I've been reading and writing about the lives of some coal-miners recently, which took me back to some of the many moving and tragic songs about working in the pits.
Dick Gaughan, Photo JP
Dick Gaughan, Schooldays' End
Dave Burland, Tony Capstick, Dick Gaughan, Schooldays End
The Carter Family, Coal Miner's Blues
Blind Alfred Read, Explosion in the Fairmount Mine
Cap, Andy and Flip, McBeth Mine Explosion
Merle Travis, Dark as a Dungeon
Woodie Guthrie, Ludlow Massacre
Dick Gaughan, Ludlow Massacre
Dick Gaughan, The Pound a Week Rise
Alan Reid, Robert Burns, My Collier Laddie
Ewan MacColl, Blantyre Explosion
Ewan MacColl, The Plodder Seam
Ewan MacColl, Big Hewer
Ewan MacColl, The Coal Owner and the Pitman's Wife
Ewan MacColl, The Gresford Disaster
Ewan MacColl, Fourpence a Day
Ewan MacColl, Blackleg Miner
Stewart Cameron, The Gresford Disaster
Halveyp, Schooldays' Over
Stewart Cameron, Schoolday's Over
The Miner's Lifeguard, Bob Fox and Benny Graham
Miner's Lifeguard, Pete Seeger and The Song Swappers
Union miners (A miner's life/A miner's lifeguard) at Durham Miners' Gala
Hugh E. Jones, Coal, Coal for Manchester
Here's the lyric of Coal, Coal for Manchester, by Hugh E. Jones.
The lyrics and chords for The Blantyre Explosion
I also dug out my copy of "Come All Ye Bold Miners, Ballads and Songs of the Coalfields", compiled by A. L. Lloyd (1952).
"Boys started full time in the collieries at whatever the permissible age was once this was prescribed by law, 11 from 1842 for boys underground. But in 1837 Thomas Ashworth notes there were 124 boys from 8-18 employed underground in the collieries and 150 in 1847. He also held the view, advanced for the time, that no women or girls should be employed underground at Poynton. The permissible age for the employment of boys underground was raised to 12 by 1860, (11 if they had a certificate in reading and writing), and 14 by 1911 with increasingly strict regulations about hours permissible per week, e.g. 54 in 1887 with a maximum day of ten hours, sufficient interval between shifts and provision for meal breaks. Boys above ground were similarly regulated, the 1911 Act allowing employment at 13. To avoid accidents, from 1887 boys and women were not allowed to move railway wagons. At Poynton boys were usually given surface work to do, as many of the men have told us, e.g. labourers or blacksmiths, stoker at Towers Yard, helping with coal screening, sometimes as door-tenters (e.g. Hugh Walker aged 10 illegally employed in 1851) or helping with transport underground. At 18 they had strength and knowledge enough to assume a job as driver or drawer underground and as Mr. Goodwin says in a Local History Society Newsletter3 "putting on at the bottom of the jig (or rope haulage system) five tubs at a time going up, five loaded tubs coming down". It was the job of the fireman (called deputy elsewhere) to inspect the mines each morning for safety of roof, presence of gas, state of ventilation and drainage (see Chapter 11). The maintenance of proper ventilation and pumping machinery to clear water was vital".
Ewan MacColl, Blantyre Explosion
Ewan MacColl, The Plodder Seam
Ewan MacColl, Big Hewer
Ewan MacColl, The Coal Owner and the Pitman's Wife
Ewan MacColl, The Gresford Disaster
Ewan MacColl, Fourpence a Day
Ewan MacColl, Blackleg Miner
Stewart Cameron, The Gresford Disaster
Halveyp, Schooldays' Over
Stewart Cameron, Schoolday's Over
The Miner's Lifeguard, Bob Fox and Benny Graham
Miner's Lifeguard, Pete Seeger and The Song Swappers
Union miners (A miner's life/A miner's lifeguard) at Durham Miners' Gala
Hugh E. Jones, Coal, Coal for Manchester
Here's the lyric of Coal, Coal for Manchester, by Hugh E. Jones.
The lyrics and chords for The Blantyre Explosion
I also dug out my copy of "Come All Ye Bold Miners, Ballads and Songs of the Coalfields", compiled by A. L. Lloyd (1952).
From Chapter 10, Economic Aspects of the Collieries (Poynton, A Coalmining Village).
Poynton Collieries, Voices of the Workforce (Sound Files)
1842 Royal Commission
https://www.ncm.org.uk/downloads/21/1842_Commission.pdf
Mines and Collieries Act 1842, Wikipedia
The Victorian Web: Testimony Gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission
From Chapter 11 - Cooperative and Self-help Organisations
From an article in The Advertiser, October 1, 1909 (page 2, in my collection)
Poynton Collieries, Voices of the Workforce (Sound Files)
1842 Royal Commission
https://www.ncm.org.uk/downloads/21/1842_Commission.pdf
Mines and Collieries Act 1842, Wikipedia
The Victorian Web: Testimony Gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission
'The images were published in "The Condition and Treatment of the Children employed in the Mines and Colliers of the United Kingdom Carefully compiled from the appendix to the first report of the Commissioners With copious extracts from the evidence, and illustrative engravings" of 1842. '
A glossary of words used in the dialect of Cheshire, 1877 (pdf)
Update (19 March): Christopher King has sent me this useful link, "Songs from the Mines"
List of books about coal mining
Film, How Green Was My Valley, 1941
Film, The Stars Look Down, 1940
Film trailer, The Citadel, 1938
Tony Harrison - v. (1/2)
Coal: A Burning Legacy, BBC Radio
A glossary of words used in the dialect of Cheshire, 1877 (pdf)
Update (19 March): Christopher King has sent me this useful link, "Songs from the Mines"
List of books about coal mining
Film, How Green Was My Valley, 1941
Film, The Stars Look Down, 1940
Film trailer, The Citadel, 1938
Tony Harrison - v. (1/2)
Coal: A Burning Legacy, BBC Radio
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