Relics of Buckley's Past from the Hill Family by Neville Dunn: Cover photo: Mountain Colliery"

Mountain Colliery, Buckley

1900

see 96.70 for Fig.1

96.71 for Fig.2

96.72 for Fig.3

96.73 for Fig.4

RELICS OF BUCKLEY'S PAST FROM THE HILL FAMILY

Written March 2006

In the 1950's I spent some of my spare time designing houses and bungalows for friends and acquaintances. One day late in 1957 I was approached by Edward Hill who then lived next to my cousin Barbara Lewis in a cottage in Victoria Road, Buckley. Edward was a member of a well known Buckley family who had lived in The Square for generations and he, together with his brother Les Hill, both being steelworkers at Shotton, and their father Edward Hill Senior had acquired a piece of land at The Square. The land lay next to where the Wellington Inn stood and they intended to build a family terrace of three houses on it.

My design was later approved and, after putting the construction out to tender, the job was awarded to Messrs Wilcock and Jones Ltd, of Bistre Avenue. In the process of supervising the construction, I visited the contractors' office regularly and got to know the secretary, Doris Iball, who at the time was living a few yards away from Edward Hill in Victoria Road. Edward and his wife Florrie were keen members of Emmanuel Church, Bistre, both Edward and his son Edward being choristers, and at the pair's prompting on 21 June 1958 I invited my future wife out for our first date at the Bistre Garden Fete Dance which was held at the Parish Rooms opposite Doris' home in Church Road.

Edward Hill soon realised that I was keenly interested in Buckley's history and one day in the late 80's after my elder son, Peter, had bought 129 Mold Road, he brought out two items related to Buckley's past. He first of all showed me a round, steel case containing something which he offered to me as a gift. On opening the hinged case I discovered a strange instrument inside consisting of a very finely pivoted steel fan centred inside a short, open brass cylinder about six inches in diameter with a dial having four needles mounted on the front (see Fig.1; 96.70). Edward then indicated how, on releasing a brake and blowing on the back of the cylinder, the revolving fan caused the main needle to spin around the dial.

The instrument had been made by John Davies & Son (Derby) Ltd and the large central needle recorded tens of feet up to one hundred while the three small, subsidiary dials recorded hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of feet respectively (see Fig.2; 96.71). Edward told me it had been in his family for some time and, with his father and grandfather having been coal miners, it had been obtained some time in the past from a Mr Metcalfe. I knew that this Mr Metcalfe would most likely be the father of George Metcalfe who kept a radio and television shop opposite the police station in Mold Road. Mr Arthur Metcalfe lived in Nant Mawr and was a noted mining engineer who was consulted when Buckley and Mynydd Isa began to expand in the 50's and 60's because he had first hand knowledge of the locations of local pit shafts which proved invaluable to developers.

I was puzzled at first as for what purpose this instrument could be used until Edward explained that in the past the engineer who controlled underground ventilation in the mines would hold or suspend the instrument facing the direction from which fresh air was travelling in the underground road. He would then release the brake while starting his stopwatch and, with the fan revolving with the slightest air movement, would let it run for a specific period, after which the brake would be applied and the total run of recorded feet noted.

Dividing the recorded feet by the chosen time period then gave him a speed in feet per second or feet per minute for the movement of the ventilating air which, for safety purposes, had to lie within specific limits given by the Mines Act. When I had previously investigated the legend of the Buckley Tunnel when designing Buckley Fire Station in 1969, I realised how the movement of fresh air down one shaft and the removal of stale air up another shaft was critical to the keeping of the underground workings in a safe working condition, especially where methane gas was encountered. This ventilation action before the Industrial Revolution was created by burning coal in surface pits, the upward draught from which was connected by tunnels or flues to a mine up-shaft, thereby sucking stale air out and allowing fresh air to descend another down-shaft. This process was eventually mechanised by steam driven fans and later by electric fans. With my interest in weather recording, I tested the instrument in steady winds which confirmed its accuracy.

The second item that Edward Hill offered me was a set of receipts dated 1908 and made out by building contractors, Hayes Brothers. Edward's grandfather, another Edward Hill, had together with brother John bought plots of land from a Mr Rowlands of Nant Mawr on the south side Mold Road near the old Square Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. They then engaged Hayes Brothers to build them a pair of semi-detached houses, now Nos 127 and 129 Mold Road. (see Fig.4 - 96.73)

The builders started in the spring of 1908 and received a first payment of £100 on 11 May, a second one of £100 on 1 August and a final payment of £167.15s.4d.on 28 September - this total of £367.76 was for THE PAIR OF HOUSES! I later checked with the Builders' Federation in Manchester and found that the gross wage rate for bricklayers and joiners in the summer of 1908 was eight old pence per hour (3p in modern currency) and that they had received a penny per hour rise in October 1908. Building staff then worked 48 ½ hours in the summer weeks and 44 ½ hours in the winter and they were not paid for any time laid off for the weather. One could say that the value of No 129 has increased by nearly 1000 times in the intervening 98 years but wage rates have sadly fallen far behind that figure. There was also a receipt from 1913 where painting the two houses cost £2. 2s. 0d., hardly the cost of ten cigarettes today. I framed the receipts when my son Peter sold the house in 1989 (see Fig.3; 96.72) and they still hang on the hall wall of No 129, currently owned by Salvatore Franco and Leanne. Salvatore's parents run Carmelo's Café on Brunswick Road in what used to be Mr. Rowlands' cobbler's shop and they too live on Mold Road in a house built where Councillor Miss Ada Catherall once lived.

Author: Dunn, Neville

Relics of Buckley's Past from the Hill Family by Neville Dunn: Cover photo: Mountain Colliery"

Mountain Colliery, Buckley

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