I have fond memories of starting my first job as an underground miner at the Creech Barrow clay mine in 1973. I had just left school and was living in Corfe Castle with my family and was lucky enough to be taken on as a trainee by ECC. Each morning we met in the square before it was light and travelled by van to the mine. At that time there was a single adit with a winch to lower the trucks into the mine. Entering the mine always gave me a thrill as it was an exciting and different world down there in the cramped tunnels with the sound of pneumatic spades pummelling the clay in a distant drive.  

My job was to load the slabs of clay as they were cut from the face and load them into the 1 tonne rail mounted trucks. Once filled, It was then just a case of pushing the truck with all your might and jumping onto the back once it got going. With a lot of luck and much ducking of your head it was possible to ride the truck almost all the way back to the adit entrance, as there was a slight gradient away from the advancing face. However, as a novice I spent a lot of my time heaving the truck back onto the rails when I took a corner too fast and it left the track. This was in the days before Indiana Jones!

 After pushing trucks for a few months I thought that I should have a turn at the cutting of the clay; little did I know the skill and strength it took to manage the pneumatic spades that weighed in excess of 20 Kg each. The old boy who worked with me gave a wry smile and agreed I could have a go. Anyway as expected with only a half load of clay cut the other miner had managed to push the truck to the adit and return to watch me struggle. This went on all morning until I realised I would never keep up and had better hand the spades back to him so that we could reach our quota of trucks for the day.

 The other skill required of the miner was to place the wooden “square set” support every few feet. This comprised of rough cut tree trunks of up to 5 feet in height that are placed with a support on either side and a cross piece at the roof and floor. Additional support was placed above the roof piece by laying thinner planks of timber lengthways along the drive. This all seemed rather excessive at first until you realise that the plastic nature of clay means that if you leave a drive unsupported over a weekend you can come back on Monday to find the whole are closed up under the weight of the overlaying strata. In fact this plastic behaviour of clay was used by the miners in the mine development plan such that once you had driven a drive to its furthest extent (governed by the clay thickness and distance from the exit) you would then reverse the direction of the drive and retreat on yourself with a parallel drive. As you retreated the support was taken out and the area was left to close up. The trenches on the surface of Creech Barrow are reminders of the excavations that took place far below.

 The miner I worked with (I wish I could remember his name) was a font of quaint rural stories and gossip. I remember him telling me how he would secretly exit the tunnels of the underground clay workings near Creech Grange in the actual grounds of the house. He then had the trick of feeding the pheasants sultanas threaded through the middle with a horse hair. It was a simple to grab the bird and retreat back down the tunnel with nobody the wiser. Was this true? I am not sure but a story that I have passed on to my children.”

 I was so enthused with my early experiences in the clay mines that I applied to go to the school of mine at Camborne in Cornwall and qualified with a degree in mining. This has allowed me to live and work in Spain , South Africa , Australia , Papua New Guinea , Chile and North America to name but a few places. Exotic as they may be it is always to Creech Barrow that I return, to look at the barely recognisable scars on the landscape where the mine once existed. It is with regret that I do not have a photo of the engine house and adit, but the memories of those happy days are as clear to me today as they were almost 35 years ago.

 As you can see I am still involved in mining but will shortly be returning to the UK .  I will make sure that I come down to Purbeck to see the museum as soon as I can. You may also remember my father (Paul Randall) who was a well known character in Corfe Castle .  

 Regards

 Matthew Randall

 Technical Services Manager, Tarong Coal ,  Queensland , Australia