I READ with admiration the letter by Jimmy Taylor about his experience of working down the coal mines (HAS, June 12).

Unlike Jimmy’s 35 years working underground I only spent a meagre two years working underground at Bowburn/Tursdale collieries.

After initial training at Tursdale I spent most of the remaining two years on the Busty seam and can recollect on quite a few occasions going onto the 3ft high by 250yds long coal face at 3am on a Monday morning to be confronted with a foot of slurry the whole length of the coal face.

This was caused after the pumps stopped working over the weekend and all of it had to be pumped away before coal cutting could commence.

The work was both physically and mentally exhausting but put me in good stead for when I later joined the Royal Navy of which I spent most of my service in submarines, again working in confined claustrophobic conditions.

Through the hard graft of coal mine work I had no problem during my initial RN training on assault courses and route marches.

As the saying is, I was as fit as a fiddle and could jump a five-bar gate with ease.

Now, at 69, it takes me all my time to open a five-bar gate never mind get over it.

I lost one of my uncles through a heavy fall of stone while I worked underground.

I take my hat off to Jimmy and all his comrades for the lifetime they spent down the coal mines. It was a hard and dangerous occupation to which a lot of people have no idea of the conditions endured to extract coal.

Ray Vincent, Darlington.