Life as a Pit Pony!

Today, Fallin Bing is a haven for wildlife (as seen in previous blog posts) but at the height of the coal mining industry it looked very different with Polmaise coal shafts 3 and 4 buzzing with the activity of men mining the land for coal!

The coal mine at Fallin was open from the early 20^th Century to 1987 when it closed on the 15^th of July, 2 years after the miners’ strike (1984-85). To work in the mine was dangerous not only for the people but also for the ponies (known as ‘pit ponies’) that were used to haul the coal to the surface. In Britain the ponies were first used in coal mines in the mid-18^th Century. At the peak of the practice of using pit-ponies to move coal in the 1910’s there were over 70,000 ponies being used in Britain! The ponies that were most commonly used were Shetland ponies due to their smaller size. There are many tales about the cheeky pony’s chewing tobacco as well as stealing the miners piece and tea. Life was hard for the ponies as most of their days were spent underground and they only saw daylight during the holiday fairs. A working day would involve 8 hours hard labour and they would move about 30 tons of coal.

A pit pony hard at work (image taken from 'The Adventures of the Tank blog).

In Fallin, the ponies were used for much of the work up till the end of the 1920’s. At Fallin the stables were underground, there were 28 stalls in pit number 3 and 34 stalls in pit number 4.

There were many dangers in the mines for the ponies such as walking over loose coal and stones. A broken leg by a fall would result in being put down usually by the Blacksmith using a dumbbell (a metal tube with a spring release which when hit with a hammer released a bullet with enough force to kill the pony), or the fall itself could result in death. Another danger underground was posed by the coal carts running loose. To halt this, miners used an early breaking system called the ‘snibbles’ where a metal rod would be inserted through the wheel spokes which slowed and then eventually stopped the cart.

A Pony being fed by a miner (image taken from GETTY images)

The ponies were very wise and could often tell that there was imminent danger of rock fall as they would dig their heels in and refuse to move. This probably helped save many miners from accidents and almost certain death!

There are still coal mines in operation today buy most of this hard labour is now carried out with machinery allowing the ponies the freedom of the fields!