David Nuttall was born in 1944 at Hemsworth in South Yorkshire, on the road to South Kirkby.
David Nuttall - Image © Jonathan Straight 2021
He always wanted to be a teacher spending his entire career doing a job he loved, rising to the position of headmaster. He was head of three primary schools: firstly, in Flockton, near to Huddersfield; secondly at Walton near to Wakefield; and finally in Knottingley in West Yorkshire. His final posting ended with the school burned down by a pupil. He says nothing was ever proven, but a large quantity of petrol was found in the backyard of the boy's house.
In common with many other families in the area, David's father was a coal miner, and his mother kept the house and held the purse strings. Of his three siblings, his brother also became a headteacher, and one sister was a PE teacher.
David describes his father working every hour as a coal cutter in the mines, using a trepanner to shear the coal. The work was hard and resulted in numerous accidents, with his father falling on his back and legs several times, ultimately leading to the removal of the cartilage in both knees. Another accident saw the loss of his left kneecap and meant he then had to walk with a stick. But the work gave his father sufficient income to send his children to the local grammar school.
A perk of the job was a ton of coal once each month delivered to the house's back door, it being up to the children to throw it into the "coal hole", a space underneath the house. Some people who could afford it would have a separate shed for the coal. Although the coal was part of a miner's income, some sold it. Such activity was, of course, illegal as it deprived the Coal Board of revenue, but keeping one step ahead of the police sometimes made this possible.
The closure of the pits had the benefit of ending the need for hard work along with the associated misery and accidents, but David feels that in some ways, the communities died at the same time. That said, there are remnants in the form of bands, clubs and football teams.
David feels that he and his siblings led a charmed life due to their father's hard work. Three of four siblings went to grammar school, which was expensive, and although they wanted for nothing, there were no extravagances. He feels he owes his parents a great debt of gratitude for working so hard to make the life he has lived possible.
Teaching was very much David's calling, and he says that even when the administrative part of the job grew to be a burden, there was still a stark contrast between what his father had endured and what he, his brother and his sisters did not have to endure.
As to the make-up of the community when he was at school, David describes his first school, Northfield, as a show school for the arts, while made up mainly of children of miners. He describes government advisors visiting the school and taking artworks back to London.
At grammar school, the pupils were from a mixed background, although most of the children were from working-class families, including the cricket player Geoffrey Boycott.
David says he always dabbled with writing and runs two folk music clubs in Wakefield on a Sunday afternoon. People gather informally in the pub and bring in various instruments, including whistles, guitars, pipes and violins. There is no stage, so people just sit or stand where they are and perform traditional songs and tunes and their own material. A lot of the music is Irish in origin.
His literary adventures began by writing poems about his father and the working community he grew up in, mainly for his amusement. He then set some of them to a tune and would sing them at the events he had organised.
David offers a brief introduction before this song.
Glossary:
NCB = National Coal Board
Snap = food
Dudley = water bottle
Bacca twist = chewing tobacco
Condor = chewing tobacco
NUM = National Union of Mineworkers