26th November Newtongrange

This morning Raymond rang and asked if we could pick up Emily from school, so we decided to go to the Scottish Mining Museum as it was close to home...a hop, skip and a jump actually. When we arrived they were about to start a guided tour so we decided to do that first and visit the exhibits later. The Scottish Mining Museum is located at the Lady Victoria Colliery in Newtongrange...but I like to refer to it as my Grandad's mine because it was here that he was the safety officer for about 20 years until he retired. He had started mining though when he was 14 years old at the Douglas Colliery in Riggside and at one stage while there he was the youngest safety officer in all of Scotland! The Lady Victoria Colliery was opened in 1895 as Scotland's first super-pit and it ceased operation in 1981. It is now the home of the National Mining Museum of Scotland where they have tried to preserve the Tippler Floor, Picking Tables, Elevator Shed and brick-vaulted Undercroft for generations of people who have no live connection or understanding of mineworking. The museum captures the developments in mining over generations and they have the most powerful steam winding engine in Scotland and the most extensive preserved suite of Lancashire Boilers in the UK. The museum exhibits contain lots of information and photographs that include underground scenes, surface images, miners at work and play, gala days and village scenes. It was not an easy life down in those mines...I certainly would not have liked it...but generations of my family did it. I love visiting here because this is my families story...this is my history! While we were there Raymond rang to say he could pick up Emily from school, so we decided to meet them at Frankie and Benny's for dinner. Frankie and Benny's is a chain of Italian-American restaurants here in the UK. They serve things like pizza, pasta, burgers etc...something like Outback Steakhouse or Hogs Breath combined with a Panarotti's I guess. The food was good and it was nice to catch up with Raymond, Maxine and Emily before I head off on Friday...time is flying!!!