YOUR SHOUT: Screen wor k wa s tough.

THIS picture takes us back to 1931 and shows Addison Colliery, near Ryton, where men are working on the screening belts where the coal was sorted, graded and the stone removed. Screening was one of the worst jobs in the industry, noisy and filthy, and reserved for the partially disabled, very old and very young. This is a posed scene with the belts stopped, as in normal circumstances the atmosphere would have been too thick with coal dust to allow photography. Addison Colliery was one of the Towneley group of collieries owned by the Stella Coal Company and worked from 1864 until 1963.

See Ray Marshall's blog on www.tyneofourlives.co.uk