Mining disaster survivor recalls 1950 daring rescue

COMMUNITY MARKS 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF KNOCKSHINNOCH COLLAPSE

- STEPHEN BARK

For being 97 years old, Andrew McDicken is still regularly seen out tending his garden on a quiet street in New Cumnock.

At home with his son Alex and daughter Nancy, he is just an ordinary family man with an extraordinary story to tell.

On Sunday just past, along with the rest of his home community, Andrew marked the 75th anniversary of one of the most remarkable rescue efforts of the 20th century.

It was 75 years to the day after he and 128 other men were trapped underground after the coal mine they were working in collapsed.

For three days in 1950, the eyes of the world were on New Cumnock and the nearby Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery as rescuers worked day and night to free the trapped miners.

Andrew, one of two living survivors of the disaster, still recalls what had started out as just an ordinary Thursday afternoon as if it was yesterday.

He said: “I was 22 in 1950. I wasn’t married, just a young lad in my prime.

“The fella who was running the tubs down to us told us that everybody was to get off their marks straight away.

“There was something wrong at the bottom of the pit. We were making our way out and there was a coach load of hutches which ran into this stuff which was shoving the hutches back in the way.