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Clogs & Mufflers


Damp, cobbled streets, stone walls and buildings, a member of the station staff in cloth cap and a frock coat – no not a still from some old movie, but a modern day recreation of an imaginary past.  ‘The ‘good old days’ weren’t ‘the good old days’ if you were living in them. It would be highly unlikely that any of the people on the platform, back then, had a vote, a bank account, or proper health and medical care. They didn’t have paid holidays, sick pay, or maternity leave either.


This 'preserved' colliery railway, whose engine shed dates back to 1855, was once part of an even older wagonway built, in 1725, to carry coal, in horse drawn wagons, to the banks of the Tyne - the original 'Coals to Newcastle'. Line, mines, and workers were the property of the mine owners, the bankers and the aristocracy known collectively, at the time, as the Grand Allies. One of the ‘Grand Allies’ was George Bowes, he was Earl of Strathmore – and related to the present Queen’s mother, another was William Russell a banker, what else, and the ‘richest’ ‘commoner’ in the land.


Today folk have the vote, though often don’t use it, they do have holidays, maternity leave and sick pay, but sadly, they are still owned by the bankers, the Corporate CEOs, and the super-rich who are today’s aristocrats. Some things never change.

Below is the link to my footplate memoirs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1688929746
 

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