At the Coalface: The memoir of a pit nurse. Veronica Clark

      

Copyright

      HarperElement

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      First published by HarperElement 2015

      FIRST EDITION

      © Joan Hart and Veronica Clark 2015

      Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

      Cover photographs © Photograph of author supplied by author (Nurse); Selwyn Tait/Sygma/Corbis (background)

      Joan Hart and Veronika Clark assert the moral right

      to be identified as the authors of this work

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      Source ISBN: 9780007596164

      Ebook Edition © July 2015 ISBN: 9780007596171

      Version: 2015-06-22

Dedication

      For my husband, Peter

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Prologue

       1. The Year of the Floods

       2. Nurse in Training

       3. Mishaps on the Wards

       4. Going Home

       5. A Miner’s Nurse

       6. Cuddles and Infertility

       7. Babies and Bicycles

       8. A Heartbeat from Death

       9. At the Coalface

       10. Nurse in Pit Boots

       11. Practical Jokers and Perfume

       12. Birthday down the Pit

       13. Medical Emergencies and Marriage Guidance

       14. Chewing Tobacco and Cursing in Casualty

       15. The Mines Rescue Service

       16. Bentley Pit Disaster

       17. Rubber Gloves

       18. The Miners’ Strike

       19. Bird Woman

       20. Noel

       21. Target

       22. End of the Strike

       23. Loss

       24. Eternal Nurse

       Acknowledgements

       Glossary of Mining Terms

       Exclusive sample chapter

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Prologue

      Dropping the telephone receiver back down into its cradle, I jumped to my feet and closed the door. My pale blue overall was still grubby with coal dust from my pit inspection the day before. I was a nurse on call, in charge of thousands of miners, and right now one of them needed me. I clamped the palm of my hand against my hard hat and ran along the pathway towards the lamp cabin. With my metal checks jangling inside my pocket, I grabbed my lamp, battery pack and self-rescuer canister, and clipped them onto the side of my belt. It was still early and grey clouds swirled overhead. The air was thick with industrial noise and the threat of immediate rain. My pit boots picked up pace as I dashed from the lamp cabin towards the shaft side where the doctor was