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Thank you , what a damned hard life !! Best wishes Alan

Fabulous environmental photograph! What a tough life they had and still have!

Nice shot! Added to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearmouth_Colliery --plus a link to this set. Thanks for posting these!

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10 years up and down in that cage 50 men to a deck and nearly 2000ft at the deepest point, then 8 miles under the North Sea. Hard graft. The heat it was like Dante's Inferno.

1880 - St James' Church enlargement Having become the Cathedral of the new diocese, St James’ Church was enlarged, extending the nave and north and south aisles 1883 Plans for a new and larger cathedral began when members of the church formed a committee to raise the funds 1884 The proposal to build a cathedral was approved by a church synod and the Cathedral Building Committee was appointed. An organ, donated by Miss S.E. Holland (an English friend of Bishop Stanton), was added to the church. 1885 Arthur Blackett of Sydney, son of Edmund Blackett (the New South Wales colonial architect) was commissioned to design a new cathedral. The initial designs called for a cathedral constructed of sandstone with granite columns which would hold 1000 parishioners. Source: www.stjamescathedral.com.au/the-cathedral/history/ The nave would be 37 feet (11 m) wide, transepts would be 24 feet (7.3 m) wide and the total interior length from chancel to bell tower would be 115 feet (35 m). 1887 Many features of these designs were rejected upon review by the diocese and three revisions were necessary before a final plan was approved. The final design was for a church built in stone, with a low wide central tower that would act as a ventilation shaft, and a single tower at the northern door. It was to cost £24,000 but was built in sections. The diocese called tenders for the construction of the Cathedral. The first sod was turned on the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria on June 22nd. 1892 The building was erected by Townsville contractors MacMahon & Cliffe. Subsequent financial constraints forced changes to the design, and the Cathedral was constructed in brick, with concrete facings, a temporary roof, and no towers. This first stage of the Cathedral was consecrated on October 27th by the second Bishop of North Queensland, Christopher Barlow. 1896 On 26 January, Cyclone Sigma struck Townsville; however, the Cathedral was relatively unaffected by this 1903 On March 9th, Cyclone Leonta struck Townsville, destroying the 1871 St James’ Church and the temporary roof of the Cathedral. The Cathedral was promptly rebuilt with higher walls and a more permanent roof at a cost of £2,500. The gas lights, seen here, remained until 1922. They were replaced by electrical lights when it became available until 1959 The second stage of the Cathedral was designed in 1955 by Melbourne architect Louis Williams, with Townsville architects Black and Paulsen responsible for the building between 1959-1960. 1959-60 Although Blackett’s design had a strong Byzantine flavour, with its magnificent pointed arches and the apsidal east end, at one stage of the design he envisaged having a dome above the nave. Williams favoured a Gothic design, which was popular for churches up to the end of the 1960s. The nave and the Western façade with the bell tower and stature of St James were all added Evidence of the extension can be seen as although the brick makers, Scott Brothers, reopened the original clay pit to make new bricks for the extension, a slight difference of colour can be seen due to the aging of the bricks. Evidence can also be seen in the ceiling where the original rough sawn, lapped timber was replaced with machine sawn, tongue-in-groove. The final foundation stone was laid in 1960 marking the completion of the Cathedral.

I wish I had been allowed to work on more documentary projects of this kind!! There were so many that could and should have been covered - but it's too late now!!!!!

Thats Davey Donnison. He was Surface Foreman.

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