From carting boy to area manager
Bryn Hawkins
- Region:
- South West
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Hobby to supplement my poor pension
- Fee:
- Paid: £50 fee traveling negotiable.
- Category:
- Business
- Updated:
- 19th September 2026
- Tagged:
- 1920S
This talk tells the story of my uncle Cecil Weeks who at an early age in the 1920s managed to get a job at Braysdown Colliery. His job was to be a carting boy, wearing the guss and crock pulling the putt of coal out of the face to the awaiting coal wagon to be transported to the pit bottom then up the shaft to the surface. Whilst working at the coal face for 7 years he spent his free time studying which eventually enabled him to go up through the ranks to the top job Area Manager of the Somerset and Bristol Coal Field. It’s quite a story of hardship and determination.
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The speaker will tell the story of his family in the Somerset Coal Mines then to his own experiences working 17 years for the National Coal Board until the mines closed. His grandfather was involved in the Dunkerton strike of 1908/09 getting shot in the legs on a march. His father and uncles worked in the mines, they lived very close to the Camerton Pit they all wore the guss and crook pulling putts of coal from the coal face to put into wagons that go to the pit bottom then up the shaft. The talk will outline the moves to mechanisation in the 60s and the problems that came about because of geological difficulties. There is a charge of £50 within 30 miles, outside of this a mileage charge negotiable will be applied. A ZOOM talk can be given with a charge of £25.
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