Flip flops were used at the pithead baths at Snibston colliery between 1970 and 1983.
Pithead baths played a major part in improving the long term health of miners by increasing standards of hygiene, and reducing the number of cases of diseases like dermatitis. A tired miner, who was soaked in sweat and covered in dust from a long shift in temperatures of up to 1000f, could have a bath and put on dry clothes before returning home.
The miners' welfare fund was established in 1926 to pay for colliery baths from a levy that was made on miners' wages. From 1921, when only six pithead baths had been provided by colliery companies, to 1945 361 bath schemes for collieries were completed.
