Story of miner who risked his life for a pit pony features at Wentworth Woodhouse mining exhibition

During a roof fall at his pit in Elsecar, while all uninjured miners ran to find their way out of tumbling rock, pit props and choking dust, John Willie Bell deliberately ran the other way - to find his pony.

When a rescue team eventually found them, he told his workmates: “I knew you would dig for a man, but not for a pony”.

The Wentworth man’s heroic story will be told at Wentworth’s Coal Story Exhibition, which runs from July 9 until October 6, thanks to his grandchildren.

Brother and sister Steve Hardy and Val Noble, who both grew up in Elsecar, responded to an appeal for stories and mementos for inclusion in the exhibition exploring the Rotherham stately home’s 200-year coal-mining history.

Details of 17 year old John Willie’s actions, and a silver medal awarded to him, will feature among an array of fascinating mining memorabilia and old photographs loaned by descendants of local colliers.

The coal wagon-shaped Fitzwilliam Medal for Kindness was presented to John Willie Bell by Countess Maud Fitzwilliam in 1904. Through research, his family believe the Countess was so impressed by the miner’s courage, she devised the medal especially for him and that he inspired her to found an association for the prevention of cruelty to pit ponies.

The medal has remained in the family ever since and first came to light when Val took it along to an episode of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow being filmed at Wentworth Woodhouse in 2013.

Said Val: “At that time, we knew very little about it even though it had been in our family for over 100 years. The show’s silver specialist Ian Pickford said it was the most delightful thing he had ever seen and dated it to 1904.”

Following the TV appearance, their cousin Joy said she vividly remembered their grandad telling her how he had stayed with his pit pony Flo and had taken his jacket off and wrapped it around her head, to protect her from falling rocks and dust.

“By sheer luck they must have been in a place where the roof supports held and they had enough air,” said Val.

Joy also remembered that when Flo the pony retired, John Willie asked Earl Fitzwilliam if he could buy her and put her out to pasture. The Earl charged him just one penny and Flo spent the rest of her life in the miner’s garden and nearby fields.

When Flo died in old age, John Willie had two of her hooves made into poker stands, which stood either side of the fireplace - much to his wife’s horror.

Added Val: “We got back in touch with the BBC in 2014, told them about Joy’s recollections and we were invited to tell the updated story in an episode of Antiques Roadshow Detectives.

“Programme researchers contacted local historian Roy Young, who had researched the medal’s history and discovered that John Willie’s story had got back to Countess Maud Fitzwilliam. He believed the Countess was so impressed by the miner’s courage, she devised the medal especially for him and it inspired her to found The Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pit Ponies.”

To book tickets for the exhibition, go to https://wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk/whats-on/wentworths-coal-story/

John Willie Bell:

John Willie was born in 1887 and grew up at The Fold, off Street Lane, Wentworth, with his father Alfred Thomas Kitchen Bell, mother Emma and two sisters, Florence and Evelyn. He developed a love of horses while helping on the local farm, and with his parents’ horses. He was just 13 when his mother died and a year later he went to work down Low Stubbin pit and later to Elsecar Main Colliery.

He married Florence Brassington, from Chesterfield, in 1912 - the third Flo he loved in his life - and they lived in Wentworth until moving to Elsecar in 1938. They had two sons and four daughters. Eldest son Alfred followed his father down the pit. Eldest daughter Kit went on to marry a miner, Fred.

John Willie remained in the collieries all his working life. He died in 1962 aged 75 of lung disease and kidney failure. He had requested his medal be passed to his daughter Margaret and it is now with her eldest son Steve, who was employed at Elsecar pit, where his grandfather had worked. After Elsecar’s closure in 1983 he transferred to Maltby Colliery.