Genealogy Chat

Hi Linda Yea i can remember my grandad saying to me when i was little '''get thee helmet on son and i'll tell thee a tale of the pit'''' and he would talk about what it was like it the 20s down the mine. Steve Ps i just found the names of all those killed in the above account

hi steve. loved the story . it brings it home how hard things were . my family were all colliers. and i can remember my dad saying about when he went to work down the pit the seam he worked on was just high enough for him to lie on his side and dig. with only the light of his helmet and jam butties for his dinner, he worked 12 hours. he was full of tale. like others say ' we dont know how lucky we are ' love linda x x

Indeed it is, i love to research stuff like this it brings the past to life Steve

Thanks for this. My family were mining in Staffordshire in the mid-1800s onwards and this kind of story gives good background as to what it was like. Its the human interest element that makes family trees in my opinion.

Yes our life has changed so much in the last 150 yrs but we still moan about work lol must be human nature. Steve

It is a sad story isn't it, but it just seemed a fact of life for most that worked in the mines. We are so lucky life has changed now us not having to work at such a young age. Thanks for sharing Julie

nudge so it can be read

Some distance beyond, Thomas Bainbridge, James Liddel, and William Bower, together with two if not three, more boys, who had been blown a long way, and also Robert Pearson and Richard Cooper, both very little boys - trappers. Up by the north heading we found the body of John Reed, the deputy who had charge of the pit, and also five others, some burnt, some mangled. 'The cause of this explosion, which cost all these lives, was traced, on examination of all signs and appearances, to the trapper boys, Robert Pearson and Richard Cooper. Cooper's body was found away from his own trap, and lying close beside that of Pearson, where we saw reasons for knowing he could not have been blown by the explosion; and all on us come to the conclusion that he had left his own trap-door open, and gone to play with Pearson. The proper course of the ventilation was thus destroyed, and when George Campbell, whose body was found near, went there with his candle, to fill coals, the gas that had accumulated while the boys were at play instantly exploded. 'You are surprised that children should have charge of these air-doors, on which the safety of the whole wine chiefly depends; but it has always been so. They are often trappers at six years of age. I was myself. Seven and eight are the most common ages; sometimes nine. In course the Queen's Ministers don't know anything about these underground matters. Some gentlemen were sent to look after us, about eight years ago. They said the Queen sent 'em; and they came down among us in the pits, and about on the bank; but I suppose they kept what they found to themselves. [Dicken's note: Far from it. See Report and Evidence of the Children's Employment Commission; and in especial, those of Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Leifchild.] For here we are with our little trapper boys, and our explosions, and our burnt and mangled men, just as we have always been. It's a hard life, any way; but to be killed slap off, is worst of all.'

Most of us have miners in our ancestors, sorry its so long. A COAL MINER'S EVIDENCE (3) (concerning the recent explosion and previous accidents of a similar kind in SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE and NORTH DURHAM mines, this coal miner was in the pit at the time of the recent explosion) I should warn you this part contains a graphic description of those injured, and some names. I was drawn to tears while typing this. 'It was in the Bensham seam of this colliery [Willington] that the explosion I am going to tell on took place. It took place on the 19th of April 1841, at a little arter one P.M. The Bensham seam lies about a hundred and forty fathoms from the surface; the coal is over four feet in thickness in most parts, and the pit is good nine feet four wide from wall to wall. The coals are drawn up in iron cages; two tubs on each cage. The pit had been in work some time. We had advanced two hundred and eighty yards from the bottom of the shaft. Besides this, there were two north headways, each seven feet wide, which had advanced more than two hundred yards. Holings were made between each of the headways for air. We had an up-cast shaft, called the Edward Pit, by which the air ascended to the surface, after ventilating all the workings. The current of air, you understand, descended by another shaft, as was called the Bigge Pit. One current went one way; another current anoth! er. There was pains enough taken to give us enough wholesome air. 'It was at the west the explosion took place. I was at work with another man and a boy, near five hundred yards, reckoning ins and outs, east of the shaft. A sudden rush of wind and dust came past us. It put out our candles. We knew directly there had been an explosion somewhere, and we ran along in the dark as fast as we could. We fell down several times, tumbling over stones and large pieces of coal or timber that had been shaken and blown out. When we got to the foot of the shaft, we found the iron cage stuck fast, all jammed with the explosion; but we made the signal, and another cage was lowered to us, into which we jumped, before it reached the bottom, by scrambling up the sides of the shaft. When we got to the bank, and had taken our breath a bit, we saw the chief viewer of the pit come running to us with his Davy lamp. We each took a Davy, and went down the pit, to see who we could help. We knew there had been sad work among them. When we got down to the! bottom of the shaft, we soon heard moans and groans. They were two lads, still alive. We got them hoisted up in the cage to the bank; but they lived a very little while. Soon after, we found two more quite dead, shockingly burnt. We had not gone much further when we found there had been a great fall of the roofing; and among the loose coals and stones, and timbers we found a horse and a pony, all mangled and singed. We now met the after-damp, and were thinking of returning, when a groan made us go forward, and we brought out the body of a young man alive, but in such a state, be couldn't be recognised. We now found that the doors of the trappers in several places had been blown out, and consequently the air currents had ceased to ventilate all the west and north workings, so that those who were there, and had escaped the explosion, would be likely to lose their lives by the after-damp. 'A strange smell of burning now made us know that some other sort of fire was at work, and as we ran in the direction it smelt like burning straw, which told us it was the stables as had taken fire. And sure enough, there were all in thick yellow smoke and red flames. The horses were prancing wild about, and one, who was blind, got out, and tore away, and killed himself by running agen a wall. We all saw death before us, if we couldn't master this fire; because if it communicated with the workings in the west and north, where the bad gas was, there would be another blow-up worse than the first. Mr. Johnson, the viewer, acted like a man. We all gave our minds to the work, and succeeded in stopping out, with wood and wet clay plaster, the entrances to these workings. Fire engines were then got down, and we continued to pump at the stables, and at the walls of coal which had took fire on each side, and after we had drenched them with water for several hours, the fire wa! s put out. It took thirteen hours and more to do this. 'The main currents of air were restored as usual, and we then continued our search for those who had suffered by the explosion. We found Robert Campbell and another man crushed and buried under a fall of stone, and William Coxon, and Thomas Wood, and Joseph Johnson, all dead, but not burnt. It seemed as if they had got to this place, and then been suffocated and poisoned by the after-damp. Johnson had the top of a linen cap forced into his mouth, to keep out the poison - but that was no use. A little further on, we found two more men, and near them three little boys - trappers they were - all burnt horrid.

in a mo