ANOTHER regular reader, Barbara Millner, also emailed following a previous column about my exploits down the coal mining museum and raised an intriguing query about pit ponies.

Barbara tells me she went on a coach outing to this very pit and found it extremely interesting. Indeed, my husband was interested in what knowledge I had gained, as he worked down Bold Colliery for a few years.

She wrote: "Conditions must have been awful for women and children on those far off days – all to earn a crust to keep a roof over one’s head, but, they managed to get through the days. I am wondering if the pit ponies wore some sort of mask to prevent coal dust getting into them – must have been terrible."

Pit ponies must have been common in our local collieries. I found no evidence that they ever wore breathing masks, but they were usually valued and thus well treated.

The pit pony replaced women and children in the coal mines. Since mine shafts were small and had a low ceiling, it made sense to use smaller ponies. At the height of their usage in 1913, there were 70,000 working in the mines.

As of 1984, there were 55 still in service. The last pony, Robbie, retired in 1999.

Ceilings were low and the roads were rough and could be steep. Consequently, ponies had to be full bodied, large boned and short.

A kind temperament was preferred and sure-footedness was needed, so Shetlands and the Sable Island Ponies were the popular breeds. Future pit ponies were invariably raised in the mines so they didn’t rebel against the conditions. However, they weren’t put to work until they were four years old. Most ponies were retired in their late teens.

The horses were taken below ground in a cage or were walked into the slope mines on the footpath. Their daily working shift was normally the same as a man’s and drivers did not like their ponies to be double-shifted. When the animal got older, their work period was usually reduced to four hours.

They generally stayed below ground for approximately five years, unless killed or maimed, and then they were either moved or replaced.

Conditions varied between mines, but the general consensus was to feed them quality food, have fresh water at every station and to only have one handler who was responsible for feeding, grooming, bathing and caring for his particular pony.

Retirement was stressful and usually short. They had lived underground for so long under unnatural conditions that life on the outside was confusing. Most died from the respiratory conditions that killed many miners.

Pit pony retirement facilities were created after an uproar when the public realised that they were sold to slaughter once done with work.

Email chrispcoffey@gmail.com or ring 01744 817130 or write to 37 Holbrook Close, St Helens, WA9 3XH.