I worked there in the summer of 1947 or 48 .. I was a student .. cycled out from Liberton .. Employed in General duties round the pit .. stoking the boilers .. Six shovelfulls of slack and dross in, then poker it to break the crust and a huge plume of smoke headed for the sky ... Bagged coal so it was ready for the coal merchants lorries .. ..shovelled ashes into railway waggons .. watched a CEMENTATION guy pump concrete slurry round the shaft to stabilize it .... lay on the bricked covered boilers at lunch time enjoying the heat .. was lectured on UNION philosophy and 'techniques' .. ate mussels boiled in a bucket carefully placed in the firebox of the boilers( food was still scarce) ... at the weekend some men collected mussels at Mussel Burgh and brought them to the pit ...

Sad to see the 'MOAT' pit has vanished but now I'm on Vancouver Island ... Town NANAIMO, the site of about 15 inactive coal mines but still sitting on a KINGS RANSOM of coal ... and I have shares in an operating coal mine and occasionally have a coal fire for old time sake ...