COAL FOR THE OLD (1963)

In September 1961, aged 19 and after a year undertaking my farming practical, I arrived at Kings College, Newcastle to study agriculture. I had little experience of socialising. So, being the son of a Methodist Minister and still steeped in its structure and general beliefs, I veered towards the one place where I felt I might feel at home - the Methodist Society (MethSoc)

I had always struggled with the belief side of Christianity, but I warmed to its encouragement to get involved in the world and address the needs of those who were less fortunate than oneself. And in 1961, only 15 years after the second world war ended, I was further encouraged by being aware of a strong national sense of pulling together to rebuild the country - through the emerging welfare state and the National Health Service.  

Within Newcastle there were real pockets of poverty, particularly amongst the elderly, and I learnt that there many who could not afford coal to keep themselves warm during the freezing winters that we experienced in the northeast. So it was that three of us - John Barrett, Mike Pawson and I – all in our second year - decided to do something about it in the name of MethSoc. We called the scheme COAL FOR THE OLD – which would probably be deemed as WOKE today but back then it was simply a label that said what was in the tin! 

In early 1963, I can remember approaching a construction company that had lorries suited for urban delivery. I asked them if they would be willing to provide a couple of lorries (including drivers) on a Saturday morning to deliver coal to the elderly if we could source the coal. I explained that we had no money to pay them. Despite this they agreed. Buoyed up, we approached the National Coal Board and asked whether, if we arrived in lorries at a pithead early on a Saturday morning, they would provide us with coal at cost. They kindly agreed, noting that the coal would be in bulk and we would have to bag it up – with bags that they would provide. Further buoyed by such a positive response, we approached the Welfare Department of the City and County of Newcastle upon Tyne and asked if they could provide us with a list of people who were in fuel poverty.

Letter from King’s College Methodist Society. 21st February 1963.

In our current digital world, and the pervasive influence of GDPR, this would get short shrift. But back then, without any questions, we were provided with such a list. Now we had everything that we needed except the funds to purchase the coal. To address that we wrote to every Church that we could identify, requesting that they allocate a weekly collection to Coal for the Old.

Funds came in slowly, and I can see from this newspaper cutting that at some point we got an interview with the local press noting that “we were disappointed at the response” – only having so far raised £200 out of a target of £1,000 – and that so far we had “delivered 27 tons of coal to old people in Byker, Scotswood, Kenton and Fawdon”. 

A further appeal went out in the press, and the funds started flowing in. With funds to hand, we continued to call in the favours of the construction company and, with a couple of lorries, a group of us would go to the pithead, bag the coal and with a list from the Welfare Department set out across the city

Undertaking this work on the day was often an emotive experience, since none of those receiving such coal were expecting it. The surprise, the joy – and occasionally the tears – of those opening the door to find someone giving them a bag of coal is one that has stayed with us.   We received an appreciative letter from the Welfare Department (below), from which it would appear that we provided 350 of the elderly citizens of the city with 1 cwt (50kg) of coal). The two biggest lessons that we learnt were that (1) it is sometimes possible to do something about a social issue if you break things down into bite-sized chunks, and (2) that if you approach people courteously with a request to help others, and they have the resources to do so, most will respond in a positive way.

Of the three of us, John (Barratt) remained in Methodism – being elected as President of the World Methodist Council in 2006 and from 2004-9 was Head of the newly founded International Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore. Mike (Pawson) remained true to his calling as a farm manager whilst I fulfilled my dream of working in agriculture and rural development in the emerging economics.

Our letter is the second in the left-hand column.  Note the letter above it, which is complaining about commercial coal suppliers not being willing to deliver upstairs!  In my original letter to the editor – in my handwriting below – I took him to task about misreporting us.  But sadly, that line didn’t make the final cut….

Letters to the Editor cutting with enlarged section of ‘WILL YOU HELP’ on the right.

Letter from the Welfare Department of the City and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne. 12th March 1963.