Memories of Fred Ivey as a Bevin Boy in South Wales

Fred Ivey was a junior booking clerk on the London Underground when on 25 July 1944 he received his call up and was despatched to South Wales to work in the coal mines as a Bevin Boy. Coming from an upper middle class family in London the contrast with the miners of South Wales was to leave a lasting memory for Fred which he recounts here in recordings made in 2014/15.
Download Fred's story at tinyurl.com/qxnbskp

[@markbeale7390]

Very well told Fred.

[@mikekozi-lester3887]

Cool

[@1122geoff]

Good blokes

[@navigator100group2]

Re the cage not stopping, at this time there would have been a quaintly named device called " The Automatic Contrivance". this would prevent the cage from landing at the pit bottom at an unsafe speed. That is to say, if the man controlling the cage, for whatever reason failed to control the cage, it would be landed by the contrivance at pit bottom, all be it not precisely aligned.