Page 153 - lady-chatterlys-lover

ey. But its best days were over. New London was never very
rich, and in ordinary times just got along decently. But now
times were bad, and it was pits like New London that got
left.
’There’s a lot of Tevershall men left and gone to Stacks
Gate and Whiteover,’ said Mrs Bolton. ‘You’ve not seen the
new works at Stacks Gate, opened after the war, have you,
Sir Clifford? Oh, you must go one day, they’re something
quite new: great big chemical works at the pit-head, doesn’t
look a bit like a colliery. They say they get more money out
of the chemical by-products than out of the coal—I forget
what it is. And the grand new houses for the men, fair man-
sions! of course it’s brought a lot of riff-raff from all over the
country. But a lot of Tevershall men got on there, and doin’
well, a lot better than our own men. They say Tevershall’s
done, finished: only a question of a few more years, and it’ll
have to shut down. And New London’ll go first. My word,
won’t it be funny when there’s no Tevershall pit working.
It’s bad enough during a strike, but my word, if it closes for
good, it’ll be like the end of the world. Even when I was a girl
it was the best pit in the country, and a man counted him-
self lucky if he could on here. Oh, there’s been some money
made in Tevershall. And now the men say it’s a sinking ship,
and it’s time they all got out. Doesn’t it sound awful! But of
course there’s a lot as’ll never go till they have to. They don’t
like these new fangled mines, such a depth, and all machin-
ery to work them. Some of them simply dreads those iron
men, as they call them, those machines for hewing the coal,
where men always did it before. And they say it’s wasteful

1 Lady Chatterly’s Lover