The Tommy Knockers - Stephen Harvey

Knock, knock, tap, tap! What’s that sound?

The soul of a collier trapped under ground.

He'll stays down there till the end of time.

Buried under mountains of darkness and slime

Knock, knock, tap, tap! Who goes there?

A Tommy Knocker whispers in the midnight air.

The sound of his tapping will serve no doubt

To warn us of a danger when it's time to get out

This poem is loosely based on an old skiping song of unknown origin - If you can discover the original poet/author I would love to find it out this information.

Information

The 'Tommy Knockers' were believed to be the souls of colliers that had been killed in the mines, and would warn other miners of impending danger. The mining industry was filled with lots of superstitions including 'Blue devils' 'mining dwarfs' and the 'Whistling witches' who all warned of dangers in the pit.

They believed that they had been given a 'token' or a 'chance' by the ghosts of miners lost or trapped underground and to ignore them would bring on impending danger. Some miners also believed in their dreams, and dream about a 'burning shoe' was one such warning to stay at home the next day.

Common superstitions

If a pitman met a pig or a woman on his way to work, for example, it was a sure indicator of disaster, and he was to return home and miss his shift. 

Another belief was that if the pitman set off for work and found he had forgotten an important Item, he should not return to fetch it; he should either carry on to work or go home and stay there. 

Certain acts were unlucky: in parts of the North-East it was not safe to use the word ‘pig’ (but the dialect equivalent ‘guissie’ was allowed); to rob a robin’s nest could lead to an accident at work, etc.

Such superstitions held less and less power in the 20th century, but recently I heard from an old collier that the term "blue devil" was used for “the ignition of localised pockets of gas" 

It doesn't take much imagination to turn a blue flame into a devil or imp, and when your are a mile underground with only a candle as company, they must have been a very frightening sight.



This poem has now been published in AD LIB 2012 - A poetry collection from Rising Brook Writers.
ISBN 978-0-9557086-9-5



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