Well borer

[BevGibbs]

Hi
My g-gf was a well sinker. Born in Shropshire he travelled through the Midlands to Lincolnshire then up to the North East where he became a pit sinker then a coal hewer.
Would this have been considered a skilled job, or a labouring job? Likely to have served an apprenticeship? He is not described as a journeyman.......

Any further info on this topic welcome.

[Peter Goodey]

You'll find stuff on the internet about the specifics of mining.

But I think you may not be seeing the bigger picture. The 19th century was a period of transition with the decline of the old artisan class (and system) and the emergence of the new working class. A word like 'journeyman' is really associated pretty firmly with the former. Coal mining of the form emerging in the 19th century is firmly in the latter camp.

That why the word 'journeyman' is now archaic - it's simply not appropriate to modern industrial society (although it occasionally appears in a degraded form eg 'journeyman footballer').

All the above is an attempt to summarise what several books could be (and have been) written about the period. It can easily be nit-picked.