Poignant book marks 50 years since last Washington pit closed

A funny and moving new book has been released ahead of the 50th anniversary of the closure of the last pit to close in Washington, Usworth Colliery, on August 1, 1974.

Jim Tatters was born in 1921. Before he died in 2013 he spoke to his neighbour John Suggett, elder brother of former Sunderland footballer Colin Suggett, about pit life. John has now turned those memoirs into the book; Sent In Wi' the Big Lads.

Jim spoke about his early years in Washington. A particularly poignant passage tells of a school inspector almost in tears, as one schoolboy after another informed him they would be going straight down the pit after leaving school.

Further education was largely impossible and Jim was no exception. Aged just 14 he began work at the colliery, "Sent In Wi' the Big Lads", but sent home again on his first day when somebody was killed.

Ged Parker, chair of the Washington History Society which published the 84-page book, said: “It's also 60 years since Washington new town was created and the corporation took the responsibility of restoring the area as the pits closed one-by-one.

"So it's a very evocative time. These great memoirs are really, really vivid and in 'pitmatic' language.

"Jim describes life down there and then there are some funny stories of his time in the Home Guard.

"After marrying Josie (they had two daughters) he lived in 'The Squatters'; a hostel built in the Concord area for bombed out families. After the war it was squatted in by miners and returning soldiers who had no homes.

"It was a countrywide phenomena. People were still being born in the 1950s when their parents were still in The Squatters.

"Then he moved to a pit in Calverton, Nottinghamshire and became the local union man, a JP and school governor. It was a neighbour from Usworth, John Suggett who moved to Calverton too, who recorded the memoirs."

Ged gives a free talk on the book at Bethany Church, Burdon Road as part of the Sunderland History Fair on Saturday, May 18.

The book costs £5 and can be bought at the event, or from Arts Centre Washington.

Alternatively, order by post for £5+£2.10 p&p by emailing [email protected], or visit the society's website.