Somerset Standard - 28 December 1973

WOMEN STRIPPED TO THE WAIST AND FOUGHT IN PUBLIC

ERIC WESTMAN, local historian, concludes the recollections of John Watts

PAULTON Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and there were club feasts held by the old and new clubs on Trinity Monday.

The old club room was up a stone flight of steps just above Paulton Inn garden. On Feast Day, after the village had been paraded, the flags were put into two large iron eves or staples on barrels at the end of the club room.

The dancing on the old floor of the club room soon rendered it in very bad condition. The new club was held in the shoe factory of Messrs Elliott and Gregory, and there was a service in the church at twelve o'clock for both clubs.

Two bands were engaged for the parading, and there were toy stalls and stands of every description, with swings, roundabouts, shooting galleries, bowls and pins, sideshows, a boxing saloon - and, of course, dancing in the cart house to the music of old Barrington's fiddle and tambourine at a penny a time, which his wife collected.

(John Watts could just remember Barrington's father, who lived in a tent in Monger Lane, near the mouth of the tunnel where the trucks came down from the quarry, made when Old Mills pit was sunk).

Cask of beer

The parade went around the village, making various stops - sometimes to do a step-dance - and Club spears were generally carried.

There was usually a 54-gallon cask of beer for the occasion. This was not used up on the first day, so on the following day the women went down to share in what was left. They sometimes finished up with a fight through jealousy.

John Watts saw two women strip to the waist and and fight for a quarter of an hour.

A ring was made on the far side of Green Close stile by the watchers, and each woman had a pickerup. A real pitched battle followed.

Frequent battles were fought, mostly with Timsbury people.

Trouble would start on the Saturday night and finish up on the Monday or Tuesday with an all-in fight in the second field below Green Close.

Some of the women fighters later emigrated to America, and a collection was made around the village for them.

The services at the Wesleyan Chapel were led by musical instruments such as the cello, clarionet,cornet and bassoon. Unfortunately, the bassoon was not in the best of tune and made a horrid squeaking noise when the chord was sounded before playing commenced.

This noise so offended the ear of a lady sitting in the front of the gallery, with the musicians behind her, that she decided to buy the bassoon and stop the nuisance.

The deal was done and the bassoon was stored away in her garret for a generation.

This band of musicians also played in the parish church, and it was customary for them to play in the church in the morning and in the chapel at night - an early example of ecumenism!

The bassoon was played by Thomas Whippey, the serpent by George Maggs, the cello by Richard Banfield, the clarionet by Poor Jacob Heart, and the tenor by C. D. Purnell, who was clerk and weigher at Simon's Hill pit.

The lunatic

John Watts tells the following sad, but amusing, story:

"The lord of the manor subscribed yearly to provide blankets which were given away by the Misses Hill who ran a women's club, and they also gave a considerable amount of money away every year to the poor. The blankets were brought in large van loads from Bath.

"This went on for several years and the people were so accustomed to it that a man, by name Caleb Gregory, who had gone a bit wrong in the head, went to Bath and ordered a quantity of blankets. They were picked out by him and he told the people at the shop that he was going to marry Miss Hill so it would be all right.

"But they could not believe him and a special messenger was sent out from Bath to inquire if they to were to be sent. It was found out that he had gone wrong and soon afterwards he became an inmate of Wells asylum.

"I saw him there in the Refractory Ward with the straight-jacket on and gloves locked on each hand.

He knew me and hugged me around, and related to me the names of all my sisters and ordered me to stop to dinner. I had a job to be released from his clutches. He died a few days later."

Poor

Most men were miners, and very poor. The husband of the family in the middle house in the Triangle worked at Clandown Coal Pit, and young John Watts used to wonder why his wife was always up so late at night and why she used to go outside her house every hour.

He asked her, and she told him she came out to hear the church clock strike, as they possessed no clock.

She waited up to hear the clock strike three to call Jimmy to go to work. He did a bit of cobbling as well as work underground. Those were hard times for miners - 12 shillings was about the average wage. However, there were garden allotments let very cheaply.

All the field behind Paulton Spring was allotment ground; and the field opposite what was Edward's factory; Maiden's Mead, where the cemetery is; and all at the back of Paulton Inn.

In addition, Rowley Quarry and Gregory's Tyning were let out as allotments. In those days, miners had to do gardening to grow enough potatoes for the year's requirements.

John Watts was anxious to work in a coal mine, so he made arrangements with "old George Bourton" to start work the next morning at the pit on Simon's Hill. His experiences are best described in his own words:

Down the pit

"It was a frosty morning, and I met young George Bourton. The iron hudge was on the runner; with George I had to climb up to get into the hudge. Then the word "All right" was "hollered" out, and up goes the pail and we were dangling about while the runner was pushed away.

"The runner Is a square heavy platform , on four wheels eight inches high travelling on iron crees. It runs over the mouth of the pit to close it, and has to be moved to let anything down, and put in position for anyone getting off the pail when drawn up otherwise they would fall down the pit mouth.

"Well, the runner was moved away, and down we went with a grating noise and bumping from one side of the pit to the other. Much rubbing on the sides of the pit made it quite polished. When we got down I was glad to stand on firm ground once again.

"It was a large space, and a big fire made it quite hot. It was called the coal hole.

"I got very thirsty and wanted a drink. I was told there was plenty of water just below, so I went on my hands and knees to drink from a little spring running by the road.

Horror

"After about six hours I had to come up. The big chain was dangling and swinging from side to side. To my horror I had to come up on this fourteen-foot chain which was on the end of a flat rope about seven inches wide.

"The chain had links three inches to three-and-a-half inches In size. Someone seized the chain and pulled it forward. A man wearing a guss jumped on to it and I had to jump into his lap and hold him around.

"Then the signal was given to raise the chain four feet. Then another couple jumped on to it, and so on until six or eight couples were In position. Then up we all went.

"I noticed how smooth and bright the sides of the shaft were but they would nearly drag you off if you did not hold on tightly and clip one another together. Looking up I could see a round hole of light the size of an apple which grew bigger and bigger as we neared the top, and finally we came out into the reality of the open air.

"The runner was pushed across the pit mouth and we dropped off two at a time. I shall never forget the first time I came up, and the sensation of the rubbing I got against the sides of the pit.

"I got the horrors, but I held on and finally was free in the air above."

Small coal

The Ham Lane pit was kept open to pump the water from Simon's Hill pit. Small coal could be obtained for 1 1/2d a hundredweight, and it was so plentiful that a lot was hauled down the lane to repair the road. It gave its name to Small Coal Lane, now called Lover's Lane.

The pit engine boilers were haystack shaped, with the bottoms raised and hollow. If the water was not kept up well above the bottom it would cause super-heated steam and blow up the boiler.

This actually happened at Simon's Hill and killed Mr Thomas Heal who lived at Tennis Court. By coincidence, his son William was killed at Ham pit.

The plunger of the engine came too far out of the housing, and as he worked to get it back the steam was turned on and the surge coming very suddenly knocked his brains out.

He was a cornet player and used to lead the choir in the chapel.