Coal Mining in the British Isles

Background
Coal mining and the usefulness and value of the “black gold” can hardly be discussed without the Industrial revolution. Both grew to be inseparable, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The dependence on coal increased throughout the United Kingdom from when the first coal mine was sunk in Scotland under the Firth of Forth in 1575. Without coal during the industrial revolution, manufacturing factories, shops, mills as well as residential homes would have been idle and cold. “Coal was used to power the massive steam engines to run manufacturing mills and coal was used to create iron. It would take 2 tons of coal to make 1 ton of iron. Mining villages opened in Lancashire, Yorkshire, South Wales, Northumberland, and Durham. Whole populations of towns were dependent on employment from the mines.” “Very little coal was found in the south, but vast amounts were found in the Midlands, the north, the north-east and parts of Scotland. Because coal was so difficult and expensive to move, towns and other industries grew up around the coal mining areas so that the workers came to the coal regions.”

Coal-powered steamships and railroad engines were developed for the distribution of the manufactured goods which were sent to ports around the world. In the mid to late 1800s coal was being used to make electricity.

Map of coal mines across the British Isles

Who worked the mines?
Men, women, and even children worked in the coal mines. The working conditions were harsh, and many had to fight for their wages. Miners could most likely find work however, often for low pay. Men and sometimes even women took the coal mining jobs to feed their families and were willing to work hard in complete darkness and in unbearable heat. Coal mining was and is a dangerous occupation where people have lost their lives at early ages by the inhaling of coal dust and the stale air damaging their lungs, and by accidents within the mine shafts and the ever-feared cave in. “In the early 19th century, women and children also worked in the coal pits along with the men. Children as young as 8 could be found working for 12 or more hours a day in complete darkness. Children worked as trappers: they opened and closed trap doors in the pits to allow for air ventilation [many worked in the dark with one candle for light and no one to talk to]. “In 1841 about 216,000 people were employed in the mines.” Women and older children were used to move the tubs or wagons of coal out of the mines. They were known as hurries and thrusters. The horrors of these working conditions came to light in 1842 with the Children’s Employment Commission. The commission interviewed children, women, and men who worked in the mines.” This led to the Mine Act of 1842, an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which prohibited (banned) all girls and boys under ten years-old from working underground in coal mines.

Where to find ancestral occupations and job descriptions
In England, Wales, and Scotland the occupations of enumerated people listed in censuses were recorded starting in 1841. Within the 1851 and 1861 censuses they listed rank, profession, or occupation. Starting with the 1891 census this changed to employer or employed. In the 1901 England, Wales, and Scotland censuses they listed employed, worker, or own account. The 1911 census listed as well as their occupation, the industry in which the person was employed. If employed by a government, municipal, or other public body, the name of that body was listed. In Church records there was not a standard form for any parish until the Hardwick’s Marriage Act of 1753 and the Rose Act of 1812. The latter came into force on 1 January 1813 with standardized forms. Beginning 1 July 1837, occupations where recorded on marriage records for the bride and groom, and for the father of bride and groom as well. Occupations of fathers are also found in Church baptism and burial records. Civil Registration birth, marriage, and death certificates show occupations for England, Wales, and Scotland. Many lives in coal mining were cut short because of accidents and poor health in the coal mining industry. In official records coal miners would regularly give the kind of job they did while working in the mines, though just coal miner may have been listed. Many of these different kinds of jobs associated with their work in the mines gives a better understanding of the kind of life an ancestor might have lived. This information also helps to narrow down your search in finding your specific relative.