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Jack Rumford (1910-1995) - Electrician, Aberdare Extended Colliery. Part 2/2.

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SummaryJack Rumford
Recorded 24 January 1982
Part 2 of 2

0:12
The ladder he carried was an extension ladder that was in two pieces. You carry it on your left shoulder, one hand on your bike steering it. That went on up to the 1930s and then they had a big improvement. Billy McBeath and Aub Dean used to do the street lighting and they had a horse and cart, Billy drove it, they went around doing the odd jobs, Jimmy and Jack thought they could do a better job if two went together, they put the ladder a bit longer, they got on their bikes both with one end of the ladder each, did the job much faster. Then they finally got an AJS motorbike & sidecar, then they carried the ladder between the wheel and the side car, Jimmy drove and Jack held the ladder, up until around 1931, so bike in 1927 until 1928 or 30, then they got the motorbike and got rid of in 1932, then they got the lorries. Bert Delaney started driving the lorry.

3:11
When erecting power poles they decided to do them without using their shoulders, they put them up with pikes, they were 50 ft poles, and to put them up the hole had to be at least 6ft down. The step was then put in, and the pikes were used to push it up after using their shoulders. Wally Stevenson worked with them on the poles. Before he had worked as a carpenter at the pit. Eventually they used the truck to help lift the pole, though that was the 30 ft poles not the 50 ft ones. Physical nature of work made you very strong, Jack remembers one pole they put up at Kalingo, a corner pole, one pole on its own was 1.5 ton that they had to pick up with their shoulders and block and tackle. Maitland town lighting supply put up all the poles in Vincent Street. The power supply at Mulbring, they went in lorries, nearby was a sub-station and wired Mulbring up.

11:29
John Rumford is Jack’s son. He liked motorbikes. Glen Rumford is his grandson, John Rumford is his grandfather, in his family tree up to his grandfather there was only ever one boy in the whole family. Blanch James Williams is his mother. She was born in Sheerness, England. Jack played Rugby League for Cessnock.

A few of the early Cessnock Rugby League players. Jack played Sunday football for Tinkler's team, entered competitions, went to Morpeth to qualify for the Newcastle League. They beat Morpeth and that is how Cessnock got into the League. They played at Cessnock Showground just outside of the dog track.

19:40
East Cessnock School dances, Jack used to go to them, he got married the first in 1930, his son was born about two or three years after that. Jack used to do amateur boxing in Sydney, then when he came up from Sydney he fought in dredges, “Taff" Thomas, Jack needed money, 10 bob, four round bouts, Joe Shakespeare was the referee, he used to run it. It was in The Strand Theatre, he fought under "Snowy" Williams. Jack knew "Bulldog" Drummond, "Milty" Bailey was before Jack came in. Billy Davies was at the same time, "Nutty" Fairhall fought in New Zealand, he was a top boy. Bill McNabb was finished when Jack started. McNabb’s sister married Jack’s wife’s uncle: "Buck" Yates, he was at the Aberdare lighting.

24:58
They used to have a Friday night late shopping. When that was on they had two men on duty, if anyone broke down they would ring up Ray Smith's electrical store, opposite the bake house. If there was a break down on Vincent Street there was only a 200 going through on the high tension. All the big shops and pubs had a little transformer of their own. Jack used to go dancing at Peden's Hall in Cessnock.

It would take a day to put a pole up, fix it up and put a transformer up, you had to drag the pole from Extended. The power poles supplied from Wollombi by bullock, supplied by the Macdonalds, the poles were made from ironbark and stringy bark, if they got black wood, which was no good it would rot under the ground and then it would come down on you. At Abermain they were putting up a power pole like that, and as they were doing up the last wire and the pole started to move so he stood up on the pole in mid-air, and as it came down he jumped on the roof of a bootmakers. One bloke was electrocuted when Jack was working with them. Wally Stevenson falling from pole 30ft up, Murdoch was in charge and the war was on. Tommy Stevenson used to work at Extended.

32:40
First lived opposite Hutton Street, then went to Elizabeth Street in Cessnock. After all the kids had left and married his dad went to the Royal Hotel to die. There were five kids in John Baker Rumford’s family, the eldest was Vi who married Harold Haynes, Dorothy was the next eldest, she married a Holdsborne, who was the managing director of Allen’s sweets, then himself (Jack), then Kathleen who married Billy McBeath Jnr., and lastly Daphne who married an Armstrong from Mosman.

35:08
The main power supply was controlled from one switch, but then they had the substations and transformers and each one of them had their own protection. Talking of cutting pats off, isolating sections. Most breakdowns were repairing "live" cables, they would stand on a piece of dry wood. Received electrical shocks, had burns, one across his throat, some on his hands. He thinks he should have been electrocuted at least 11 times but he wasn’t, but most of the time because of his own neglect. Jack worked on town lighting for 50 years. He went in through the metering and inspecting homes. Later on Cyril Franklin started and he was an electrical inspector. When he died, Jack took over

39:55
In depression days, people used to put the plug in to stop the meters, they did it all the time, people "rigging" meters. Jack caught thousands, he just chucked them away, since they had no money. Explaining the ways they bypassed the meters, and how they had look outs, so they could get to the meters to take the bypass off when the meter readers came to check them. Since they couldn’t do it they couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

43:54
End (Tape 242/Side B) part 2 of 2 Last edited by: Dave Trimble

SubjectCoal mines and mining -- New South Wales -- Hunter ValleyCessnock (N.S.W.)ElectriciansHunter Valley County Council (N.S.W.)Electric power distribution -- New South Wales -- Hunter ValleyElectricityAberdare Extended Colliery (N.S.W.)Rumford, John William, 1910-1995 Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

PersonJack Delaney Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

Depicts or Relates ToMilton "Milty" Bailey Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

CreatorRumford, John William, 1910-1995Delaney, Jack, 1919-2010 Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

CollectionVoices of the Hunter Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

PlaceCessnock, NSW Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

Date Created24th January 1982Location^[1]Aberdare Extended Colliery, NSW Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

Identifier242B Last edited by: lyn.keily@newcastle.edu.au

Job Identifier242B

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