Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Coal Miners
Coal Miners
What was life like for the coal miners who fueled Britain’s industrialization? Men, women, and children lived, worked, and died in industrial England’s hazardous mines.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
What was a coal mining job like for children?
What was a coal mining job like for women?
What were some of the safety concerns for coal miners during the Industrial Revolution?
: I'm here with Alan and Taz, 459 feet and two and a half inches underground, to
: find out about the importance of coal and what life was like for miners. NICK: So how
: was the coal taken out of the mine, and where did it go? ALAN: Well, in early days, it
: was taken outta mine by manual labor.
: Women, children, anybody that needed employment were employed in the mines.
: NICK: So you mentioned women and children working here, can you tell us a bit more
: about what kind of work they did and who else worked in the mine? TAZ: Well, the children,
: both boys and girls, would start as young as four. And we know that's young, but their
: job, the first job, would be, they were just tied to a door, and sit there
: listening for their mother. When they've been sat there one hour, mother knocks on
: the door, the children pull the door open with a rope, and the reason for
: that is they are sat in total darkness, right? Mother comes through the door, the
: children close the door. When they get older, and we've moved on to a different
: period of time, then the children will be doing all the jobs. NICK: And what about women?
: ALAN: Women usually pulled the carts. The husband used to pick and shovel it out the ground
: from the seam, then the women used to put the coal lump forms into a like, a
: skid trolley, harness themselves up to that, and walk on hands and knees, pulling
: this trolley, until the son at the trapdoor. Then he used to open the trapdoor,
: and then she went on to main roadway and then out of mine. NICK: And how heavy was this
: trolley with the coal? ALAN: Well, it's like this, the more coal you got it, the more
: money you got, so... NICK: So we've got all this safety equipment, and I'm sure, you know,
: we're well protected, but, - yes - what was it like, how safe was it for
: people working the mines? TAZ: Not very safe. ALAN: In the early days there were just hundreds and hundreds
: just getting killed, and nobody were really bothered, because coal working,
: life's cheap, and you just got on with it, just something you had to do, and the more
: careful you were the longer you lasted, so, it were like a culture. TAZ: There's a
: byproduct of mining coal, Methane gas. So in the early days, when they're
: working with the candle, if they hit a pocket of gas, then (boom!) that area will blow.
: They probably get killed outright, if they're not, they were seriously injured.
: It's a dangerous environment, yeah. In the early days, all the roof supports
: were wood, and that were important to the miners, because wood, when it's getting old and tired,
: it talks. It makes two very important noises. The first one is a
: creek, now you can live with that, but if it gets worse and it gets louder, they
: get out quick because they know the next thing, it's gonna simply collapse and
: they'll be buried, yeah? Gas was also a silent killer. You can't smell it, you
: can't see it. If they had an inrush of gas, it could kill as many as 20 men in one
: simple way. And the reason they discovered this, they couldn't understand
: why all the people were just found dead, and some clever people did some
: autopsies and realized that it were a gas. It's an hard thing to explain being a
: miner, because it's a bit like Marmite - people love it, and people hate
: it, and the majority of them love it, yeah? I worked in this industry 26 years, best
: job I've ever had. I won't want to go back to doing anything else. My father
: worked in it all his life, and his people have got generations, going back -
: back into 1800s - still working, because some people might say it's bred into 'em,
: but it's just such a unique job. You can't explain the camaraderie, the
: friendship, the community spirit when we're were working locally, second to none,
: anywhere in this world. ALAN: It was more than a job, it's a way of life, and I