I was beginning to get a little worried at home because my poultry were not bringing me sufficient profit in to allow for my labour and expenses, also work was beginning to be hard to find as practically all the mines in Skelmersdale were petering out. So, I decided to try and find work in other areas. A bus load of men had begun at a colliery in Cronton near Huyton, so I went on my bike to try my luck there. It was a fifteen mile journey from my home to Cronton. I saw the Undermanager of No 1 pit who looked me up and down and said to me "Have you done any coal cutting by machine?" I just simply said to him "I can tackle anything you have about the pit" because I thought he looked at me a bit arrogant. He smiled and said to me "You can start tomorrow on the two o'clock shift, coal cutting". I did not know at the time he had been having a bit of trouble with his machine men on the coal face, anyway I went home on my bike satisfied I had got work. My next problem was how to get there because the bus that went from Skelmersdale was full and could not take anymore, so I had to resort to going on my bike. I did this for a fortnight and found it too much for me as I was doing quite a bit of overtime so I looked around and found lodgings with a fellow who was living in Whiston and came from Skelmersdale, it was about a mile and a half from the colliery. I enjoyed living with this family while I was there, as I managed to get home at the weekend but I knew this could not last very long. I stayed with them for a couple of months and then managed to get a seat on the pit bus. Being on the afternoon shift this allowed me to do a bit of work on my smallholding before catching the bus which used to start off at one o'clock to bring the day shift home. Also the bus that took us and brought us home at ten o'clock p.m. also brought the night shift men on. This went on all week, inclusive of Saturday afternoon but not Sunday. Anybody who worked Saturday afternoon got time and a half and on Sunday, double time, and many men used to bike it on Sunday for the sake of double payment.
The machine that I worked on was cutting a coal face of five feet thick and 180 yards in length and cutting underneath 3ft 6in, and this was expected to be done every day. There were 20 colliers doing this each day if everything was going right for them but in a mine of this kind anything could happen such as a mechanical fault or the roof breaking up. When anything like this occured it used to delay us cutting the coal for the men. The management always insisted that the colliers must clear the coal off before they left and the same applied to us, we had to cut the coal before we went home. Many a time I have gone on the bus for the 2 o'clock shift and come home on the bus that was fetching the night shift workers home. I stuck this out for 2 years and we had been having a series of falls of roof and breakdowns and had been working all weekend so I decided to have a day off. It was Tuesday, I turned in on Wednesday afternoon, got my lamp and tally as usual, got down the shaft and waiting at the bottom was the Deputy of the seam that we cut informing me I was wanted by the Undermanager in his office as soon as I got in. He began to shout at me for being absent from work the day before and the colliers had been short of coal. I let him finish and then said "I don't want to live here", and then told him to find someone else to do the work, then I went to the pit bottom and asked the the fellow that looked after the cages to send me up the shaft so I could catch the bus that was taking the day shift men home. The following day I received a message from the man who had sacked me asking would I come back which I ignored because I had been browned off living at the pit.
My next concern was to go and look for another job as practically all the pits had been worked out except Bickerstaffe Colliery which again was being cleared out from near the pit shaft, anyway I tried my luck there and was taken on. This time it was to use a patent pick which had been installed by the Manager and there were about three of these picks which were driven by compressed air. The seam was only 2ft 6ins in height and no shots could be fired for the sake of gas and making small coal. I knew this lot could not last long but it gave me a chance to study what to do next, and it was all day shift which helped me a lot on my smallholding.
I had only been there about 15 months when my elder brother who was working with me said "What about trying our luck at Cronton, I have heard they are after men". I said to him that I would not go back there under the conditions I had left for. He then said "Let's try the No 2 pit there which has a different Undermanager", so we decided to give it a try. There were three shafts at Cronton Colliery, two winding coal and one used as a spare shaft for ventilation and emergencies in case of anything wrong with the other two shafts. We met the Undermanager in charge of No 2 shaft, he questioned us a bit and said "You can start in the morning on day shift", this suited me a lot. We had seen the bus driver earlier who said he would push us in if we got work so we were fixed up all right and worked together on different work.
We had been working about a month when the Undermanager came and asked us would we take and cut a new road for him as he wanted it for ventilation purposes. He said to us "You can have two extra men as I want it pushing forward". It was about 100 yards in length and 12 feet wide and 8 feet high and supported by an archway of steel rings. We had been on this work with the two extra men about a fortnight and we knew exactly what we could achieve in our time of working hours. The Undermanager came to us and said "Would you like to take this work on piece, if so I want you to state me a price and let me know when you come to the pit bottom". I and my brother had worked this out previously and when we got to the pit bottom we called on him in his office. "Well," he said, "have you made your mind up?" "Yes we have, we will take it at two and a half pennies a cubic foot and two pounds for every ring we erect for support." He looked at us and said "Do you think you can make a go of it at that price?" "Yes" we said, but I was sure he did not think we could.
Anyway we started on the piece work and informed the men who were working with us what we had done. We all put our backs into it and fairly made the road walk in. When the Deputy came at the weekend to measure us up and take the results to his Undermanager the Undermanager said to his Deputy, "Are you sure you have not made a mistake in your measurement of their work?" The Deputy said "I have measured them from where you started them." The Undermanager said to him "Tell these fellows I'll be down first thing Monday morning to see them." The deputy told us this and we had an idea why he came as he said he would, and the first thing he did was to pull out his measuring tape and measure what we had done. He then said to us "I can't pay this amount to you fellows, what would my Boss say to me if he knew I had fixed a price like this with you. Anyway lads, I'll see you catch no harm on this as I will fix you something in every week to compensate you in your pay packets. I'll admit I did not think you could make such a show like you have, but I want you to keep it going and I'll see you catch no harm". I always thought by this we had done ourselves good because we never looked behind us after we had finished this job. After this he fixed us up with many other kinds of work, always on a higher rate of pay and also let us have extra men to be in charge of so that we could have two or three kinds of work being done.
I think our most ticklish job we ever had was in making the bottom of the pit shaft higher. This we had to do on the afternoon shift because the winding of coal on the day shift could not be interfered with. I have worked at the pit bottom many times and have always thought the engine winder who brought the coal up the shaft in cages was a man who had to have a clear thinking mind because he had always to be on the alert as the cages were always moving to get the coal up. Just imagine over 2000 boxes of coal, the average weight of coal in each box or truck was 10cwts, no men were allowed to be sent up during winding coal hours, and this was achieved in 7 hours winding time, except for a short break of 20 minutes.
I did very well at Cronton Colliery but at the same time I was neglecting my small holding. As I came home from work one day I was pulled up with a jolt by a letter from the County Council informing me that they were giving me twelve months notice to quit my house and holding from that day, this rather stunned me a lot. Inside the envelope also was a note informing me they would send a deputation of three men to inspect my holding after a period of nine months time to see if I had made any move to improve and work the holding, this made me put my studying cap on because I loved the place and the locality. I often thought after about the old proverb, Greed for Gold, because I had done so well at Cronton, but I could do nothing about it and set to to build up my stocks and improve it. This I did with the help of a hired man who helped me in his spare time; I got the place ship shape again after much hard work and expense.
Time went by and I received a letter from the County Council that the three men would be coming to inspect my holding to see if I had made any improvement. They came and were very surprised at what had been done and said to me "My word Mr Yates, you must have put your back and a lot of time in to do this". I remember it quite well, they went through the greenhouse that I had built years before which had a lovely grapevine in it, a Black Hamburg. I had always kept this in good condition and at the time they came it was at its best, packed with good large black grapes. I heard one of the fellows say to the other, "This fellow knows how to grow grapes." Anyway, thet left me with the message that they would report to the Council that I had made an improvement on the holding and that I would hear from them in the near future. This took about two months before they sent me a letter congratulating me on the improvement but also warning me there would be no second chance. This caused me to cut down on my work at the colliery and I began to have days off, I also asked the Manager to let me go on the afternoon shift so that I could see everything was all right when I left home. My income went down a little because I did not take any more contract on but left it to my brother. I bought a little Austin 7 car so that I could work Sundays and get double time, also taking fellow workers and charging them a shilling for the journey. I often took five with me and this helped me to pay for the running of the car, and also giving a benefit to other workers who would have to cycle it if they wanted to work Sunday.
