“I am a tunneller, I must look after the others first”. Sapper William Hackett VC, 254th Tunnelling Company, June 1916. When we hold our two minutes silence at 11.00am today, we will all take this opportunity to recognise the bravery of everyone who fought for their country. We at the
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Clay-Kicking or Working the Cross
How many of our miners have heard of ‘clay-kicking’ or ‘ working on the cross’? One of the main advantages the British tunnellers had was the use of the technique called ‘clay-kicking’. Clay-kicking was a lot quieter than normal mining methods and silence could mean the difference between life or
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World War 1 Tunnelers
The role of miners during World War 1 If like many of us you too have been fans of the recent TV programme Peaky Blinders, you will have seen Arthur and Tommy having nightmares and flashbacks of their wartime experience. During WW1 both characters were ‘Moles’ or tunnellers. Although Tommy
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