WHEN our local heroes are all but forgotten, the name of Paddy Gill will live on in the memory of reader Chris Barrow who has noted what he describes as the council's 'passion' for honouring the good, the great and the ordinary from the borough's mining past.
The mining statue on the town-centre Landings roundabout, near the YMCA, and the recently-erected plaque and sculpture to the memory of Jim Anderton at Cannington roundabout on the St Helens Linkway, are prime examples.
But, says Chris, the memory of the late Paddy Gill, one-time mayor, deputy lieutenant of Lancashire, local magistrate, town councillor and champion of mining safety, should also be kept alive.
Jim Anderton's chief claim to fame, points out our Eccleston chum, was to design the Anderton shearer-loader, revolutionising coal extraction worldwide. But Paddy, he adds, made an equally, if not more important contribution in taking much of the risk out of the lives of those who worked down the many mines which once dotted the district landscape.
This message was first brought home to Chris when, as a young reporter, he was invited to visit the coalface of a doomed local pit and found the whole experience to be terrifying. "Paddy represented the difference between life and death for the men who burrowed beneath our town for coal," he says. "He cared passionately about his miners; and their respect for him was a thing to behold.
"I learned of this magical relationship when Paddy invited me to become one of the last people to visit the coalface at Ravenhead Colliery before its closure. It's a memory that remains etched in my mind."
Paddy had asked Chris if he was brave enough to accompany him to hell and back. In the colliery yard, the great man said: "You will see what you will see! Multiply the horror by ten and you may then be able to imagine the perils and hardships that men have endured over the years."
Paddy was greeted with warmth and enthusiasm by those he and Chris met below ground. He was obviously their champion, and to a man, they applauded the measures he'd introduced in bringing about a significant reduction in accident statistics.
Chris discovered that day that there is nothing vaguely romantic about winning coal. First came the unnerving descent in the lift cage. "It seemed to be falling into oblivion at great speed, and with water pouring in from some invisible source."
After what felt like a crash landing, Chris found himself being squeezed through giant steel doors standing guard at intervals along various underground chambers. These, he was told, were designed to contain fire or explosions.
"Yes, it brought terror for me," confesses Chris, "but 'our lads' stared this in the face each time they did a shift underground."
There was more trauma to come for the then fresh-faced young scribe. Reaching the coalface entailed a ride on the conveyor belt. This demanded a daredevil technique involving launching oneself, knees first, while resisting the temptation to grab the moving belt for support. "Fall to temptation and the chances were that you'd be minus some or all of your fingers!" By way of variety, the return trip was on a belt laden with lumps of coal. "At the coalface was a small army of sweating, grimy heroes, huffing and puffing, sadly, some of them wheezing with the first signs of silicosis or pneumoconiosis.
"I have never claimed to be the bravest man," declares Chris, "nor am I the meekest. But that visit was an absolute hell!
"Just how much worse it had been before the intervention of Paddy Gill, with his daily battle for increased safety measures, I shudder to think."
Touching on recent correspondence calling for those who have made a big contribution to St Helens community life to be honoured (either in their lifetime or posthumously) as part of the millennium celebrations, Chris signs off: "If our town feels it ought to salute people who have mattered, there ought to be a place high on that podium for Paddy Gill."
A SENTIMENT which will doubtless be echoed by all our former miners and which must bring pride to all surviving members of the Gill clan.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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