'Don't tell him Pike'.

[ebikeerwidnes]

Skilled miners used to hard manual labour could cut far more coal than your typical Bevin Boy so likely a misguided policy overall. I have read that the mixing of different classes had an impact on society with the posh or grammar school boys have a much better appreciation of and respect for working people. May have contributed to the 1946 election result

When I was a baby the bloke next door was one of those those that became a Bevan Boy

the houses were new build and it turned out that our 2 house were built with their gardens built with the old builder's lime pit in the gardens - the dividing line went through the middle
The only way anything would grow in that part of the garden was to dig it all out and get rid out it
My Dad was disabled but did what he could - the bloke next door just went at it with a spade

My Dad said he had never seen anyone shift soil so fast and so easily
This would have been about 1958 - so many years after he left the mines after the war during which time he was driving a desk at the local counsel
I guess the technique doesn't leave you!!