Living Easton

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Working Conditions in the District

Methane gas was rare in Kingswood District. Men worked by light from a naked flame of a candle stuck in their hats by T-shaped iron holders.

Boys were used in thin seams where men could not go, and were used, for the most part, as tuggers and pushers. Tubs of coal were pulled by boys who were harnessed to them. The harness was attached to the tub by a chain which went between the boys legs and attached to a hook on the tub. A Government Inquiry was established in 1841 to look into conditions of boys. Elijah Waring was the official sent to Kingswood as part of the Inquiry. Waring said that the method of 'tugging' struck him as being 'very painful. An overseer compared the boys to horses whose necks were tender when first broken to the collar. Most of the boys said that it had once hurt them but that they were now fully fledged miners. Boys aged 10 and 11 were commonplace. Waring met Abraham Brain, aged 10, who had been working underground for a year and earned 3d (1p) a day. He had no shoes and complained of a tightness in his chest. The youngest miner, Waring, found was only seven and a half and had been working for a year in Easton.

Lord Shaftsbury’s Act of 1842 laid down that boys working in mines had to be at least 10 years of age. However there is evidence that boys younger than 10 continued to be employed in the Kingswood coalfield. Old men who ought to have retired also continued working underground as their alternative was the feared local Workhouse.