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The Little Buttymen in the Forest of Dean, 1870–86*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
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On a superficial inspection, miners' unionism in the Forest of Dean between 1871 and 1886 does not appear to have been atypical of miners' unionism in general in Britain in that period: neither in the fluctuations in its strength nor in its policies. Like the unions in most other coal districts, that in Dean flourished in the economic boom of the early 1870's, fell into weakness after 1875 and then revived in the early 1880's. In each of those phases the policies of the Dean miners were much like those of other miners. They demanded increases in wages, resisted reductions in wages, insisted upon the installation of weighing machines at pit bank, and sought to have winding hours reduced. Demands for the introduction of a sliding scale, to govern the movement of hewing rates in relation to coal prices, and for the establishment of conciliation and arbitration machinery, were common to many miners' unions at both local and national level. With those demands went the common rhetoric of the identity of interests of capital and labour. All this is the familiar content of that moderate, cautious, market-conscious approach to dealings with the masters which dominated miners' organisations for most of the second half of the century.
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- Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1980
References
1 See Ch. Fisher, , “The Free Miners of the Forest of Dean”, in: Independent Collier, ed. by Harrison, R. (Hassocks, 1978).Google Scholar
2 Census of England and Wales, 6 June 1841, Public Record Office, HO 107/364–65; 2 April 1871, RG 10/2, 596–605, 686; 5, 296–300.
3 Dean Forest, Coal and Iron Mine Rentals, Public Record Office, LRRO 12/113–14.
4 This account of the colliers' work in Dean is based on Insole, H. R. and Bunning, C. Z., “The Forest of Dean Coal Field”, in: British Society of Mining Students, Journal, V and VII (1881)Google Scholar; and on J. S. Joynes, “Description of semas and some of the methods of working in the Forest of Dean”, ibid., XI (1889).
5 The little butties should be distinguished from the “big butties” or “charter masters” of Staffordshire, who worked a whole pit, seam or group of stalls. On the big butties, see Jevons, H. S., The British Coal Trade (Newton Abbott, 1969; first ed. 1915). pp. 455–57.Google Scholar
6 Meade, R., “The Iron Industries of Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean”, in: Mining Journal, 1 04 1876Google Scholar; Hunt, R., Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom for 1869 [Geological Survey of the United Kingdom] (London, 1870).Google Scholar
7 See for example, Colliery Guardian, 3 August and 7 September 1867.
8 Ibid., 31 July 1885.
9 Miner and Workman's Advocate, 25 June 1864.
10 Perhaps there had been some sort of covert activity before this. In 1870, correspon dence appeared in the local newspaper signed by an anonymous “Miners' Committee”. Forester, 30 December 1870.
11 Ibid., 7 July 1871.
12 Ibid., 8 and 15 September.
13 On the Dean branch of the AAM and its relationship with the national union, see Ch. Fisher and J. Smethurst, ‘“War on the Law Supply and Demand’: The Amalgamated Association of Miners and the Forest of Dean Colliers, 1869–1875”, in: Independent Collier, op. cit.
14 Forester, 6 October 1871.
15 Ibid.
16 Forest of Dean Examiner, 27 September 1873.
17 Ibid., 6 November 1874.
18 Forester, 2 September 1871.
19 Ibid., 20 September 1870.
20 Forest of Dean Examiner, 30 August 1873.
21 Ibid., 25 October.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid, 14 November.
24 Report of the Royal Commission on Truck [Parliamentary Papers, 1871, XXXVI], pp. xci–xcii.Google Scholar
25 Forest of Dean Examiner, 21 November 1873.
26 Ibid., 18 November.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., 2 January 1874.
29 Ibid., 30 August 1873.
30 Ibid., 27 February 1874.
31 Ibid., 30 August 1873.
32 Forester, 16 May 1878.
33 Ibid.
34 Forest of Dean Examiner, 21 August 1874.
35 Ibid., 11 December.
36 Ibid., 13 November.
37 Ibid., 20 November.
38 Ibid., 9 July 1875.
39 Ibid., 30 July.
40 Porter, J. H., “Wage Determination by selling price sliding scales, 1870–1914”, in: Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, XXXIX (1971).Google Scholar
41 Forest of Dean Examiner, 11 December 1874; 15 February 1877.
42 Dean Forest Mercury, 15 December 1882.
43 Ibid., 25 August.
44 Ibid., 8 December.
45 Barnsley Chronicle, 5 March 1881. On Rymer see Ch. Fisher and P. Spaven, “Edward Rymer and ‘The Moral Workman’”, in: Independent Collier.
46 Dean Forest Mercury, 1 December 1882.
47 Forester, 28 October 1882.
48 Dean Forest Mercury, 15 December 1882; 14 December 1884.
49 Ibid., 8 and 15 December 1882.
50 Ibid., 15 June 1883.
51 Miner's Advocate and Record, 18 October 1873.
52 Ibid., 26 July.
53 Ibid., 26 September 1874.
54 Dean Forest Mercury, 16 March 1883.
55 Forester, 21 October and 2 December 1882.
56 Hunt, R., Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom for 1874 (London, 1875).Google Scholar
57 Dean Forest Mercury, 16 February 1883.
58 Ibid., 22 December 1882.
59 Ibid., 2 March 1883.
60 Ibid., 16 March.
61 Ibid.
62 Ibid., 6 April.
63 Ibid., 6 and 20 April, 11 and 18 May, 13 July.
64 Ibid., 25 September 1885; 14 May 1886.
65 Ibid., 11 December 1885.
66 Ibid., 8 January, 28 May, 18 June 1886.
67 Ibid., 16 July.
68 Ibid., 25 May 1883.
69 Ibid., 24 December 1886.
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