coal miners

[timelord]

it looks like all my grandfathers forebears were coal miners in and around dudley, how do i find out more about where they ma have worked

[Jan1954]

Hello timelord,

Have you had a look at the Dudley entry on the Durham Mining Museum site?

Meanwhile, I am moving this thread over to the Miners forum in order to catch the interest of other members with knowlege of this particular occupation.

[timelord]

thanks i will have a look

[benny1982]

Hi Timelord

I have many miners in Durham. I have done a bit of research on their roles. There were several types of miners such as hewer, shifter or putter. Sadly, many accidents happened down mines and inbetween 1875 and 1885 about 100'000 deaths occurred in English and Welsh mines.

I have just posted a query about whether miners were laid off at a certain age. I have only just started researching miners roles myself.

Bn

[smot]

Hi

I'm not sure when miners were laid off. Many of them didn't live long enough to reach retirement (or whatever it was called).
On my father's side of the family there were many miners (and glass blowers, but that's another story!). On the 1891 census, my grandfather's occupation is given as "hurrier" age 13. Apparently, a hurrier was a young boy who pushed the trucks of coal for the miners.
One of the saddest things I've come across is the death of another member of the family: Joseph Taylor died 18.04.1861 at Darfield Main. He was "drawn over the pit pulley" he was 11. His father had been killed in the pit some years earlier, so I suppose he had to go out to work.
My grandfather vowed than none of his 4 boys would ever go down the pit.

[ludorabbit]

Hello, I am also trying to find out about Miners in Durham, my hubby`s grandad worked at a mine in Willington Co Durham
A relative was killed in a mine accident in the 1800`s
I believe grandad was a putter, I think that involved putting the coal in baskets but thats just trying to search in google
I am not sure if there was a certain age for finishing as you dont think about asking these questions its only now you think about their lives

[salcat]

Hi

On my father's side of the family there were many miners (and glass blowers, but that's another story!).

My husband's family have the same combination - yours didn't work for Kilners in Conisbrough did they? They seemed to move into the mines after the glass works closed.

My father in law was the first to break away from the manual work, and trained as a teacher, only to be selected as a Bevin boy and sent back down the pit

Sally

[smot]

Hi Sally
My family worked for Kilner Brothers, but at the Thornhill Lees Glassworks. I think my g. grandfather might have been at Conisborough for a short time, but I'm not sure. The miners worked for the Ingham family at both the Inghams pit and Coombes pit in Thornhill.
Most of the people in Thornhill and Thornhill Lees worked for the Kilners or the Inghams, neither the glass works nor the pits are there now.
Fran