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Miners' Houses: South Wales and the Great Northern Coalfield, 1880–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

M. J. Daunton
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Accidents of personal biography are perhaps not the most sensible way by which to select topics for historical research, yet it was a fortuitous move from Cardiff to Durham which created an initial curiosity about the character of the coalfields in the two areas. No one could miss the difference of landscape between, on the one hand, the linear communities stretching along the deep and narrow South Wales valleys, amidst soaring mountains and spoil heaps and, on the other hand, the sprinkling of nucleated pit villages within the drab, undulating topography of County Durham. The belief that a comparison of these areas might be a topic of more than purely personal interest arose from two considerations.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , August 1980 , pp. 143 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1980

References

1 On these two coalfields, Garside, W. R., The Durham Miners 1919–69 (1971)Google Scholar, and Arnot, R. Page, South Wales Miners. A History of the South Wales Miners' Federation, 1898–1914 (1967).Google Scholar More recent studies do indicate a widening of approach: Miners, Quarrymen and Saltworkers, ed. by R. Samuel (1977), and Independent Collier. The Coal Miner as Archetypal Proletarian Reconsidered, ed. by R. Harrison (1978).

2 Daunton, M. J., “Down the pit. Work in the Great Northern and South Wales coalfields, 1880–1914”, in: Economic History Review, forthcoming.Google Scholar

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10 Glamorgan County Record Office, D/D Vau Box 4, Ra 14/48 and BJ/V/168–185 contain information on building clubs. South Wales Daily News, 17 June 1907, has an interview with the solicitor of 19 building clubs in Merthyr Tydfil. The clubs are discussed by Jevons, H. S., The British Coal Trade (1915), pp. 646–48Google Scholar, and Richards, “Fluctuations”, op. cit., pp. 191–97.

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18 Durham Coal Owners' Association (hereafter DCOA), Summary of returns re houses and house rent, October 1894, and Returns as to houses or rents and coals (underground workmen only), August 1913, DCRO, NCB l/CO/86 348, 668; Viewer's Reports for Thomas Hedley Bros., ibid., 3/62.

19 See below, p. 159; Daunton, “Down the pit”, loc. cit.; DCOA, Houses and house rent, November 1896, DCRO, NCB l/CO/86 366.

20 Returns as to houses or rents and coals, August 1913, DCRO, NCB l/CO/86 667.

21 DCOA and DMA, Joint return as to houses and rent, June 1906, DCRO, NCB l/CO/86 551. See also Royal Commission on the Coal Industry, 1925, Vol. III, p. 249.Google Scholar

22 I owe this suggestion to Professor Norman McCord.

23 See Fynes, R., The Miners of Northumberland and Durham (1873)Google Scholar, and Wel-bourne, E., The Miners' Union of Northumberland and Durham (1923).Google Scholar

24 I am grateful to Bill Williamson for drawing my attention to this reference in NCRO 407/2, pp. 253–54.

25 Quoted by Jones, , “Aspects”, pp. 295–96Google Scholar, from Llandinam Documents Section E, 297, National Library of Wales.

26 Wilson, J. H., A history of the Durham Miners' Association 1870–1904 (1907), pp. 307–09Google Scholar; Metcalfe, G. H., “A History of the Durham Miners' Association 1869–1915” (1947, typescript in University Library, Durham), pp. 185–93.Google Scholar

27 Durham Miners' Association, Acts of Parliament, County and National Agreements, revised ed. (1930), pp. 74–75.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 76.

29 Ibid., p. 77.

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31 Northumberland Coal Trade Arbitration, 09 1876, pp. 9–10, 20, 57–60, 94Google Scholar, NCRO, NCB/C 1/125.

32 Northumberland Coal Trade Arbitration, 07 1877, pp. 4, 8Google Scholar, NCRO, NCB/C 1/126.

33 Minutes of NMA, Committee meeting 26 May 1881, NCRO 759/68.

34 Ibid., circular on house-rent and fire question, March 1881.

35 Ibid., circular of 2 January 1882.

36 Ibid., circular of 9 January.

37 Ibid., delegate meetings of 2 April 1881, 20–22 May 1882; circulars of 7 June 1881, 10 and 26 July 1882.

38 Ibid., rent-committee meetings 27 July and 10 August 1886, special delegate meeting 18 September 1886 and 5 January 1887, delegate meetings 16 August 1890 and 22 August 1891, circular of 4 October 1890; L. W. Darra Mair, Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Circumstances of the Whickham Urban District, with Special Reference to its Housing Accommodation Generally, and to Certain Back-to-Back Houses at Marley Hill in particular [Reports of Medical Inspectors of the Local Government Board, 262] (1907), p. 12.Google Scholar

39 NMA, Council minutes 1907–09, 23 11 1908Google Scholar, and Council minutes 1911–15, 19–20 May and 15 November 1913, NCRO 759/27, 28.

40 Ibid.

41 Copy of letter sent to C. J. Grey, 23 February 1867, ibid., 407/2, p. 8. My thanks are due to Bill Williamson for this reference.

42 Estimated cost to equip Woodhorn colliery, September 1897, NCRO, NCB/AS 78.

43 Valuation of Pegswood colliery, ibid., 66, 68–71.

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47 Ibid.

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54 This was drawn to my attention by Professor Norman McCord.

55 DCOA, Returns as to houses or rents and coals, 08 1913, 668.Google Scholar

56 Rowe, Wages, op. cit., pp. 84–85.

57 Rents for the mining areas from M. J. Daunton, Coal Metropolis: Cardiff 1870–1914 (1977), p. 85.Google Scholar

58 Daunton, “Down the pit”.

59 Census of England and Wales, 1911.

60 Mair, Darra, Report, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

61 Bowley, A. L. and Burnett-Hurst, A. R., Livelihood and Poverty (1915), pp. 22–23, 140–45.Google Scholar

62 The Land. The Report of the Liberal Land Enquiry Committee (1914), p. 199.Google Scholar

63 The Times, 11 September 1928.

64 Census of England and Wales, 1911; see also McCord, N. and Rowe, D. J., “Industrialisation and urban growth in North-East England”, in: International Review of Social History, XXII (1977)Google Scholar; manager of Langley Park colliery to manager of Medomsley colliery, 13 September 1906, DCRO, NCB 4/3.

65 Langley Park colliery, meeting between manager and deputation of the workmen, January 1900, DCRO, NCB 4/3.

66 Garside, Durham Miners, op. cit., pp. 291–93.

67 The cottages and plaque still stand.

68 Royal Commission on the Coal Industry, 1918–1919, Vol. II, q. 17199.Google Scholar

69 Lewis, E. D., The Rhondda Valleys (1959), pp. 217–27.Google Scholar

70 Ryder, R., “Council house building in Co. Durham 1900–39; the local implementation of national policy” (M.Ph. Durham, 1979), p. 120Google Scholar, quotes the Consett Iron Co.'s request to Blaydon Urban District Council to “exercise its powers under the Housing and Town Planning Act”.