Middleton Broom Colliery
Used with kind permission of Leodis photographic archive of Leeds
The content here has been copied from the autobiography of Jack Gale with his kind permission. Jack was employed at Middleton Broom Colliery, Leeds, from 1951 to 1959. He provides a valuable insight into how coal mines were worked and the life of a miner, in an industry which no longer exists.
It was felt that parts of his autobiography were not relevant to the subject and have been left out. However links have been placed in the text to take you to the page on his website where the full story can be found. In order to assist in this, we have kept the chapter structure the same as the original; this has meant that some chapters are just a few paragraphs long, while others run to many pages.
Some readers may find some of the the contents here distasteful, or even offensive. We apologise for this, but it is not our story to tell; for those of you who have worked in the collieries, you will know that many of these antics were quite normal.
Middleton Broom Colliery closed on the 17th May 1968 after being worked for 89 years, due to the exhaustion of economically workable reserves. The site of the colliery has been landscaped and now forms a part of Middleton park; the location of it can be found here, and a brief history at the colliery page here.
