"Black Diamonds" (the developement of the Leicestershire & South Derbyshire mining industry
May 2008 Meeting Report
Speaker - Wendy Freer
. The May 2008 meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society was held in the Centenary Lounge Keyworth on Friday 2nd of May. Another well attended meeting were given a presentation on ‘Black Diamonds; (the development of the Leicestershire & South Derbyshire mining industry)’ by Wendy Freer. Wendy began by explaining that her presentation would encompass the history of the industry from its early beginnings up to the start of the 20th Century. A slide show accompanied the talk that Wendy gave.
The main emphasis was on the Leicestershire coalfield, which was relatively small compared to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Nevertheless the Leicestershire coalfield did manage to compete with its larger neighbours relatively successfully, although this only occurred once the transport infrastructure had levelled the playing field. Wendy then went on to explain the steps problems that needed to be overcome before mining could be successfully undertaken. This included; firstly locating the coal, then how to extract the coal from the ground, how to get the coal from the coalface to the bottom of the shaft, how is the coal raised to the surface and, lastly, how is the coal distributed. Allied to these issues were the problems associated with the ventilation, drainage and lighting of the mines.
A legal document, dated 1204, gives us the earliest known reference to mining in the area for which we have documentary evidence. The document relates to the sale of land on Swannington Common where ‘coal is gotten to the value of two shillings per annum’. The coal in this location was surface coal and was simply obtained by picking it up from the ground. Other references to mining were made in other legal documents relating to the first half of the 13th century. The next development from simply gathering coal from the surface involved the digging of a rudimentary hole and then expanding the underground chamber. These early coal mines from this period were know as ‘Bell’ mines, from the shape that they took. They were simply holes in the ground that were excavated as far as the miners dare go before the undercut ground fell in on them. The inherent dangers of this type of mining can be readily understood. These type of mines tended not to be very deep but evidence of their existence is still to be found in various fields in the region and take the form of depressions in the ground.
This type of mine continued to be the norm until the 15th/16th century. Then the Bell mines began to be superseded by much deeper mines. This was necessary because all of the easily obtainable surface coal had been collected by then. It was about this time that shafts began to be sunk (to a depth of about a hundred feet) in order to reach the coal that lay deeper in the ground. These shafts were timber lined for strength and safety. One such shaft was discovered during archaeological excavations associated with the widening of the A.42 road near Ashby about 16 years ago. Timbers from this shaft were taken for analysis and dendrological tests at Nottingham University gave the timbers an age, which put them in the middle of the 15th century. Investigations were made at the bottom of the shaft and evidence was found of tunnels radiating from the shaft. However, it was impossible to ascertain how men, coal, and surplus water were lifted up and down the shaft. What was surprising is that coal was being deep-mined in Leicestershire as early as the 1450’s.
The lifting of men and materials from coal workings deep underground has presented constant engineering problems for coal mining. One of the first methods employed to solve this problem was the use of the horse gin. In the early 17th century, the effort needed to raise coal from greater depths had been met by use of the cog and rung horse gin. The system operated by means of a wooden gear mechanism, driven by a horse. A double-ended rope, each end being attached to a basket (corve), was used for lifting the coal. One basket descended as the other ascended. After each lift the horse was turned and driven in the opposite direction. The size and placement of the mechanism limited the overall operational efficiency of this type of gin.
Wendy then went on to describe the various methods of actually digging the coal out of the ground. An early method was known as ‘pit and stall’, which involved the coal being dug from the ground but pillars of coal were left to support the ceiling of the workings. This was replaced by a method known as ‘long wall’. In this method a single wall of coal is mined to a depth of between 1 and 2 metres thick. This method of mining requires the roof to be supported and wooden props were used to do this. All of these mining innovations came from other coalfields. It would seem that Leicestershire coalfield was something of a backwater as far as technical innovations were concerned. Once out the ground the coal needed to be distributed to the consumer. Before the network of canals and railways became established a network of packhorse roads was used. These were quite extensive but very labour intensive and only relatively small amounts of coal could be transported at a time.
A major innovation in mining technology occurred in the early 18th century with the invention of the atmospheric engine. In 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented the first practical atmospheric engine although today it is referred to as a Newcomen steam engine or simply a Newcomen engine. Newcomen managed to overcome the technological problems involved and produced the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. From the early 18th century the principal use that these engines began to be used for throughout Britain, and indeed Europe, was to pump water out of coalmines. The next major problem that it was essential to overcome was underground ventilation. It was vital that a constant supply of fresh air was introduced into the mine workings.
At the beginning of the 19th century two major problems faced the miners in the Leicestershire coalfield. These were a layer of thick rock that prevented the mines from being sunk any deeper than they were and also the amount of water that needed to be drained away from the workings. Expertise was drafted in from coalfields in the North East and these problems were solved. Without this help the future of mining in the county looked quite bleak. Once it was possible to sink workings through the hard rock then mines could be sunk deeper and this is what happened. As the mines shafts were sunk deeper so other innovations came into common usage; steel replaced rope for the winding gear, and the men began to be lowered and raised from the mine in cages rather than baskets. By this time steam engines were the main suppliers of power in the mines and it was these engines that made many of these advances possible. It was mainly due to the increased use of steam engines that the actual output from the mines increased dramatically. The weight of coal that could be lifted up the shaft continued to rise as the power of the steam engines increased. The advent of steam cutting equipment in the last decade of the 19th century saw a further dramatic increase in productivity.
One vital innovation that did occur in the industry during the 19th century was the invention of the miner’s safety lamp. Two men have been credited with this invention, Sir Humphrey Davy and George Stevenson. Both men appear to have solved the problem of how to introduce safe lighting into the underground environment simultaneously. However it is Sir Humphrey who has gone down in history as the inventor of the miner’s safety lamp in 1815. Prior to this invention the air in the underground workings often contained lethal quantities of explosive gases and equally dangerous amounts of coal dust. A single, naked light could ignite these explosive mixtures with devastating consequences. Fires and explosions in confined spaces underground usually involved catastrophic loss of life. Indeed, at one time there were very few more dangerous occupations than that of a coal miner. The introduction of black powder for underground blasting added a further hazard to those already existing underground.
Wendy then went on give an example of how work was organized underground; giving examples of the hierarchy that existed within the labour force. At the bottom of the scale were the very young boys who spent as much as twelve hours at a time on their shift and were employed to open and close the ventilation doors that were placed along each tunnel. In the first half of the 19th century these children could be as young as five years old until parliamentary legislation continued to raise the minimum employment age. From doorkeeper the next rung on the employment ladder was that of barrow pusher. This was a job that involved very hard work, particularly if there were any severe gradients that needed to be overcome when pushing a barrow full of coal. After pushing barrows the next job up the scale was that of pony-minder and after that coal-hewer. The whole organization was based on the ‘butty’ system. Under the butty system the mine owner would pay a person, known as a butty man, to take overall control of the hiring of the labour for the mine. The butty man employed the labourers that worked in the mine, often on a daily basis, and was responsible for the payment of their wages. He personally allocated all of the jobs, giving the best jobs to those workers whom he most liked or who would make it most worth his while. The system was rife with nepotism, bribery and corruption. The average working life of the miner was also relatively short, the arduous nature of the work, the poor ventilation, damp conditions and the sheer physical effort required meant that it wasn’t too many years before the workers long-term health suffered adversely rendering him physically unable to perform his duties. Industrial accidents were a constant danger, often involving loss of life or serious injury, were commonplace. With little or no job security and no welfare system to look after those miners unfortunate enough not to be able to work the loss of employment usually led to severe financial hardships. Set against this however, were the wages that it was possible to earn underground. Miners enjoyed some of the best rates of pay amongst the working classes in the country. Miners tended to live close to their place of work and villages would spring up close to the pit. These villages tended to be tightly knit communities, with most of the inhabitants being reliant on the fortunes of the pit. These communities had a habit of becoming quite self-reliant a true community spirit was often to be found in them. Wendy then concluded her presentation and an appreciative audience gave her a well-deserved round of applause.