After being puzzled by this image – it’s obviously posed – so was it for a training manual? The ladder on the right looks like a metal ladder, when were they introduced? The loader is wearing a tin hat (safety helmet, bump hat), so it was after the introduction of the safety helmet, but his colleagues don’t appear to be wearing theirs, so it must have been before they became compulsory. Derick Pearson said: “What they appear to be doing or have just done is set the roof support timber. They would under these circumstances chop out a ledge to fit it at either side of the working. They would then add props with wedges as is shown with the prop in the centre. They normally chopped out a seat/ledge for the roof support timber before fitting it into place. This has already been done so it is certainly a pose after the job.” Simon Chapman advised: ”This picture appears in an article on Cleveland Ironstone Mining in the Iron and Coal Trades Review of September 1939 and the photos. are credited to The Yorkshire Post, so the newspaper must have had a recent article about the mines. I was told years ago that the picture was taken at Lumpsey.”
Image courtesy of several sources, thanks to Derick Pearson for the insight and to Simon Chapman for the update.
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