The Roll Call

What it looks like, and what it does

A shaft head at dawn. A rope ladder going into black water. Far below, tiny lamp-flames lighting in sequence, one for each name. A brass tally board of thirty-three tags, two hanging reversed.

Calls at five o'clock. Pauses after each name. Is heard at the pithead gate, not beyond it.

What is known

Grimley Main flooded in 1927. The pit closed soon after. The pithead siren has not sounded since. The roll is called nonetheless, at five, by a man's voice from the shaft.

Thirty-three names were on the shift. Thirty-one lamps answer. The village leaves tea at the gate. The tally board at the pithead has had two tags turned over by an unseen hand: the two whose lamps have never lit.

What it can do

• Calls the shift roll from the flooded workings
• Lights lamps in answer from beneath the water

Where it stops

• Calls only names that were on the shift
• Cannot be heard beyond the pithead gate

An encounter

Doyle has stood at the gate every morning for forty years. She hears her husband's name, and the lamp comes up. She says it is a small light, steady, and that it never looks at her. She brings him tea in a flask, and pours it on the ground at the head of the shaft. She says it goes down.

Margaret Doyle, the last pit-wife, Pithead gate, Grimley Main, 05:00, a November morning

What is established, and what is only said

• established: The 1927 shift roll lists thirty-three men. A written tally of the morning calls lists thirty-four.
• rumor: That the thirty-fourth was a man who was not on the books.
• interpretation: The roll may not be calling the lost. It may be waiting for one more to come up.

Still unresolved

The roll lists thirty-four names. The thirty-fourth is called last, and nobody has ever claimed it. The lamps wait a long time.

Where it has been recorded

• Grimley Main (confirmed) — Recorded by Margaret Doyle, the last pit-wife.

Connected entities

• The Last Train Horse — Both keep a line running for the dead underground. Both are watched by people who bring them tea.
• The Regulars — Both are workers who keep a shift after the work is gone. Both are looked after by someone who brings them something hot.