Mining of tin ore was carried out at Geevor using a method called shrinkage stoping. Tunnels were driven at 100ft intervals following the lode (vein) of tin. The ground between them was then mined out (stoped). The miners who worked in the stope were called stopers and would drill and blast out the rock vertically above them. The floor they worked off would be the rock broken previously. Because broken rock is larger in volume than solid ground after blasting sometimes there would be insufficient room to work and so some of rock would have to removed to shrink the pile in the stope.

A Day In The Life Of - A Digger

“I clock in at 6.30am, exchange glowers (glares) with the shift bosses and walk to my locker and strip out of my everyday clothes. After beating the stiffness out of my underground clothes I put these on. Carrying helmet and mossel bag I go to the shift bosses desk to find out who needs a digger today. Willy informs me that Couch and Wooldridge need a digger on 17 Level. With that information I proceed to the lamp room to collect my lamp and make my way to the shaftbank to wait for the cage. The banksman finally calls 15 Level and I join eight other miners as we drop down through the shaft. I can already feel it getting warmer. Arriving at 15 Level, I step out the cage then walk to the top of the Sub-Incline shaft and get into the granby car. This takes me down to 17 Level. Leaving the granby car I walk to

the nearby mossel seat The trammers are already there having an early cup of tea. I tell them that I am going to Couch’s stope where I will be working. They inform me that they will be along later.

I have to push my way through a set of ventilation doors, a blast of heat greets me as I do so. I walk up through the crosscut into Treglown’s lode and on through to Levant North lode. It is very hot in here, it must be about 100°F and because it is a dead end the air is still. The smell of gas from Couch’s blast yesterday hangs in the air. As I walk I can feel my head getting lighter from the effects of the gas. On reaching their stope there is no sign of Couch or Wooldridge, so I assume they are already at work. I therefore climb up the ladder 20ft and into their stope. I proceed up the 30° to 35° pile of broken rock slipping and cursing as I go. I see a light ahead of me and continue to climb, it’s Wooldridge, laughing as normal, he is always happy. I ask him which holes he needs pulled (shrunk), he tells me No’s 4 and 5. So I start to climb higher, I can hear Couch above me, he has started drilling. So now not only the heat and gas but 120 decibels of noise. Can it get any worse I ask myself.

I get to a point 20ft above the holes to be pulled and place a wood spreader across the stope and beat it in with my pick. By now I am soaking with sweat and I can feel the start of another headache being brought on by the effects of the gas. I then climb back down about 40ft and place another spreader. On both of these I place a ‘Hole Hung Up’ sign. This is just in case the holes don’t shrink and is a warning to Couch and Wooldridge not to walk inside the two spreaders. I now tie a rope doubled to both spreaders, this is my lifeline. I am knackered by now after just half an hours work, but I clamber back down the stope past Wooldridge who also is now drilling, down the ladder and back into the level to await the trammers.

Steve Carter drilling in a stope

I just begin to pour a cup of tea from my flask when I hear in the distance the sound of the locos and wagons, the trammers are on the way. So after a quick mouthful of tea I walk to where the trammers have stopped and tell them I need one turn from No 4 hole and two turns from No 5 hole (one turn is 10 wagons or 10 tons). We agree visually which are holes 4 and 5, so that the right holes are shrunk. So with the first waggon being filled with broken

rock I climb back up into the stope.

By now both Couch and Wooldridge are drilling, the noise is deafening and the air is full of ‘funk’ (a mix of oil and water vapour coming from the exhausts on the machines). I climb up to my bottom spreader and

wait for the rock to shrink. After about 10 minutes a hole about 15 feet in front of my spreader starts to appear. Every time they fill a waggon below the hole gets deeper. It then stops shrinking. I listen for the waggons being pulled out of the tunnel below and when they are gone I climb over the spreader, clip my safety harness to the life line and then with my pick begin to level and fill the hole in the floor of the stope.

After about 40 minutes the trammers are back and start to pull from the 5th hole. Again I watch from below the bottom spreader and after a while the ground over the 5th hole starts to shrink. After the trammers have removed 20 tons this leaves quite a large crater in the stope floor. So armed just with my pick I start to dig this level. It is really hot now even without doing any work and the air full of ‘funk’. After I have levelled the floor I climb back up to the top spreader and remove that one, then I coil the rope. I then tell both Couch and Wooldridge that the 4th and 5th holes have shrunk and all is safe. Clambering back down I remove the bottom spreader. The two spreaders and rope are stored at the bottom of the stope for future use. Next it is back down the ladder into the level below for a well earned cup of tea and mossel. After a short break I walk to a stope on 17 Coronation lode to do the same again before the end of my shift.

Donald Dunstan filllng a waggon from a box hole