Reports

South Tyneside Meeting - June 2003 "Coal Mining" by Ashley Powell A Report by Margaret Stafford

Ashley greeted us with "what fettle" and explained that his motivation for speaking came in part from realising how quickly knowledge and familiarity about ways of life can disappear. In one generation he has seen his granddaughters (brought up outside the North east) express amazement on seeing a coalman (and how many of those have you seen recently?) - "why is that man so dirty?" "what's coal" and incredulity that "stones" could be burned.

It makes you realise that although your own story may not seem unusual or noteworthy, unless reminiscences are collected they will disappear and future generations will have no understanding of how their ancestors lived and worked.

Ashley didn't divulge his age (and we were too polite to ask!) but told us he started down the pit at 15 having decided at 5 he wanted to be like his dad and be a miner. He regretted his choice almost immediately (hated it) and left but returned at 16 and can't really explain why!

Interestingly his school taught mining science, mining had been in his family since the 1870s and his Dad left school one Friday age 13 and a half and started down the mine that same evening. Despite the harsh conditions he shed a tear when his pit finally closed and was full of regret Ashley couldn't follow him to the same pit.

By one of those twists and turns we are so familiar with in family history, several years later Ashley found himself working with the pit bricklayers travelling around the local pits. He found himself at the point where the deputies would meet, there was an A4 book and it contained the name of his father - without realising it he had gone into the Dolly Pit where his father had worked - and yes he did tear the page out and take it home and saw his father, not normally a sentimental man, shed a tear at the thought that his son had indeed been into "his" pit.

Ashley described opening up the walls in old mines (closed off for decades) and instead of finding the area dark, seeing the light from his lamp reflecting back from the crystals an eerie white light - perhaps one of the reasons there are so many ghost stories linked to pits.

To counterbalance the romance and sentiment however he also recalled seeing harnesses - child size - for pulling the trucks, stories of children maimed or killed at the age of 6 or 7 - expendable, their lives cheaper than the coal they pulled. He described his own working conditions when the seam was too narrow for him to be able to carry his battery on his back, or having to crawl 100 yards to get to an area big enough to be able to turn the shovel over.

Coal has been used since Ancient Greece and Rome. In England the pressure for coal came in Elizabethan England with a shortage of wood - wood was like modern day plastic - too costly to burn - so coal became the alternative. Coal was to be found in steep valleys, on cliff sides or railway cuttings, in rivers and streams. One of the earliest techniques in gathering coal was to dam a stream, let the water build up, then let it go so it would strip away the soil-scarring - leaving the mineral deposits - a common technique in the West of Durham.

In the North east, with the hills rising to the Pennines the water would drain to the sea, making the drift mines a little safer. Early mines were Bell mines but ventilation was a problem. Methane was always a major factor - causing an explosion, small quantities could explode, choking fumes, igniting coal dust.

Coal was brought to the surface in baskets, up ladders, and children were used because they were small and nimble. Different methods were used to support the roof as the coal needed to be gathered further from the main shaft and styles evolved such as board and pillar or diamond. A capstan was introduced, making it possible to lift heavier loads, with children or animals operating it.

Often we find our ancestors were trappers or drivers in the mines but as Ashley pointed out, terminology differed from region to region and even mine to mine. Men were paid by the hundredweight, but an underground ton was 22 cwt - supposedly to take into account the unusable/unsellable coal dust, the owners always had the upper hand and men were expendable and replaceable.

As early as 1329 Ashley has found a report of men and boys being killed in Whickham. In 1709 69 were killed in Fatfield, most deaths being the results of explosions. Fatalities were so common that, providing it was established a single death had occurred in the mine, a coroner's inquest was not required. When pit ponies were replaced in the 1960s because it was deemed too cruel to use them they were replaced by men - and Ashley has the scars to prove it! By 1862 when 204 men and boys suffocated at Hartley pit it was no longer acceptable to have only 1 shaft - too many had been trapped in this way and to meet the new requirements several mines joined together forming the first collieries.

A report of fatalities in 1830 in Jarrow refers to 21 widows and 65 fatherless children - a stark reminder of the concern at the time - the strain on the parish to support those without a breadwinner. Children were working up to 18 hour days, girls and boys. Jobs which were dangerous were often given to the youngest, eg checking for gas, a boy covered in wet sacking would carry a candle on a long pole to check for gas - you can imagine the outcome. As a miner you needed humour to survive.

That attitude often led the miners into difficulties with a "here today gone tomorrow" attitude. In the Napoleonic wars for example with so many men away fighting and so much demand for coal, miners were well paid but when they didn't save they had no contingency when times got tough. They were required to spend their money in the mine owner's shop or pub or even paid in tokens only redeemable there. Once in debt, they had no option but to re-sign for a year and a day at binding time and could be arrested if they didn't work but had no redress if the owner didn't offer work, once signed, a miner couldn't work for another employer. The newspapers in the 1800s carried adverts to capture runaway miners.

People turned to the church for help, the Catholic Church and Church of England were themselves often major landowners and not unbiased but it was John Wesley and Methodism which encouraged education and self help. One of Ashley's heroes is Thomas Hepburn, able to read and write he travelled the region encouraging men to band together - he was shrewd as well, often targeting the miner's wives - the power in the land! At one of the meetings on the Town Moor in Newcastle 25,000 gathered. he advocated peaceful protest and was appointed a full time mining official and a strike was held when men refused to re-sign for their bonds. Candy men - unofficial bailiffs - were sent to turf the men out of their houses. After the death of Nicholas Fairless, local magistrate, allegedly caused by a striking miner, and the execution of one of the alleged perpetrators, the strike and the fledgling union, collapsed, Hepburn was a pauper until taken on at a pit at Felling on condition he didn't re-start the union. A man of his word Tommy kept to that condition but encouraged education as the way for the men to achieve better conditions.

Miners flocked to the North east from all over the country - a sign of how difficult life was in the depressed agricultural areas. Although mining conditions were harsh, there were jobs, as demand for labour outstripped supply and with the jobs came housing. The Marquis of Londonderry established a recruiting office in King's Lynn, Norfolk, with the empty coal boats returning to Seaham full of men who were then bound to work in one of Londonderry's mines.

The arrival of screw colliers in Sir Charles Palmer's yard at Jarrow meant that the usual monthly turn around of coal delivery and return from London was reduced to 4 days, quicker than by rail!

By 1842 the harsh conditions led to a Royal Commission which led to legislation banning women and children under 13 from working underground but there were always ways around the rules - boys were not employed but were "helping" their fathers! In 1843 in Wales a 4 year old died. Ashley pointed out that even today children as young as 7 still work in the mines - in South America.

Ashley admitted he is passionate about his subject but at this point we called a halt before we expired in the heat. It made us think just how unbearable the conditions in the pit must have been.

A very enjoyable evening with much food for thought.