I'M very sorry that I'm unknown to Mr Belcher's social

network in Coalway, as he points out in his letter 'Mining

Realities.' Quite obviously because I'm a recent incomer,

foreigner, "Gast Arbeiter" or whatever term identifies a

new resident recently arrived.

Thomas Hardy has warned us in his novel 'Tess of

the D'urbevilles', with dire consequences, about the

dangers of leigemen (and women, in the case of Tess)

identifying themselves by claiming supposed aristocratic

English ancestors.

However, the Ortons did accompany the King in the

13th / 14th century  on his Scottish Wars; John de Orton is

listed in Joseph Foster's Dictionary of Heraldry (first

published 1902)  on Edward III's Roll of Arms (1327 -

1377): "John de Orton bore azure,a lyon rampant argent, 

(Jenyns Ordinary.) Same as: Sir Robert de Monthalt,

baron,1299, (Henry III's Roll of Arms) bore the same at

the battle of Falkirk 1298, Siege of Caerlaverock 1299,

sealed the Barons' letter to the Pope, 1301. (John Orton

bore the same. John differenced it with a label (3), or,

(Jenyns Ordinary): a label (5), gules,  (Arden and St George

Rolls), and also with the field, or,  (also in the Arden Roll.)"

The Cumbrian Ortons still carry the main device

"silver/white lion rampant on blue" but my leigelords,  the

Ortons in the East Midlands, carry a Tudor rose over

chevrons because their lands were bequeathed by

Elizabeth I to Leicester, Earl of Essex . There is evidence

that there were Midlands infantry and sappers at the Seige

of Caerlaverock.

That little bit of ancient lore might identify me as

just another Englishman in Coalway.

I'm also sorry that when I was nine I wasn't down the

pit gaining the direct experience Mr Belcher describes so

graphically, and that would have been so beneficial in

curing my romanticism about iron mining . All I can

remember 'digging into my back' at that age was a silver

die-cast Roy Rogers' cap pistol as I was rounded up by

one of the other village kiddies as we played at cowboys

in the fields. (I might have been Hopalong Cassidy; I

might have been Tom Mix.)

Regretfully, I have, also, very sparse work

experience credentials for commenting on the iron mining

industry as Mr Belcher recalled it.  In 1964, at the tender

age of 19, I worked for less than one year with the Iron

Ore Company of Canada at the open cast mines at Knob

Lake, Labrador near the town of Schefferville, Province

Quebec.

My job specifications were:

1. Mounting and polishing samples for photo-

micro-spectro­graph analysis by the mineralogists.

2. Helping maintain the flotation unit in the

experimental iron ore pelletizing plant.

3. Sitting in a Chevrolet truck with the engine

running, four hours on, four hours off, at the head of the

open-cast mine, with a load of  tin cans, with which I

could clamber all over Caterpillar trucks to sample the

iron ore on its way to the rail head.

I slept in a bunkhouse at the mine. All food and

non-alcoholic beverages were available free of charge

night and day, with T-bone steaks once a month, The lack

of female companionship meant there were dangers of

alcoholism, freezing at 40 degrees below zero, or getting

bushed (that is, wanting to  take your time-off  or

holidays further north; Hudson Bay, Baffin Island or other

Arctic locations.)

I earned a lot of dollars in a short time but foolishly

gave up the job  to hitch-hike down to the United States

to gain some love and admiration for being English in

America at the same time as the Beatles and the Rolling

Stones.

So, a sad catalogue of direct, industrial, iron-ore-

mine experience really.  A bit romanticised also as I drift

into old age, I suppose, as Mr Belcher has written. But I

have photographic evidence that I was there with the

mineralogists at the Knob Lake Laboratories. I'm the one

in the middle.)

– Joe Orton, Coalway.