Jim Hardwick was one of the dozen or so joiners at Water Haigh. One of their many tasks was to repair the fleet of wooden high sided wagons which were used to store coal internally in the colliery yard and to carry it to the canal side staith. In the photo above, taken in the 1960s, a group of joiners are standing in front of a wagon which had been sent to the joinery shops for bad brakes and oiling. Jim’s initials are chalked on the side.
To give him his full name, James Stanley Hardwick was born in 1916. His father, Alfred, was a coal miner who had married his second wife, widow Edith Lucy Blakeley in 1914. Jim had four much older brothers who had been born to Alf’s first wife, Elizabeth Westmoreland, who had died in 1903. The Hardwicks had lived in Ouzlewell Green for several generations stretching back into the 18th century. In 1939, whilst he was employed at the nearby Oleine Works which made oil and grease products, Jim married Ethel Medlock. They had two children.
In his spare time Jim was a keen local historian and made regular contributions to newspapers including the Rothwell Advertiser. He also took photographs of local landmarks and drew sketches and maps of the area’s industrial landscape. Below is an extract from a tape he recorded about his memories of growing up and working life in the Rothwell urban district.
Jim Hardwick – an Ouzlewell Green lad
The three photographs below were taken by Jim Hardwick at Water Haigh in 1968. They show the process of fitting a steel winding rope to one of the cages for carrying miners and coal between the surface and the pit bottom. The crucial item was a safety device called a capel or cappel. Shown in the second photo it was made of steel and was designed in a conical or wedge shape to grip the steel rope. After fitting it was soldered in place using white metal. Once secured the rope couldn’t slip out of it. The cage was then attached to the bottom of the capel by chains and hooks. Every few months the capel and rope were checked by the pit’s blacksmiths. If too many of the metal strands of the rope were broken it would be cut and the capel reattached to the shortened rope. The shorter length would be compensated for by extra rope on the winding drum in the winding house on the surface.
