Its Dark In A Coal Mine.

In considering the working conditions which prevailed in the North East coal mines, it is essential to bear in mind that many of the worst abuses including the ‘butty system’, irregular wages and the employment of women and pauper apprentices, was not practised here, due in part to the unusually large size of these collieries, and in part to the otherwise much maligned ‘bond’.
However, even allowing for this, conditions must still be regarded as a definite hazard to safety. For instance, the number of hours per shift worked by the miners at the most exhausting tasks, must in itself be regarded as dangerous. Although the Commissioners of 1842 found that nominally the men and boys worked a twelve hour shift, and that in the better managed pits this was not normally exceeded, most of the lads interviewed had at one time or another worked ‘double shifts’, several three shifts and one boy claimed to have worked for 48 hours at a stretch.
Even if we discount the latter as either exaggeration or as totally unrepresentative, we must face the fact that after 12 hours, a boy of eight, and after 24 or 36 hours, even the hardiest man must be a potential risk to his own safety and that of his workmates.
Unfortunately, even if the working hours had been reasonable, the very nature of the work was still dangerous enough to horrify a modern-day Health and Safety officer. Indeed, even by 19th century standards it was bad.
Each job involved in ‘coal getting’ had its own particular dangers either to those carrying it out or to others. The trappers in the coal mines
The youngest boys in the mine were employed as ‘trappers’. These children sat alone in a nook beside the trapdoor, holding onto the attached string, by which they opened and closed it for the whole 12 hour shift.
Throughout the time they were either in complete darkness or, if conditions allowed it, and they had one, they could light a candle. The trappers’ work, although not in itself arduous, was lonely and could hold terrors for a child. After a year or two as a trapper, the boy would usually become a ‘driver’ of the horses which hauled ‘sets’ of tubs along the shafts. Although the men tended to regard this job as easy, it was probably one of the most dangerous tasks in the whole mine.Those who survived ‘driving’ later became ‘putters’. Their task was to drag the heavy carts of coal from the hewers, along the low galleries to the higher main passages, or sometimes to the bottom of the shaft.
There were several methods of putting, a common one being the ‘trace and chain’ method, where the putter was actually chained to the cart. A leather girdle was worn around the waist, to which a chain was attached. This chain passed between the legs and was fastened to the cart.
Another method, which was often used by small boys, was to work in pairs, one pushing and the other one pulling. They would share their wages, which were determined by output.They strained themselves getting overthrown tubs back on the rails; they fought their way up inclines, and they had to struggle to prevent the full tubs from breaking loose when taking them down slopes. When drawing their load through low places they were forced to go down on all fours like animals.
Putters were frequently maimed. They rubbed the skin off their backs and shoulders on the low roof, and off their feet on the rough stones on the roads. Little attention was paid to the condition of these roads, and even where main roads had originally been three or four feet high.After ‘putting’ for some time, the lad might eventually become a hewer, which meant lying for hours in a cramped position hewing away at the coal face. This particular occupation tended to cause an abnormal development of chest and arm muscles, while the rest of the body became stunted.