Readers Letter: Pit ponies were still around
I refer to the caption to the old photograph taken of Firbeck Colliery in the Worksop Guardian (21st February).
It said the photo was probably taken in the early 1930’s and showed what was possibly one of the last pit ponies. Firbeck was still a new pit then, and at its height had 200 pit ponies. I wouldn’t have thought it got rid of them so soon.
Mechanization didn’t kick in big-time until after the WWII and nationalisation, but even so, Manton Colliery (where I worked) still had pit ponies in the late 1960’s.
Les Jepson
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