John Hitchings tells me when he was lifting the Irish lads up to the top on the winch they would drop pea sized pieces of gravel down that would hit him on the head, which being very painful he got rather annoyed about. So he found a piece of half inch steel plate and placed this on the winch control roof. The next time they went up they dropped brick sized bits of concrete down upon John below giving him a rather nasty shock as the rubble crashed down on the steel plate. John decided he would teach them a lesson, which was rather brave as John is a bit on the short side compared to these rough neck rebels.
When it was time to come down all the lads clambered aboard the cage and John began to lower them down but as the cage came between the top two levels he put the brakes on and then retreated over to the canteen to read the paper and have a cup of tea. The lads kicked up a hell of a noise and shouted down their threats of what they would do to John when they got hold of him. Frank Curry the foreman arrived on site and asked John what on earth was going on. John explained and the foreman went out towards the winch and offered up some suitable Mickey-taking banter.
Eventually they were lowered to the ground and rushed towards the canteen bursting through the door but John was ready and as they came for him he lifted up the tea urn and flung it across the floor at them shouting blue murder at the stunned men. John continued his mad man act and the huge men turned and ran for the door struggling to all get through it at once with John hot on their tails. The lads were hollering and shouting for the foreman to protect them from the wee wild man, shouting help, John's gone berserk. A while later they all had a good laugh and once again were the greatest of friends.
