Fred Trueman and Maltby Main

Category	Sports
Dates	Born at Scotch Springs, near Maltby Main. 1948: first with Yorkshire; winter job in the Maltby Main tally office. 1951: volunteers for the RAF. 2006: dies.

Fred Trueman, England's great fast bowler, was born a mile from Maltby Main Colliery in South Yorkshire, where his father and brother worked. From 1948 he spent his winters in the colliery's tally office, a reserved occupation that kept him from call-up, though, against legend, he never worked underground.

Close view of the head and shoulders of a bronze statue of a smiling bowler with wind-blown hair, against blue sky. — Graham Ibbeson's statue of Fred Trueman at Skipton, photographed in 2011 Immanuel Giel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The mining history in this record

Trueman was born at Scotch Springs, a terrace near Stainton about a mile from Maltby Main Colliery. His father, who worked mostly with horses, was for a time a coalface worker at Maltby Main, and his brother worked there too. The family later moved into Maltby, where Trueman went to the secondary school and first made his name as a bowler.

After his first involvement with Yorkshire in 1948 the club encouraged him to work for the National Coal Board so that he would be in a reserved occupation, and he spent his winters in the tally office at Maltby Main. In the winter of 1950-51 he learned the job was to lose its reserved status, and after the 1951 season he volunteered for the RAF.

People

Fred Trueman, cricketer. Alan Trueman, his father, who worked at Maltby Main.

Legacy today

Trueman became one of England's great fast bowlers. The story that he was a miner persists; he was not, but Maltby Main was the pit of his family and his first job. A statue of him by Graham Ibbeson stands at Skipton.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

Fred Trueman was born at Scotch Springs, Stainton, about a mile from Maltby Main Colliery. (documented fact) ¹
His father and brother both worked at Maltby Main Colliery. (documented fact) ^1,2
From 1948 Trueman worked winters in the tally office at Maltby Main, encouraged by Yorkshire so that he would be in a reserved occupation; he was never a miner. (documented fact) ¹
When the job was declassified he volunteered for national service after the 1951 season. (documented fact) ¹
Contrary to legend, Trueman never worked underground. (documented fact) ¹

Mines

Maltby Colliery — South Yorkshire
Fred Trueman grew up within a mile of Maltby Main, where his father and brother worked and where he had a winter job in the tally office from 1948.

Sources

(secondary) Fred Trueman — Wikipedia
(secondary) T'greatest that ever was (Tanya Aldred on Fred Trueman) — The Cricket Monthly

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026