Readers Letter: Pit ponies were still around

I refer to the caption to the old photograph taken of Firbeck Colliery in the Worksop Guardian (21st February).

By The Newsroom

6th Mar 2014, 11:11am

It said the photo was probably taken in the early 1930’s and showed what was possibly one of the last pit ponies. Firbeck was still a new pit then, and at its height had 200 pit ponies. I wouldn’t have thought it got rid of them so soon.

Mechanization didn’t kick in big-time until after the WWII and nationalisation, but even so, Manton Colliery (where I worked) still had pit ponies in the late 1960’s.

Les Jepson

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