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lancashirelove Posts: 1986 Joined: 18th Feb 2009 Location: UK | quotePosted at 10:30 on 16th June 2009 here is a list of Mining disaters in a 20 mile radius of the town of Wigan in the county Lancashire in the mid 1800's. men and boys as young as 9 were killed in all these disasters mining coal. Many men were the only means of income and many women were widowed, there children orphand (No benefit system then. Pretty as our country is, it was built on hard graft, toil, blood of our ancestors, this is why we fight for what we have but are still willing to share with those less fortunate than us, thats what makes us British at the bottom of this thread is a link to the records of just one of these disasters, that of The Wood Pit disaster of 1878 near haydock in Lancashire. Men and boys died making a living underground, over 100 women were widowed in that one day, with over 300 children left without a father and no other means of income. please, if you can find the time to read it, please do. Mike Heres a list of mining disasters before the mines were closed in the Wigan area http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/haydockexplosion1878.html |
Diana Sinclair Posts: 10119 Joined: 3rd Apr 2008 Location: USA | quotePosted at 14:18 on 16th June 2009 OMG Michael...so many; so tragic.  |
| lancashirelove Posts: 1986 Joined: 18th Feb 2009 Location: UK | quotePosted at 16:32 on 16th June 2009 This should interest Ruth as I know she loves history! |
Debbie Adams Posts: 2043 Joined: 8th Mar 2009 Location: USA | quotePosted at 18:38 on 16th June 2009 This is just amazing,,, so sad;-( You need to be a historian MIchael I wished i had you as a tour guide,,LOL |
Peter Evans Posts: 3863 Joined: 20th Aug 2006 Location: UK | quotePosted at 18:56 on 16th June 2009 Coming from the Rhonda Valley in South Wales, I sympathise with all the families. I lost so many of my relatives in mining accidents. Ten of my relatives died in the Syngenedd pit explosion. My father was a coal miner and decided that none of us were going to work down the mines,so he moved to London with us. His father started work in the mines at 9 years old and girls started at 12 years. It was hard dangerous work, but the mining families were generous and proud. I am proud of my heritage, but glad I didnt have to risk my life every day like my ansesters did. |
Ruth Gregory Posts: 8072 Joined: 25th Jul 2007 Location: USA | quotePosted at 03:55 on 17th June 2009 On 16th June 2009 16:32, michael gerrard wrote:
Here's a similar list to what you posted, Michael. We just don't know how good we have it nowadays, do we? http://www.msha.gov/District/Dist_01/Fatals/HISTFAT.HTM
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Stephanie Jackson Posts: 3911 Joined: 13th Apr 2008 Location: UK | quotePosted at 06:46 on 17th June 2009 Interesting thread Michael and also it just shows from our members comments how many families were affected by these tragedies. I too come from a mining area (the Black Country) - alot of my ancestors were miners too. My Dad did his engineering apprenticeship at Baggeridge Colliery - I have got his mining medal from there. |
Paul Hilton  Posts: 2605 Joined: 21st Nov 2004 Location: UK | quotePosted at 07:21 on 17th June 2009 Doing Cathy's family history for her beyond the Lancashire of her grand-parents, the scene quickly had led to Shropshire back to the latter 1700s, with 2 of her great-grandfathers working as Carters down the mines, with one of them being only about 30 and married but a few years before he was killed; possibly a mining accident? The Durham Mining Museum is full of historical information about coal mining up north. http://www.dmm.org.uk/mindex.htm The lady who originally owned my 1939 Austin had come from a Staffordshire mining family and her Dad had moved to the mines near Emley, West Yorkshire. Her father---listed on this site passing his mining exams-----had also been killed in a mining accident when he was the manager of several mines in 1908 trying to free a trapped cable. |
Karen Pugh Posts: 858 Joined: 21st Dec 2006 Location: UK | quotePosted at 07:46 on 17th June 2009 My ancestors were miners, back in the 1900s I don't suppose there was much else to do but mine. I don't know of any of them being killed though, but reading between the lines it must have been a hard life. My grandad (he's still alive) was the last miner to walk out of Hodbarrow (Millom/Haverigg) when it closed in 1968 |
| lancashirelove Posts: 1986 Joined: 18th Feb 2009 Location: UK | quotePosted at 09:04 on 17th June 2009 So interesting but so sad. I had never realy been involved with anything mining exept when I was younger and drove through mining areas, seeing the then 'slag' heaps of mining waste, in my ignorance thought of them only as an eye-sore. When I got involved in tracing my ancestors I realised that they were involved as both landowners and also miners. In fact you can see my surname in the illistration of Wood Pit, number 170 was a Gerrard killed in the disater as was one of the minig experts involved in the inquirey team. A great expanse of the area around wigan was through times, originaly owned by gerrards and so was inevitable that some of my ancesters would have owend the mines also. It appears that in the 1800s you either wove cloth, worked in mining or worked on the land (unless of course you went to sea). Even if you were wealthy landowners you probly were still involved in these lines of income. I salute these brave people who built our nations through hard toil and graft, they died with the 'clogs' on! I deplore the ignorant people of today that only see them as low class rif-raf or unkept, penniless 'rag of muffins' as described in one London newspaper at the time. |
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