Voices of the Yard – Alan Holloway

The sluices are essential to managing the water and silt levels in the Floating Harbour. Alan, who worked at Underfall Yard from 1958-1962, shares a deeply affecting story that shows just how dangerous this work could be. It also illustrates how important it has always been at Underfall Yard to work together and look out for each other.

Content Warning – This recording mentions an accidental death by drowning. Listener discretion is advised.

Alan was an electrician’s mate at Underfall Yard from 1958-1962. His workshop was based in the building that now house the Harbour Master’s Office, and looked out over the sluices. Here, he shares a story of a terrible accident that took place by the sluices.

The hopper that Alan refers to is a type of dredger. Dredgers are working boats that prevent blockages in the waterways by clearing the silt that builds up underwater. Hoppers collect silt along the harbour by sucking it into an open tank in the centre of the boat. When the hopper is positioned by the sluices, a trapdoor in the bottom of the tank will be opened so that the silt can be flushed through the sluice and out into the New Cut. The entrance to the sluice is around nine metres underwater, and it is very dangerous to be in the water nearby when the sluices are opened.

What stands out in this recording, and the reason we have shared it, is the way Alan describes the people rushing to help. Not only the electricians, such as Alan, but also divers, police officers and passersby who understood how serious this was. Even in the worst of circumstances, the people of Underfall Yard came together to recover “Tom” and stop the situation from becoming worse.

This interview was recorded in 2015 as part of the Oral History Project, coordinated by Underfall Yard Trust. Our thanks to Alan and his family, as well as the volunteers who supported the project and “Voices of the Yard”.

Transcript

And one day I was up in the shop, actually working on the bench, and Harry, the foreman, came up and said young, and do you know, I can’t remember his name, it was one of the lads on the hopper, he was about, he was either late teens or very early 20s, and I sort of got to know him quite well because we were the same sort of age. And he said, I’ll call him for now Tom, Tom’s gone in the hopper, so I went running down the steps to find that the other guy from off the hopper had run back down from the gatehouse where he’d gone to get the sluice lifted, run back from the gatehouse and um, when I got down the steps he had a long pole with a hook on, and they had them on board for pulling up big stuff that had gone into the hopper and shouldn’t be there and they get it out and put it on land, and he was going along trying to find his mate who had gone in, the hopper, and, um, and I could see he didn’t have any luck and I said is the trap shut and he said oh yeh, yeh, yeh, but in other words the flapper, or whatever it was at the bottom of the boat that you open to let the mud out, to be sucked out, he said is this closed, so I stripped down to my pants and climbed into the hopper and then I searched it but there was people coming now, and I searched it from the back and worked up to the front until I was sure he wasn’t there and I remember Harry shouted out go on, Alan, he’ll be dead by now- and in bravado, because I’d done life saving, and was a life guard when I was in school and then done some in the army I said oh he’ll be dead when the doctor says he’s dead, something we were told in resuscitation thing, you keep going until he’s dead. Meanwhile, I have to say, the diver had been informed, Bob Broom, the diver at the time, and, um, Bob was getting his gear on, because that took quite a long time…

…and he said how far down is it, and I said I don’t know and he shouted out, anyone know how far it is down to the ledge and I think it was Harry actually shouted out, about 30 feet, so he said you’re not, you can’t do it, you won’t get down 30 feet, you know, big, brave, I’ll try, I’ll try and he said, you’re not, I’m telling you, you’re not, he said, don’t get yourself ready, you’re not going down there. He turned to the fire chief and he said the same to him, I suggest you do stop him, he said, there’s no reason, they’re not going to reach the ledge. So 2 other apprentices who were sort of there, they said let’s get you cleaned up.

…just covered in mud, I got the rest of my clothes on and we went back out and, um, I got up the steps, back into the electrician’s yard, and I looked out of the window, and with that, Bob, the diver, had come up with him and laid him on the bank.

And, um, in those days, in those days, goalies in football always wore a green roll neck jumper, don’t know why but they all did, always green, roll neck jumper, don’t matter, summer or winter, and he had one on, and I can see him now, (pauses to struggle with emotion) clean, ( sound of his fingers drumming on the table by the recording device) ,didn’t look like he’d been in the water at all, let alone mud, because he looked completely clean. (Longer pause to control emotion). A bad moment that, always gets me.