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A Day at Work.

It is many years now since I retired. I still remember getting up at five in the morning a hurried breakfast out to the car the drive to be at the hospital by ten minutes to six. Park the car walk into the Boiler house. Greet the night Stoker; ask if there had been any serious troubles during the night. Was there anything to report to the Engineer in charge? Wish the night Stoker a good quiet day. Quickly change into my working clothes check the fires throw on a few shovels of coal.

Fill the kettle from now on it will be one pot of tea after the other. The dry hot atmosphere made one quickly thirsty nearly all that came into the boiler house drank a cup of my hot sweet tea. Coal came along on those lorries about ten ton at a time. The next were the lorries that took away the ashes, it is surprising the amount of ash that each lorry took away in its belly. Everyquarter of an hour water pumps had to be checked twice a shift the fires had to be cleaned.large heavy pokers and long heavy rakes from each fire two wheelbarrows full of ash that had to be broken down with the heavy old sledge hammer. One could easily get large muscles wielding these instruments.

Time to have a snack, one gets hungry working in this heat and as I have told you tea is always in the pot. It is always a very quick snack. The two hundred year old steam pump needs repacking one cannot really rely on the modern electric pumps. A quick walk around to check the various Tell Tales. Tell tales are like clocks they give the engineer information as to the amount of steam produced or if for some reason the fires have had to be pulled. Yes sometimes even the large boilers that produce steam for heating the hot water supplies the heating of the radiators on the wards all using steam the kitchens. The Laundry, on each boiler is a large clock that tells the Stoker how much steam is being produced. Eighty pounds of steam per square inch is the target it is nearly always reached unless we get a load of green coal that is coal with hardly any burning qualities. On the new boiler houses they use electricity for heating. Some use oil for fuel I have worked on all of these types Coal is dirty and heavy work but the time does go flying past. With electric and oil the time drags and drags, nearly two of the clock. Quick check that all is in order to hand over to the afternoon Stoker. Hand over, give a quick report have a shower get dressed in clothes suitable for mixing with the general public and at two o’clock drive out of the gates. Knowing full well that tomorrow is another day throwing eight tones of coal into the greedy boiler, me and the other Stokers working up and down the country in hospital Stokeholds.  Knowing too that nearly two thousand patients are relying on us and our willingness to work at such dirty jobs