DAMP, DANGEROUS, DARK WORLD OF JOCK THE BRUTE
Did you know Jock the Brute?. It was the nickname given to a miner, and Larkhall, like all the small mining communities, produced many, Jock the Brutes. The village also had it's share of miners rows, such as Summerlee, Boag, Merryton and Allanton. Mining, in fact, played a large part in the industrial growth of the area along with domestic and industrial weaving. Many worked in the pits and the mines.
Larkhall sits on rich coal seams, and fathers took their sons to follow in their proud footsteps, down into the bowels of mother earth. There they worked with pick and shovel in damp and dangerous conditions, where gas was a problem.
My father, his Father before him, uncles, grandparents and generations previous were the pioneers of the pits. In times past, women worked with their children as yong as nine. My mother told many stories about the miners rows. The shining winding engine houses, the cleanup for the Larkie Fair to ring in the New Year Bells and the dreaded whistle, that took women and children running to he pitheads. That meant an accident or gas explosion had occured and, to many women and children, the death of a husband and father.
My mother could remember the pit cages, some double cages comming up with a man or lad's body on it held by fellow miners or family with love and pride, relieved if they has been spared--a pitiful sight. The dead were respectfully covered with another man's jacket, often their cloth cap lying at the side of the dead body.
On one such night in Larkhall a disaster struck the Home Farm Colliery. The year was 1877, just into the New Year, when miner David Hynd walked the route to his pit on that cold January night. He was 36 years old, married with 6 children and had already spent 25 of those years, working in the bowels of the earth, often in 3ft seams, body battered and bruised. Working in damp, horrendous conditions associated with mining in the 1800s, the miner's role was a hard one, and equally hard on their wives and families. They were looked down on as the least in society and nicknamed Jock the Brute.
Most miners cottages were built a little way out of te town or village, creating little communities of their own. In these miner's rows, grew a caring, binding bond between families. They shared their joys, and all too often their sorrows. On Saturday nights, families would gather at each others houses for a simple meal and refreshments. The entertainment was self made and usually included a favourite ballad, or perhaps a poem . At the end of the evening a prayer and a passage from the bible would be read out.
On that paticular night David called in to his sister, Mrs Ballantyne in Wellgate. They enjoyed a cup of tea and sang a hymm together, this was a normal procedure as family bonds and faith were closely linked. The hymm that David chose that night was "I Shall Soon Be At Home Over There". He left to do his shift at the Home Farm Colliery, but how poignant that hymm was to become, for this was to be Davids last shift.
In the early hours of the morning, the floodwaters of the Clyde hit hard. The devastation caused by the waters pouring through the pit was overwhelming, smashing and carrying evrything in its path. Miraculously men escaped and others not on that shift, risked their lives for their fellow miners, much to the relief and tearful gratification of the women. But for 4 of those women, hope was soon to be lost. Their loved ones were gone forever. David Hynds widow received 2 shillings and 6 pence a week to keep her and the six children. The youngest son David, was my Grandfather.
He was only 6 months old when his father was killed on that fateful January day.
A few decades later, David junior was a miner living with his family in the miner's rows, number 11 summerlee in Larkhall, but David junior always had a horror of the pits. The pits were also the destiny of his sons. He knew many tragic moments during his life, the death of children in infancy and the loss of a fine son, William at the tender age of 17, also a miner. His wife Elizabeth, died on her 48th birthday and her 14- year-old daughter, my mother Marion (Morn) Perrie, became carer and mother to the family. Little could David Hynd Senior possibly have known, walking contentedly to the pit to join his friends and workmates, that he would indeed, soon be at home over there far away from the dark, cold damp that encircled Jock The Brutes.
I could not end this story without mentioning the other 3 men who lost their lives in the Home Farm Coillery disaster. They were John Mcneil aged 39years, who left a widow and 2 children, John McAlister aged 50 years, he also left a widow and 2 children and John Toll or Gregory aged 51 who also left a widow and 2 children.
If you enjoy local history and general knowledge, come along to the Larkhall Heritage Group meetings and find out more. Bring your knowledge with you, you will be made very welcome. We would like to archive as much local history as possible and you could help us, before it is all lost to the mists of time. Take pride in ou pasts history, we have a right to be proud. Hopefully, we can return to what was once a caring, friendly, spotlessly clean village.
