Annesley Miners Welfare

Now gone

By Gary Roe

ANNESLEY MINERS WELFARE INSTITUTE

By Gary Roe

A pit yard now flattened leaving a clear roadside view of the farm and warren is 21st century Annesley, on this cold and wet last day of November 2009 I only see three chimneys in the Rows producing smoke. No explanation needed that old King Coal does not reign here anymore. The next step or the last piece of history of our industrial bygones is on the social and probably most important side of the community.

To locals it was known as the Welfare. This being the Miners Welfare Institute, to strangers every pit had a welfare club and grounds where drinking and sports took pride of place. I will try to tell you my thoughts and experiences of Annesley Miners Welfare.

Very early on in our lives as Miners children we would have a Christmas treat to beat any modern day trips to Lapland. The Welfare Party , as it was known. All us kids in Annesley Rows were spruced up , best clothes and Brylcreamed hair to attend a great feast. The venue was the Welfare Hall (dance hall). Tables and chairs laid out in two big lines bigger than any birthday party. Food came along with drinks and no parents telling you what you should eat first, this was heaven on earth. After the party time to slide about on the hardwood floor while grown ups cleared our mess up, then the room was set out for the picture show. Unlike the Byron Picture house in Hucknall we all sat in lines on the dance floor while  the films were projected onto a screen on the stage. Cartoons  as we’d never seen them before  some in colour most in black and white and the celebrated flick of the Harlem Globe Trotters who had us spellbound while they did the same tricks as last year. Curly and Meadow Lark were pure magic.

We all went home with a goody bag and half a crown (12 1/2 p ); bear in mind half a crown was equivalent to a trip to Hucknall Baths and a tanner to spare. What a way to start the festive season.

In my schooldays the Welfare had good and bad memories but looking back the were really all good. In Mrs Browns class we had to do Country Dancing with the girls to a long playing record which would never appear in the top 50, well at least not after 1949. After the humility of all that our macho mindedness took another swipe. The school Christmas play.  My appearance was as a Spaniard with black hat and cape along with an embarrassing dance to rapturous applause to redden my face. I still have nightmares about that and Mrs Fanny Brown; so will I probably tell all this to a Psychiatrist some day?

 

My next encounter with the Welfare came in the form of St John Ambulance Cadets. Every Monday night we attended First Aid classes where we would mummify our mates and learn bandaging methods for all sort of catastrophic injuries a human could withstand. We did actually learn some important stuff but not often put into practice except for the odd bleeding nose. Our instructors were from the Brigade and Mr Sharpe, Mr Mitchell and Mr Aniss unofficially called Charlie, Bo and Doug taught us all we knew to get our certificates which never came. The benefits were good apart from practising drill for the parades we went to Skegness and Rhyll on week end camps and the Skegness day trips. It did help when I started at the pit , we had to take our First Aid tickets and I was well clued up on the subject.

As I grew up and followed my ancestors down the pit despite being told I was never going to work down the pit; well that was until I took home a really poor school report in the 4th year. So at 15 years of age I rightfully obtained a Welfare membership card. Underage drinking was pretty rife back in the early ‘70’s lads working with men and also wanting to drink like them so occasionally we ventured into Annesley Welfare for a pint of Home Bitter. My dad regular drink was Home Brewery Bitter, I suppose like father like son. We that’s is Neil ‘Nobby’ Sharpe, Steven ‘Rube’ Beardsley (son of a miner), Dennis ‘Teada’ Johnson and Philip ‘Pip’ Barratt did Annesley School the Annesley Pit (except I worked at Newstead) then it was time for a pint in Annesley Welfare.

We used to keep out everyones way around the partition of the tap room next to the dart board and snooker table. We would spend a few hours each week  playing any of these games  or cards when there was no other entertainment around Kirkby or Hucknall. It was also our meeting place  before going to Nottingham or Mansfield for nights out at week ends and dinner times to meet before a Forest game. Our faces  became as regular as those on the (unofficial) Committee table or Giro table. No explanation needed as how they got those names. Every now and again we would upset one of the older regulars and as we would stroll up to the bar that dreaded question from the Steward,

“Are you 18?”

Depending on who was around at that particular moment a blatant lie or a meek truth would emerge from your mouth and whichever answer we always seem to get our tap stopped temporarily. Mine came in awkward circumstances. My dad was in the tap room before going into the dance hall and George Dunstan one of the kindest Stewards asked my dad if I was 18years old. At only 17years four months I looked at my dad as if to say give him the right answer and he will believe you and my dad said,

“No”

Damn it why did he tell the truth?  My only answer was “OK make that a Coke” my dad turned to me and said you’ll have to go to Kirkby or the Badger Box until your ld enough , doh!

No malice and we didn’t grass on any other under 18’s among us just accepted it respectfully from our elders. It was Sid Buxton a neighbour who grassed me up for no particular reason I had never given him any cheek, mind you I’m glad now that me and Paul Williams broke his kitchen window with a dagging top when we were kids and didn’t say anything. Why? Because he was up at the Welfare having a pint at the time we ran away and hid the whip and top.

 

The Welfare was mainly just a midweek haunt for us who were now coming of age and working unsociable hours. Racing in for the last couple on Afters or leaving at drinking up time on Early Day Shift.

Some nights were good for all ages , like New Years Eve’s or entertainment nights . Before my time it was notorious for fighting whenever pop groups played there and that ruined chances of a regular Disco in our era, darn Teddy Boys spoiled it for us. However the regular ‘dance’ nights kept my mam and dad in there, I think they termed it 50/50 and old time dancing. Every Welfare in the county had these nights and they were the bread and butter nights for our elders. I used to go and see my mam and dad down the dance hall and offer to buy them a drink as I was a big money miner on the coal face at the time, they always refused but I just went to a have a brief chat to their friends before we left to catch the 84 bus to town where. We knew how to behave around our elders but I slipped up just that once when Ivy Davies  (Mrs Davies to our generation)  decided I was old enough to dance and grabbed me and the next minute I was dancing around the floor with all the old uns. OK I endured the embarrassment but my mates came to the door to ready to go to the bus…. arghhh!

No, looks like Roey would sooner be old time dancing…… and I had to endure the ragging for many a year. Ivy after that expected me to have a dance every time I showed my face in there and to the delight of my mates I of of respect had to comply.

“Are you catching the bus to Nottingham or having a night in the dance hall?” kind of jibes

Many a festive night in there went down well and the occasional Christmas kiss would lead to more but that would be telling. Entertainment wise the Hall became redundant except for specially booked parties and weddings and eventually the Old Time dancing disappeared with our forefathers.

The beers of the day were Home Brewery and Mansfield Brewery but politics and buy-outs have led us to drink whatever the big companies want us to these days. Miners and Welfare Committees could in a way dictate to the local Breweries and in turn the best beer was found in Miners Welfares the rubbish was sold in night clubs and town pubs. A pint of Home Bitter in the Welfare and then hop onto the 84 bus for Nottingham and the next pint in the Milton’s head. Home  Bitter again but not as we know it. As miners we all paid so much of our wages to CISWO  who governed the Miners Welfares beyond Committee rulings. It was our welfare in a way and if the Bitter or Mild was ‘off’ then something was soon done.

A doorman named George Ball who was 134 years of age when I was a lad sat facing the main door and you had to show your card every time you went in. He took his job serious and that is an understatement. He knew most of us younger members but insisted we show our cards or he would report us, in his words

“to Duh Tommittee” many a time you could walk in and he wouldn’t bat an eyelid but another time he would attack you, pulling you back to show your card or sign in. Now being an old man a lot of us held back from giving him a good hiding and for a bit of devilment we used to get our own back by playing him up. The evil eyes beneath a bush of overgrown sage brush eyebrows would pierce you as he demanded your card. Sometimes you could hold a bus ticket up and say you were a member of Bentinck and he would fall for it. I was a member of Newstead but were allowed to go into any other Miners Welfare as an associate member and I even struggled to get once until rescued by a Committee man.

Georges other job apart from having his nightly shit on the toilet was to collect glasses. Once the lights flashed he would be round our table first. His fingers would delve inside your glass even if you had some beer left, I often wanted to throw up after that action. His usual threat was

“Come on, tup your beers” then he wasn’t responsible for his actions as he tried in vain to clear our table. We would hide our glass until he had gone but he would still come back a minute later. Stewards sympathised with us at times but the regulars of the Giro and Committee tables just smirked while he bother us and not them. Some unknown believed to be Phil Naylor (oops) put cling film across the toilet seat once but we never saw the results thank god but it did not deter George.

Our favourite was to tell him he had never worked at the Pit and he took the bait, waffling on about his days at the pit. I reckon he could have been dangerous at one time of day and not the baffled evil old fossil he was then.

The Welfare had darts teams, dominoes teams and later a Pool team, but the main interests for us was the football team. Through the years many a good team had played under the Annesley name but we started our own in 1976, instigated by David Johnson. We just wanted a team of locals or miners not imported Pot Hunters from other teams. And so it was formed and went by the name of Annesley Welfare Athletic FC. We scraped together enough money to buy a kit and a ball. We washed our own kit every week and eventually the club went from strength to strength.

This was made up of locals mainly young miners, four of us worked at neighbouring Newstead  pit but we all lived in Annesley. Starting in lowly local leagues we enjoyed every minute on a Sunday morning. Ah the good times when I worked down the pit went out on a Saturday night , smoked about 20 Players No6 cigarettes and then turned next morning up with my football bag to finish my lungs off. That first five minutes I often threw up; eyes bulging and watering , snot blown straight to atmosphere as the opposition placed the ball for a corner, heartburn incinerating my insides and then instructions bawled out

“Roey pick their centre half up on the edge of the box “

Yes we enjoyed every minute , burrghhh.

Annesley had its fair share of cricketers who graced the pitch where as kids we daren’t even breath on. Fathers , sons and brothers wore the whites on sunny summer afternoons then later discussed their results over a pint. Darts matches always pulled a decent midweek crowd and if you didn’t buy a raffle ticket you only got offered the sandwiches last when the corners were turning up. A bowling green and tennis courts eventually were overrun by weeds and I don’t think we really appreciated what was at our disposal but back in the day proud  participants loved their time together away from the dark dusty coal faces where we made a living.

Work together and play together, work hard and play hard.

It has been a centre for many generations as a meeting place or a drinking place. I even met my wife at Annesley Welfare. Julie came from Newstead and we had been trying to arrange a date but due to a busy Nottingham Forest fixture list I had not fulfilled  my promises. It was Friday night before the Reds were to play Liverpool at Wembley in the League Cup Final and a couple of Newstead lads said we’ve had to give Julie a lift up here as your date was called off again. Then we actually met in person in the tap room. The lads left us to it and as I went to the bar Julie offered to buy my drink! That’s when I knew she was the girl for me but unfortunately there was a matter of the Wembley trip tomorrow. This delay didn’t put her off and we kissed on the steps for the first time with a promise  to meet up during the week down at Newstead Welfare. We have now been married for 30 years and when I find Kev who brought her  up for that first meeting he’s getting it. (only joking Julie).

There have been many memories for many folk who frequented the place as miners or thereafter. Some bizarre, when they didn’t renew the liquor license and once when certain folk served time for Her Majesty for fiddling. I did my bit to undermine it as well on 74’s coal face at Newstead which left subsidence and all the windows had to be taped up. Taking the ground from underneath it in the daytime and drinking there at night , wierd.

I and my mates became an accomplished Solo players during the 1974 strike when the beer priced was lowered to 10p a pint to keep the place going as our monies ran out until Edward Heaths government buckled. It was a shame when the union split for the ’84 strike; some wounds never healed and it broke the spirit nearly as much as the pit closures themselves.

Was it Phil Naylor changing the channel on the new remote controlled telly (they had a similar set at home) confusing the Saturday dinner time racing enthusiasts? And. Phil Naylor swapping the black ball on the snooker table for the knob from the one armed bandit and Jack Staples threatening to kill him, we all ducked then he feigned his throw and kept hold of the knob pheww. Learning how to play Killer on the dart board and on the snooker table by Phil Naylor, during the strike. Yes your right he was a regular in there.

Bingo played a big part as did the Sunday night Tote, nice to come away with more than you went out with now and again. All in all in days gone by there was never a dull moment as miners from both Annesley and Newstead quenched their thirsts and made merry, swapped tales of their daily work, picked the Forest or Notts teams for next Saturday and so on.

We planned meticulously our Munich and Madrid European Cup trips over a pint  in the Welly and I mostly got talked into a lot of England matches and away games as the beer took effect.

Only ghosts will whirl around the hardwood floor doing a Fox Trot or Waltz, Christmas kisses and punches around the earhole will just be memories; potential sportsmen will never emerge as home grown;  memories will eventually be a thing of the past. The one armed bandit’s reels will not show a line of Bells but R I P.

By Gary Roe

This page was added on 17/05/2013.

Comments about this page

great story gary i remember afew people and spot on with george ball i have a couple of pictures one of old darts team and one afew years later with me in welfare team same kit on

By dale pud fox
On 15/01/2015