Why Pete Bartle painted the pit

It is of the Warren House pit and at first I could not understand why he would paint a colliery. As far as I knew he always worked on a railway apart from the time he worked at Ellis Pearson Glass Co, Wentworth Road, Rawmarsh driving the works lorry all over the country delivering the aluminium frames and doors that we made.

Then after a while the “penny dropped”. The buildings that we worked in were old colliery buildings and then I remembered part of the firm’s address was Warren House.

The tall building on the sky-line I assume is what we used to call the “High House” where the lengths of aluminium were stacked in 20ft racks and then cut for the use of the fabrications, so after 40 years (we left the site April/May 1973) I decided to find out about Warren House Pit.

Briefly it opened in the early 19th century on the Earl Fitzwilliam estate and closed during or shortly after the First World war. It was also connected to Warren Vale underground colliery and Kilnhurst Colliery.

There may be a bigger story there for any ex-miners to discover.

For those who are interested in looking back at memories of Rotherham as seen through the eyes of Pete in the 1950s or have an interest in the railway I recommend you look at www.peterbartle.co.uk. If you see anybody sat on a motorbike in any paintings it’s Pete.

If you come across an original painting please get in touch with Ralph Bartle (brother) as they are still unsure of all Pete’s works.

Ray Hill, Greenfield Road, East Herringthorpe