That is one of my regrets, we have no photographs at all of the working in the slag heaps. There is a small piece we have on video of the slag face collapsing while a loading shovel worked the face. I remember as a child (I was born 1960) being fascinated with the landscape of the burning shale. I remember quite clearly walking over the heap and down the hollows smelling the burnt shale, a strong smell of sulphur. The red shale when extracted actually used to burn off the paint off the side of our tipper wagons, it aslo melted the soles of my D.M's. Great days. The last pit heap we worked was at Ashington, that was for the shale. A ,ot of the shale was extracted to make a hard standing for the NCB back in the early 80's. Backworth, Burradon, Bomarsund were all some of the pits we had the sole rights for extraction. I worked in the business from leaving school in 1978 until the business closed in 1988. I was the third generation. I am now dealing in antiques here in Tynemouth - quite a contrast!
Thanks for the information on the bottle, it gives a clue to its date. I'll do some more research and try and find exactly when Beattie was working and manufacturing ginger beer.
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