A Day in the Life of a Wigan Coal Miner 1911 

My mother came from Lancashire- nearby Westleigh - and worked in a Cotton Mill from 12 years old (she had to leave school early to bring in extra money). Her father worked in the pits but was wounded and left with a crippled arm in World War One so he was unable to go back down the pit at the end of the war - he was forced to take a lesser paid job and no pension etc for war service. My mother's brother went down the pit after World War Two having served in the RAF. He died in 1982 aged just 59 of a heart attack brought on by lung disease caused by being a miner. Times back then were so unimaginably tough - two World Wars, poverty, shortages, and health destroying hard work. It was another world that the modern generation need to be taught and shown - their world is built on it.

My late Dad’s family came from Dunfermline, Scotland, in the 1850’s, to Australia. They were coal miners, but wanted a better future for the family. To leave such a community, for a chance of a better life, on the other side of the world, must have been a terrifying giant leap into the unknown. Fortunately they applied their mining experience, and hard work, to the Castlemaine Gold field, and found enough gold to buy an underdeveloped farm, which they improved and sold, before doing the same twice more. A great outcome, but at the expense of a great deal of blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice.

I’ve heard people at my work at the end of the shift “ that was a hard day” I just smile to myself and think you haven’t even scratched the surface compared to these people!

This film should be shown to everyone as mandatory, so they can appreciate what people would do to support their families.I salute all miners. Unbelievable conditions and poor pay.An extremely dangerous job. I can't think of a tougher job, especially in the 1920s . Still, a daunting job. I couldn't do it underground. such a closed in feeling and with danger all around. Special people could only cope.

Going through old census records is what brought me here. I had ancestors at 14 years old (probably earlier than that) working in the coal mines in Wigan back in the 1850s/60s. It sure is humbling to learn about what they went through just to make a meager life for themselves.

I'm from round there and I came to this video after I found on ancestry.com that my great great grandad was a coal hewer, meaning he went directly to the coal face and broke the coal from it. he was 57 in 1911 and still working, and he died at around 83! I hope I've inherited whatever he had in him!

Absolutely, my grandad and dad did this and they did it for the money to keep their families afloat. It was hard graft but there were not many options. They used to come home absolutely black, covered in coal dust. Their smile was perfect white. It was the only thing not to be blackened. Its sad to see the actual hardship they protected us from. We only knew the smile when they came came home. As a small child that meant everything.

My father was born in WW 1. He left school mid 1920s age 14 on a Friday. On Monday he went down the pit. Undercutting, where small lads where used to cut underneath a seam of coal as far as they could. When coal was read to fall the boys would be dragged out by the Older men via a rope. His body was covered in blue black scars from this treatment as a boy. John

My Grand father, my Great Grand father and my Great Great Grand father. were Coal Miners west Lancashire

I am so glad that mining had changed by the time I got into it, But it was still hard going, Lots of people didn't realise that women actually worked underground as well as on the surface, and the pay was crap for what we did. This Movie should be preserved and shown to all school children of how it used to be.

Marvelous that this film documentation exists. Thanks for posting!

The ways that they did things in the mines back the are so fascinating like how they brought the carts up thank u so much for posting this

My dads family were miners from Wigan who moved to Rotherham in 1919 to work at Silverwood Colliery. They may have worked here as they lived near the Haigh area of Wigan. I still have my dads uncles silver NUM long service badge.

Amazing footage. My Great Grandad was a coal miner in the Rhondda Valley around the time this footage was taken. Us today could never truly imagine the life that generation had, absolute heroes everyone of them.

God bless them. Extremely hard working people in a very very unhealthy and dangerous work environment. Without them, the Western World would not have had it's "industrial revolution". You may not have the device to see this footage in your hand right now. Think on these people, think on them with profound respect and gratitude. RIP

On his 14th birthday in 1926, my dad went to work underground at Thornley Colliery in County Durham. This was about 1 week after his 19 yeat old brother had been killed in that same pit by a roof fall. Their mother (my future grandmother) miscarried the baby she was carrying due to the shock. My dad did 51 years underground, retiring at 65.

Great video. Thanks.

Hard times for our ancestors .

Mineros del carbón del mundo. Gracias. Jamás seréis olvidados. Los que hemos sido hijos de mineros seguiremos siendo los niños del humo. Que viva la gente minera.

I lived across the way and spent most of my childhood playing in the ruins of the Mine Workings.

My paternal Grandfather who I briefly knew, worked as a 'Hewer'/ a coal face worker, in the pits in Wigan at this time. He was 29 years old in 1911, and married with one son, who was my Uncle who I never met, born in 1910 down Miry lane, Wigan. My Great Granddad was killed down the pit in Wigan in the early 1890's .Worse was to come for my Granddad. He volunteered in 1915 and enlisted in the Army, during WW1. In 1916, he was shot through his right leg during the Battle of the Somme. And in April 1918, during the 'German Spring Offensive/Kaiserschlacht' , he was gassed and then shot through his right eye and taken POW .

I lost my Great Grandfather in a pit disaster. He was 23 years old he left behind a wife with three boys all under 5 to the eventual tryanny of a new step father. As if life wasn't hard enough; then there's domestic violence as well. Definitely need a revolution. Life's not much different now minimum wage and no security of a future for the still unfortunate. A good contrast at the end of the video would have been to show the miners going home to their tiny damp and cramped dwellings rather than showing the bougois class in their mansion with servants.

No one from our generation would survive this. I'm glad to be alive today.

Thx for the info

Great video!

That looked grim,i bet they got payed a pittance for a day's graft. No benefits in those days,if you didn't work you starved.Amazing film,especially showing the rich family enjoyable a nice warm fire near the end.

I lost both of my grandpa's to coal mine accidents in southern WV one was where 18 men lost their lives known as the Holden 22 mine disaster, I don't have to much Imformation about the other one unfortunately I never got to meet either one , it was before I was born 😞

I live in Wigan and I've been to where that pit was

OMG that's a real eye opener.

AMAZING FILM.....!!

Hi Women worked below ground until 1842, after then they often worked on the surface as the film of 1911 shows. In other European countries it was to be 1908 before women stopped working underground. Women work in US coal mines and in South African mines

real men and women who's hard work and sacrifice is still remembered today, at least by some. Imagine putting young millenials in that environment, they would not last a day...

Amazing record. I worked coal face in the 60/70/s. It was quite different by then. Always amuses me that the women's lib movement never sought to repeal the 1842 Act that prevented women working underground.

Read the road to wigen pier by George Orwell to fully understand these poor people lives better yet listen to the audio book here on utube it is an amazing piece of work as is down and out in Paris by orwell

Amazing film and history. The workers look fit and agile, getting a hard work-out. I live in the north east where there are few signs left of a coal mining past. At Seaham there is a winding wheel on the seafront and pictures too with a brief history, but at other places absolutely no sign.

of course, the "light after darkness" didn't apply to wigan pier coal miners. great vid. thx for sharing

What a life people then appreciated everything and worked hard to keep alive and feed their families

pour ceux qui se plaignent des conditions de travail aujourd'hui, un petit tour en arrière peut faire réfléchir !

greetings from cardiff, south wales.. i know this is a bit different but one of my grandfathers was a coal trimmer, someone on a ship i think?? round about the time of the first world war.. anything that can shed light on this whole time is so interesting.. thankyou for sharing this..

Amazing footage. Glad no sound.

Hardtimes.Respect.x

My Grandad was Overman at Bickershaw Colliery upto the Nationalisation of the Mines (1947) at which point he retired....

I'm from Wigan and my grandad passed down the brass miner's lamp to my dad and hopefully me someday

Each of those miners worked a ‘stint’ and erected its supporting pit props to earn his pay for that day. It was me mechanised in my day but we still claimed to have completed our stint.

This was my great grandads pit

And we think we have it hard today

Brutal.

No sound, just powerful images

This is invaluable. I've been down two pits and, tho it may seem a cliché, there were REAL men down there. Down to earth, no nonsense and good humoured. As I recall there were morphine safes every 200 yards. I've seen the floor rising up to meet the ceiling. Formative experiences.

The men were paid raw peanuts for risking and shortening their lives but the women were paid the peanut shells, while the robber barons ate the roasted macadamias and brazils. Bastards.

Hard labour from my Wigan ancestors. I couldn't do it.

Our Ancestors who built Britain ...hard labour and long hours ...

My grand parents on my mother's side live at New Springs on Kirkless Street known in the late 20s as Nob Stick Alley you where a Nob Stick if you broke the strike All the men in the Cartwright family went down pit in 20s and 30s

Me great grandad were one o three survivors after Maypole pit disaster. Poor bastards. Time for a revolution

my grandad WILF BROOKES saved the lives of 50 men at the WOOD PIT so i was told by my then boss at QUAKER HOUSE COLLIERY his name was DONALD ANDERSON who was a historian of coal mines

Wow. I didn't know there were woman coal miners. Fascinating. thanks

I'm glad I missed out.

Think may be family members in that film. Ancestors that were pit brow lasses.

I have the greatest respect for all coal miners. Their work was and still is one of the most dangerous imagineable and their wages were a sick joke. In the year that this film was made and many years afterwards, miners after doing a hard day's work and getting black from head to foot returned to homes where it was impossible to take a proper bath. To get a better idea of how grim lives were for these men one should read "The Road To Wigan Pier" by George Orwell.

a long hard day, a hard short life: coal miner

I don't see a single rainbow and that's awesome.

Strangely the scene at the beginning of the film looked the same some fifty odd years later .Coal meant money.

They were right hardy folks back then, maybe not to long lived though.

Sometimes it got so hot down there we just worked in the buff

Obviously to us old miners Davy lamps were very popular in mines due to methane

Oh the good old days 🤔

That's for lord Londonderry to get his castle !

Meanwhile, in London

It's sad to me that the folks working so hard could only make the bare minimum to survive while the 4-5 guys at the top rake in exorbitant riches. Why they could not pay the workers a fair share ?? Why should only a few be allowed to prosper ?

The women look like they could have beaten most of today's men at armwrestling.

Those buggies weighed close to 500 kilo's once you gottem running there was a speed bump that would stop you dead if you weren't pushin fast enough. Well one time there was a mess of pitmasters standing behind that bump and they knew better.

Not sure today's people would be up for that!

Whose those 2 guys in Hoodies at the begining, crawling.....frame 35, 36, 37.....time travellers...

No pie barms?? Bloody shocking

Coal condemns the country from which it comes

Its very hard to comprehend the reality of long days, meagre wages and thin seams. Some of the hewing here seems 'staged' ie unreal. I think in reality it was much grimmer than portrayed in this publicity film. Poor things, my heart bleeds for them...whilst the rich mine-owners knew nothing but luxury.

How on earth did they light these underground shots... it was hard enough in Coalface (1930s)

And people think they've got it hard today

Women, working coal, in formal gowns!

I doubt the wife and children would have gone out to wish him goodbye for the day because most minerz did a ten or twelve hour shift. So they would most likely been leaving before dawn most of the year, and returning home after sunset.

The ‘good old days’, no thanks.

Why did they want to legislate against the women’s employment? I admit that I’m surprised at the sheer number of women in this video. I wonder how many of these people were my relatives? I have centuries of ancestors in Wigan.

It’s grim oop north tha nose 👍

You had to be tough to do this job, no doubt!!!not for whimps.

Dirty dangerous and bad for your health and Damn hard graft that was the lot of the miner back then.

Snippet of information I was told by a relative whose family came from Wigan until about the 1950s the ministers or priests for each Christian denomination went down the pits once a year to hold a funeral service for the men whose bodies had never been recovered.

Those poor sods who did this.......

Never mention white privilege, these guys are heroes.

Footage of WOMEN working in the coal mines in 1911!?!! I didn't even know women could work at the coal mines in 1911. For that reason this is very very special footage indeed.

My great Grandad worked down the pit for 20 years. He always dressed with handkerchiefs on his cuffs and bells attached to his ankles. He was a Morris Miner.

Right up until after WW2, in Pennsylvania and all across America, children as young as 3 years old worked in the mills, mines, and every other horrible job. I worked for a city in the Northeast and we had a museum in the city that had all the original actual records from the work houses, debtor prisons, and textile Mills that owned women and children. We had photos that went right up to the 1940 with trucks with metal cages bringing the women and children to work from the orphanages and prisons. In the late 1990s, worried about what might happen and the political nightmare if someone was to show these photos and records of children as young as 3 years old working in these Mills and families living in the row houses with 10-year-old mothers and fathers that had newborn babies, we were ordered to go in at night and remove anything that was questionable and burn it. Almost nothing remained The same thing was done at all of the coal mines The history of America the real history of America is never told and never taught and the only time it's ever spoken of now is after Dark when an elderly family member who was there as a child and saw this really happened shares it with the next generation. It makes me cry knowing how bad we were and still are

We don't know we are born, we really don't.

I suspect these blokes didn’t need to go to the gym after a days work,sorry and women

These people were very hard workers the kids these days don't know what hard work is.

worked for every nickel and was no free stuff

I once went down Sutton Manor pit near Wigan. Two men were working on the coal face, the rest were asleep in sleeping bags.

Can you imagine the TicTok Women now a days with road map tat's doing any of this honest labor ?? lol.

My ancestors were Wigan coal miners , the Parkinson’s

British opened few hundred under ground coalmines during 19, 20 century under private and company ownership. Enjoyed as a ex coalminer.

There it is. Equality.