Some of these early mines would have had “Bearmouth” entrances, (horizontal openings in the side of hills). Whereas the miners reached the workplace by descending a sloping road cut through the rocks, the coal was “borne” to the surface in baskets on the backs of men. Water if encountered was drained, either by allowing it to run down the workings to the mouth or by cutting a water course to connect with a convenient stream. This method was superseded by shafts, where coal was raised to the surface using “ginns” operated by horses. A system whereby coal was conveyed from the face to the foot of the shaft, then discharged from tubs into baskets, and drawn to the surface by teams of horses yoked to levers. The levers often 25 feet in length were connected to a vertical or horizontal wheel measuring 15 to 30 feet in diameter. Once a basket appeared on the surface it was pulled forward by a workman and the motion of the wheel slackened the rope and rested the basket on a sledge. The ropes were fastened to the wheel in a manner to allow the ropes to ascend and descend with simultaneous motion.
None of these early mines had mechanical aids to assist ventilation and the miners had to resort to very daring methods to prevent the accumulation of firedamp. According to contemporary reports workmen were often burnt, maimed and killed by the sudden explosion caused through lying prostrate on the ground trying to inflame the gas with naked candles. Prior to 1870, mines in Cumberland were ventilated by a dangerous method, using draughts created by air rising from underground furnaces. Normally manned by boys. These large open fires often 9 feet square, burnt on grates set into bricked archways, close to the base of the upcast shaft. Furnace ventilation was eventually replaced with “Guibal” fans which often exceeded 24 feet in diameter.
Old men living in the 1920’s would recall leaving home as ten-year-old boys at four in the morning, carrying their barley chunk “bait”, an oatmeal porridge gone cold and hard. In those days they descended the shaft in baskets, “one leg in and one leg out”; then slaved fourteen hours for a pittance, trailing coal for their fathers, labouring until they almost collapsed and had to be carried to the surface. Others more fortunate were employed as “trappers” at 10d. per day, a monotonous task, opening and shutting doors to allow the passage of trains pulled by ponies or tubs pushed by men.
The importance of good lighting can never be overstated. The miner conducted his work in a dangerous environment, where his ability to detect flaws in the roof, or imperfections in the placing of timber, owing to him having insufficient light, very often resulted in fatal consequences. Initially light was produced from basic candles but as the depth of the workings increased the presence of explosive gas inspired the development of the flint steel mill. After the year 1819, this was superseded by the Davy safety lamp; and in 1929 by the electric cap lamp. It was the common practice for miners to purchase and keep in good repairs their lamps, which in the 19th century cost between 6s. and 7s. from the colliery store.
The system exclusively employed to extract coal was the “bord and pillar”, a self-explanatory method, whereby the hewers’ using picks and wedges dug out the bord, leaving the coal between the bord’s untouched to serve as pillars which supported the roof. Once dislodged, the coal was loaded into baskets or tubs then pushed along wooden or cast-iron rails to the base of the shaft, and hoisted to the surface. For safety reasons the size of the pillars increased in proportion to the depth of the shaft. This was never an ideal system as large areas of coal were left unworked.
The most important task was performed at the coal face, by small groups of men normally five or six in number, who worked long hours at a “place” isolated from other similar groupings. In view of the hostile working environment the camaraderie forged within these various groups was of supreme importance. It was not uncommon for these self selecting “marra” groups to be friendship based or family orientated. Payment in the traditional system was on a piece work basis, with the hewers achieving the highest level and the remainder receiving proportional sums. After the act of 1872, the coal face workers shared the pay note equally.
A typical day began with the men collecting their lamps and “checks” at the pithead. Following the descent, they walked and often crawled for upwards of an hour before reaching the workplace where they began their paid work. Although the back-breaking work was always consistent its continuity was never guaranteed. Coal seams are plagued with geological faults which buckle the flow forcing the miners to attack the seams from new angles and new heights. The occurrence of such problems resulted in the small group, one place face-workers, working in a concerted adaptable fashion. Supervision was often remote, the manager was stationed at the surface and decision making was devolved down the line; resulting in the men operating within a semi-autonomous, self regulating group.
I am not aware of the existence of local evidence to fully describe the horrific environment of those early coalmines. However, in 1840, the examiners of the Royal Commission, interviewed contemporary workers in other parts of the country and there is little reason to believe that Cumberland miners were the exception. These interviews portray a scene with naked and nearly naked men, women, boys and girls; often whole families slaving together for a pittance. Five year old boys who found it difficult to remain awake; twelve year old girls hauling one hundred weight sacks of coals on their backs ‘stooping and creeping through water’. Sketches show laden children ascending ladders; or harnessed like animals, pulling trains along narrow passages. The most unfortunate being the ‘apprentice children’, orphans or children whose parents had been forced through poverty into the workhouse. Taken from their parents at the age of nine, apprenticed to a miner and bound to serve him for twelve years. Although they worked alongside boys earning weekly wages in excess of 14s. they earned nothing. Their wage being paid to their indifferent master, who assumed responsibility for providing food and clothing.
Throughout the final sixty years of the 19th century attention was drawn to the working conditions in mines, with reference to the large number of serious and fatal accidents. This eventually led to parliament placing a series of acts on the statute books. The two principle features of the first act passed in 1842, related to the prevention of women and girls working underground and the provision of government inspectors. In 1860, the authorities regulated against the use of boys under the age of twelve being employed in mines, unless they could read and write. If they failed to meet this criterion, they attended school for three hours each day or two full days each week. However, it should be stressed, after 1850, no woman or boy under the age of twelve was employed in the Brayton mines. Other guidelines for workers underground included, the principal ones related to ventilation; the fencing of dangerous work places likely to contain gas; the lining of shafts to make them secure; and the introduction of a signalling system for use in shafts and on roadways. A further act in 1872 consolidated all the previous legislation.
However, the most important act was the Regulations Act of 1887. An act divided into three sections. (a) General Provisions, (b) General Rules, (c) Special Rules. The General Provisions included many important matters, such as the hours of employment for boys and women workers at the surface. It also granted management certificates; the appointment of checkweighmen; the preparations of plans of all workings; and the holding of inquests following fatal accidents. It contained a total of 39 General Rules, which endeavoured to prevent accidents. They dealt with a wide range of issues such as ventilation; the daily inspection and search for gas; conditions in which explosives could or could not be used; the timbering of work places and roadways; the provision of ambulances; and demanded that all coal getters had a minimum of two years experience at the coal face. The Special Rules were established for the conduct and guidance of all persons acting in the management or those employed in and around a mine. They catered for the different conditions and criteria and were drafted to suit the special requirements of the district.
The Coal Mines (Checkweigher’s) Act of 1894 made it a criminal offence to interfere with the appointment of a checkweighmen. A worker appointed and paid for by the coal getters to checkweigh the amount of coal in the tubs. The Eight hour bill of 1908 amended the 1887 act and limited the hours of working below ground. It was divided into eight sections, but since the hours of working had been reduced at Brayton in 1877, none of these rulings made any impact.
Although the mines act of 1842 forbade the employment underground of women, women continued to work at the pits throughout the history of the Brayton collieries. Their principle employment being on the Jigger screens where they worked as sorters segregating the dirt from the various grades of coal.
The combination of the passing of the Miners Regulation Act of 1872, the rise of the union and the increased demand for coal projected the colliery worker into a short lived semi prosperous but nevertheless unstable environment. In the coming years several major benefits occurred. The system of payment changed; the tubs received payment by weight as opposed to the unsatisfactory system of payment by “tally”. They redefined the reduction in the hours of working, where boys under the age of sixteen were no longer compelled beyond the reasonable number of hours stipulated by the Act of 1848. Speaking at a miner’s demonstration at Aspatria in 1874, John Harrison a local miner confirmed this trend and reminded those present of previous times, when miners toiled with little intermission for fourteen hours each day for the paltry wage of 3s. 9d… Harrison referred to his previous status. Once he held the derisory sobriquet of “collier Jack”, now he was Mr Harrison to his neighbours, and he boasted of earning 7s. for an eight-hour day. The district organiser, Andrew Sharpe, reinforced this argument; he reminded the audience that the wages paid to colliers at a typical Cumberland mine in 1866 were on average 5s. per day, a sum further reduced by 3d. after the purchase of powder. Contemporary earnings were 6s. 6d. all round, while the hours of working had been reduced from 12 to 8. But what those advocates failed to acknowledge was the parallel escalation in the opening up of new mines and the subsequent problems associated with the surplus product.
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