Bilsthorpe restorer returns Bolsover miner’s lamp to family

The family of a former pit worker has been reunited with his retirement lamp, thanks to a passionate restorer who chose sentiment over profit.

Kev Pattison bought the lamp dedicated to Les Bausor, who worked at Bolsover Colliery in Derbyshire, and after restoring it, tracked down and passed the light on to the late miner’s grandson.

Mr Pattison said he was proud to have gone some way to tackle what he deems to be an injustice regarding the lamps.

“A lot of the miners at most of the collieries didn’t get a lamp when they shut the pits – [the building contractors] chucked them down the shaft,” he said.

“All they were asking was for an oil lamp. And I feel slightly disgusted that the people that were filling the shafts in were chucking anything down there, just to fill it up.”

Mr Pattison joined the National Coal Board in 1967 as a mining apprentice at Bilsthorpe Colliery, Nottinghamshire, and progressed to the role of development worker, then deputy in 1984.

He has bought, restored and sold miners lamps since leaving the industry in the 1990s, delivering the finished articles as far as the US, Australia and Japan.

The restorer told the BBC he bought this particular lamp in a bundle of three from an eBay seller in Bolsover and gave it a deep clean and polish.

The lamp recognised Les Bausor’s retirement from Bolsover Colliery on the 19th October 1983 and Mr Pattison was so impressed by the ornate engraving that he decided he wanted to track down Mr Bausor’s family.

He posted in a Bolsover Facebook group and the miner’s grandson, Neil Bausor from Chesterfield, responded.

“It’ll be super, I can’t wait for him to see it actually in his hands because these are the real things, they’re the real McCoy,” Mr Pattison said.

Mr Bausor, 41, collected his late grandad’s lamp and plans to give it to his dad as Christmas present.

“They were things that they cherished, it was part of their work,” said Mr Bausor.

“Not only did it light the way, it helped them. The lamps detected the gases. If the lamp went out, you knew you’d got to get out yourself so they were very important to them.”

Mr Pattison has a deep knowledge and passion for the mining industry, and treasures the lamps as a significant symbol of that heritage.

“For some lads that had done 20 or 30 years, they wanted an oil lamp, it wasn’t a great lot to ask, not for all those years,” he said.

Mr Pattison said many lamps were thrown down the mining shafts as landfill when collieries closed, an act he still feels bitter about.

He has also made a request for spare parts for lamps, which he said are becoming more difficult to source.

With more fittings, he hopes to continue his restoration hobby and reunite more ex-colliers with their faithful torches.