Excised room

We were in Tyne and Wear for the weekend which was cold, as you can see.

Not too far from where this photo was taken at Rainton Meadows is a village called Newbottle which has a pub called The Sun. There is a curious story about this pub. If you look at the roof you will notice that a section of it looks brand new. There used to be a room here that was so haunted that the entire room was excised from the building and just roofed right over.

Something that is definately true about Newbottle is that its cemetary is full of miners killed in accidents in the pits, mostly in the nearby Margaret pit which was opened in 1857 and closed in 1986 by its namesake. Many of those killed were young boys in Victorian times who were employed to drive the ponies, heave coal around or keep the ventilation going by opening and closing a large flap of canvas.

Children began work as soon as they were deemed old enough. Apparently six was old enough in some cases. By the time the Margaret Pit was opened, women and girls were spared from the mines as were children under 10.