Coal Mining in Britain 1830’ - 1930’s

Miners 1866. Three miners stand for the camera Miners 1866? Three miners stand for the camera. They have lights fastened to their caps. One miner looks young.

Dumbreck colliery Opened in 1877, this was one of a group of collieries in this area sunk by William Baird & Co Ltd, primarily to supply coal to the firm's Gartsherrie iron-smelting works in Coatbridge. It closed in 1963.

Lithuanian miners 1888

Women in the mines - 1890’s The1842 Mines Act made it illegal for women to work inside the mines. They got work at the pit head sorting coal. These women are standing in front of a pile of pit props.

Paying the miners Miners got good wages compared to other working trades because the work was so dangerous, however pay was still low and if the price of coal fell and mine owners lost profits, miners could be out of a job without warning. Jobs became more secure when miners formed unions. The unions could argue for better pay and conditions using the threat of strike action if they did not get a good enough settlement from the mining companies.

Pit Bottom 1906 Here you can see the cage miners came down the pit shaft in. This group of miners are about to start their shift. You can tell because their faces are still clean. Notice the young boy, probably about 12 years old. There is also a wagon full of coal ready to be taken up the shaft once the miners have come out. You can see this pit bottom is well supported with brick lined walls and sturdy wooden roof beams.

Pit props - holding up the roof Maintenance was a never ending job in the mines. Here two men are putting in pit props. Notice their headlights are battery powered so this picture must have been taken in about the 1920s. Notice also the cramped conditions they had to work in. This would have been a tunnel (gallery) going to the coal face where the hewers were cutting the coal.

Hewing the coal You can see how dangerous and cramped the conditions were for miners at the coal face. It was also very hot work. This miner’s shirt is soaked in sweat. Notice the simple pit props holding up the coal seam. The hewer cuts underneath the seam until a big chunk of it collapses. Experience would tell them when the coal was ready to collapse! Notice the rail for the wagon into which the putters would load the fallen coal into and then shift the coal from the face to the pit head.

Coal cutting machine 1930’s Modern electric powered cutting machines like this one made the hewers job much easier. You can see the cutting teeth digging into the coal face on the left of the photo. The cut coal is forced onto a conveyor belt which takes the coal straight up to the pit head. So no more need for putters and pit ponies. The pit props are hydraulic and made of steel. So much stronger than wooden ones and requiring less time maintaining them. There were still dangers though. The machine made much more dust than hand cutting which increased miners’ chances of getting ‘black spit’ or pneumoniconiosis, a disease of the lungs. Coal cutting machine 1930’s

Putters - Moving the coal from coal face to pit head Not all coal mine owners could afford cutting machines and conveyor belt systems so the old ways of shifting the coal carried on. Notice the wooden pit props, cramped conditions , the coal face in the background and the coal wagon and rail

Using pit ponies

Pit shaft, ground floor 1906 Here you can see men putting coal wagons into the shaft cage for taking up to the pit head. Each wagon would hold about half a ton of coal. The more wagons your team could get to the pit head, the more money you would earn.

Sorting coal at the pit head Workers at the pit head tended to be older men along with women and teenage girls. The stronger younger men would be down the mine.

Transporting the coal After the coal was sorted it was put into railway wagons like these in the photo ready for delivery to the industrial and domestic customers of coal. In the early 20th century this meant just about everyone as coal was the main source of fuel for energy.