Online Resources on UK Miners and Mines
The Coalmining History Resource Centre
The UK miners have a long and turbulent history ranging from the appalling conditions and child labour of the Victorian times to the long and bitter strikes of the 20th century, in particular the Thatcher years.
The Coalmining History Resource Centre is the brainchild of Ian Winstanley, a retired teacher whose grandfather worked in the Haydock collieries until 1946. The website is now managed by Raleys solicitors. It has four main sections
- Mining Deaths and Disasters in Great Britain
- Mines Locations and Maps
- Literature on Mining
- Historical Photos
UK Mining Deaths and Accidents
The Coalmining History Resource Centre boasts a database containing over 164,000 recorded accidents and deaths in the UK mining industry starting from 1707 to the present day. The Database is compiled by Ian Winstanley. There is a list of mining disasters with dates and Reports on the disasters in downloadable PDF Files.
Sources of the reports are papers, periodicals and oral accounts for the pre-1850 period; inspectors’ Reports for the 1850-1914 period; Mine Inspectors Record of Accidents for the post-1914 period.
Mines Location Maps
There are several maps of the location of mines classified in divisions, namely Scottish, Durham, Northern, North Eastern, North Western, East Midlands, West Midlands, South Western and South Eastern Divisions. These maps are all clickable. There is also an A-Z list of mines with links to the relevant maps.
Literature on UK Mining
This section of the Coalmining Resource Centre contains:
The all-important 1842 Royal Commission Reports on Children in the Mines, invaluable historical resource for the social historian who researches the working conditions of coalminers. The Reports are divided by geographical area: South West (Cornwall, Gloucester, Somerset); North West (Cumberland, North Lancashire, North Staffordshire and Cheshire); Wales; The Midlands; North East (Durham Lead, Northumberland, South Durham and Yorkshire), Scotland and Ireland.
A useful Glossary of Mining Terms which contains terms used in the pits in the Newcastle and UK collieries in 1841.
Transcriptions from old newspapers from the Merseyside area relating to mines and mining accidents.
Other texts about mining including poems and the illustrated “day in a miner’s life”.
Historical Photos of Mining
The Photo Gallery of the Coalmining History Resource Centre contains an excellent collection of banners, historical photos of collieries, photos of miners, ponies and newspaper clippings.
History of UK Mining
This online historical resource is well presented and offers a good collection of contemporary sources on the history of UK mining with potential for further expansion as well as an excellent gallery of historical photographs of mines and miners. It is one of those online historical resources (and there is an increasingly number of them) that are created by individuals either with personal connections to the topic in question or with a keen interest in history.
Source:
The Coalmining History Resource Centre
A Colliery in Wales, 1910
|
More in History
Latest Articles