READINGJimmy Taylor’s letter about the Easington disaster (HAS, Apr 26) on May 29, 1951, took me back to when I did my coal face training there. We did 13 weeks training then, back in 1950.

We were based at a collection of Nissen huts not far from the pit and walked to work every morning.

One morning, we were told we would be visiting one of the new developments at the colliery, which happened to be the five quarter duckbill area.

The men were showing us how the roadways were driven using the duckbill loaders to shift the shot. It was very effective, but very noisy. A duckbill was, as the name suggests, a big shovel shaped liked a duck’s bill loading on to shaker pans.

I worked at the Wearmouth Colliery for 39 years and took my redundancy in 1988. Five years later the pit closed.

I heard the news of the Easington explosion as I was going to work on the morning of May 29. It really was a very sad day. I must confess I had a tear in my eyes for those men, some of whom we had probably been talking to. May they rest in peace.

M Catherside, Sunderland.