed down after that because they knew fine that that apparatus was there if they wanted to use it: but they would need to learn how to use it.

The Lost Brigade.

The Captain tells the chief up at the top; the Inspector what was going on. That was you bye, you couldn’t get back down again till you passed the Doctor. So we went to pass the Doctor but we were told that we would have to have a sleep before we come back. So you’re sleeping on the baths and this Sargent came down, the Police. He said “What are you’se doing here boys” and we said what we doing, we were having a sleep before we went pass the Doctor. “Oh are you in the Rescue Brigade… just lie there, nobody will disturb you” So we did that and then when we got woken up we went to see the Doctor, you passed the Dr and then you had to wait till you got another apparatus. So by the time you got your Proto, there had been other people down and brought some of the men up. That was then Mr McCoughtrie and all them came up. They were making inroads into it, when a brigade got kind of lost. So they had to go and look for them, they thought they knew everything but they went the wrong way.  We had to get divided up, to fill-up teams and we were still with the Kames team, the Muirkirk team. Some of our men went with the Dailly team because they hadn’t enough experience and they hadn’t been in: we had been in. So they were told what to do and Jock Duncan he went with the Barony, one of the Barony teams because they were a man short. So what was left of us was Wullie Jolly, Wullie Dick, Gordon Thorburn, Tam McMillan and me. It was all area teams and some pits had two teams, like the Barony had two teams; Whitehill had only one team, Muirkirk had only one team. The Knockshinnoch boys what was left they had a team but they weren’t all there, because they didn’t have enough men as some were down below. The furthest away was from Kirkconnel, which was the furthest away team that came. For us … William Dick, he was the Superintendent at Kilmarnock but you’ve got to bear in mind we had another Wullie Dick in our team. This is the comical bit when somebody came to look for William Dick we said “aye here he’s here” “you’ve to come to this meeting” and then it was when he went to the meeting he discovered that he shouldn’t have been there at all! And you got half the information off of him before Wullie Dick knew! We brought the last of them out, we got out to the fresh air base and they checked our apparatus, we had plenty of air so we got sent back in to bring the rest of the Proto’s out and put them all together and all the explosive containers together on a stretcher and we were supposed to bring these out. I said “We’ll never lift that, it was a ton weight!” So somebody phoned from the surface and they were telling them, what was going on and you could hear the voice as plain as ought “No just leave it we’ll get it when we come back in” and Curly says to me “Am bloody glad that phones working!” We would have got our backs broken going out there with all that stuff! So we got out as I say to the fresh air base and we had dropped two student Doctors on the way down. We met them on the road back up and Tam McMillan and them was sitting and the fellow says “Are you wanting your drink now?” “Oh aye” Tam says and Dick says “Aye” he thought it was Lucozade! so they poured some of this out into a tumbler for him, a plastic container and he had a mouthful and spit it out “Oh that’s brandy!” McMillan says “Gie me that!” and grabbed it off him. We took them back up and that was when we went up the pit. I was only sorry for one thing – the two folk who were up there on the pit head, there were two Salvation Army folk; a man and a woman and they were giving out cigs to you when you went up. They two folk got killed on the Sunday morning; they got involved in a smash just outside of Mauchline… They were young folk. And then you got all the folk coming around you asking if you were going back down, even folk I was at the school with. We couldn’t do anything and we couldn’t tell them anything, because we didn’t know anything. We knew how many people were still left in but we couldn’t do anything about it.

Seeing the crater for the 1st time

We seen the crater, you’ll no believe this – Was on the Monday afternoon, we’d never had seen it and we were walking roundabout it. You know what it’s like walking on a bog; walking up and down. When we met two of the fellows from New Cumnock and they came from the Skares, so we all knew one and other. His name was William Stewart  “If I hadn’t changed my shift” he says  “ I’d been down in there to” He would have been trapped and we were all saying it was a good job he changed his shift wasn’t it! But is that no some hole! And that was that, we went away back over the Knockshinnoch and the Bank to get equipped again to see where we were going. We were supposed to be going down that hole but we got stopped, we were in the lorry to go there and  Wullie Dick came running round and said it had been cancelled you’se are not going, you’se are just going down the pit. Down to the Bank and sit and wait there till we get word.  Imagine us going down a hole like that! Aye but they got so far down it but they couldn’t get any further because of the slurry and water and there was hay, you name it everything was put down there to try and stop it and it was just no use. The only time when we seen the sludge when we were down the pit, was after it was all finished up and they were bringing the men out. It was all dry, dry workings but there was a shortage of ventilation but that was all. Well we started on the Thursday and we finished up on the Tuesday night, Tuesday afternoon that was our task by and we were all home and back at our own work on the Wednesday. So the following week when we went to get our pay, they were all standing and waiting on us; Wullie Jolly, Duncan and Dick. “Whats wrong” “We’re waiting on you coming to get your pay” “Oh whats wrong” “We don’t believe this, the money we’ve got” “how much money have you got?” “We’ve got £33 and got a ½ bottle of whiskey donated by Johnnie Walker” That’s what we got and they couldn’t believe how much money they got - £33 and there was only one drank in our team , we never drunk but John Duncan drunk, he liked a drink. But oh dear…1/2 a bottle of whisky! I would be in my twenties, I had my deputies certificate but I wasn’t on it because I had just came back from Sheffield and I had started on the backshift and I was moving machines and all the rest of it ;conveyors. That’s when I was told that my name was in for the Rescue Brigade. So I had to go and get my training done at Kilmarnock. That’s when I met a lot of the Kirkconnel boys, they were there to doing the training. It was quite good… they put you through your paces. See when you went down there and the instructor… Wee Terry wasn’t bad but Joe Black, Joe was an ex-football player and he couldn’t get you running about and jumping and pulling these wrights up quick enough! Aye and he had a stopwatch. Then you went into the wee tunnels at the Rescue Brigade to build stoppings and carry on. Terry could walk about and listen to you and see you because there were windows there.  He seen everything that was going on. Sometimes you went in and it was just burning straw oh and it was… your clothes were stinking – some folk didn’t take their clothes home! I took mine home.

Happy to get the men out.

We were home on the Friday, Friday night Saturday morning and we just got in the house and we were away again and that was us not back to the Sunday. We were eating sandwiches; we were taking down the pit because we had nothing to eat. It was that long a wait for this brigade coming and then another brigade coming to relieve you. So that’s all we had to do. You just had to sit, you just had to sit and wait for something happening. All the work was done, the men were all out and you were quite happy to get them out; but you didn’t know what you were for doing. The whole thing was they had an apparatus that we worked with at the training but it wasn’t approved by the mines and it was only a 45 minutes apparatus whereas the Proto was the 2 hours 20 minutes, you could stretch it out to that. It was a bold decision by the man that made it, to use the Salvus and take they men out, because there was a long while of debating what they were for doing before they brought McCoughtrie out and that was the lapse, bringing him out. But after that things started to go smoothly, no problem, one in - one out. Every man going in took a Salvus so there was plenty of equipment there for the men. Oh I knew a lot of them but it didn’t affect you because you had to go down there… we were supposed to get relieved and the haulage was running but we never got onto the haulage we always had to walk. We were always in a bad position – you were too early or too late! But it didn’t affect us in that way. There was plenty of patter going on with them because  as I say we had somebody to carry  our apparatus and there was plenty of talk going on and the talk was alwauys about football, oh it didn’t annoy us that. You put it out your mind, it was a different thing,  It was the same when I was in Whitehill and we were coming away this night and old Johnny Buchan, he’s dead and away. I said to him “Where’s that boy Spence?” “Oh he’s working in there” and the lights flickered they went out and then came back on… So we better away and find out what was going on and we went away into this section to find out and the wee boy… the boy hadn’t put off the power and he got electrocuted. So that was us sitting down that section till the Doctor came and it was Doctor Campbell and  we had been working 1st aid on him, trying… but they were all saying that he was breathing but it was just the vibrations with the muscles in the throat, but you had to wait for the Dr coming. The only thing that affected me was that we couldn’t get the rest of the men out that was trapped; they were working on an inset. Oh that day… at the weekend we knew how many men were down and we knew how many men we were bringing out and there was 13 men missing but we couldn’t do anything about it and that’s what there were all asking you when you came up the pit. “When are you going back down for they other 13.” Well you couldn’t say nothing, we just had to wait till we got told. We never spoke to the press, if we had to do any talking it was to be done through the Captain, we just disappeared out the road because it was no good too many people doing the talking, the man who does the talking is the Captain, the main man.