Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (40 page)

For coal mining records prior to nationalization in 1947, and for all other types of private mining records, it is usually necessary to know the name of the company or the colliery your ancestor worked at in order to establish whether any records of employment are likely to have survived for them. If you are unsure of either of these facts, perhaps if you simply found your ancestor on a census return described as a tin miner for example, then it will be necessary to find out what mines were within walking distance, or at least reasonably close to their home for them to have worked at. Migration can make this task even more challenging as your family may have moved regularly to work in different pits.

If you are lucky enough to know the name of the company that owned the mine where your ancestor worked then you can search for the location of that company's archives, if they survive, using the National Register of Archives at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra. Simply navigate to the Corporate Name search engine and enter the name of the company your ancestor worked for. If any company records are located the database will tell you what type of records and for what years survive and where they are deposited. For example, the Northumberland Collections Service in Ashington holds the records of the iron miners Allen & Burnhouse Gill Mining Co. from 1877 to 1892.

The description of the records is usually very broad so you should phone the archive in advance of a visit to ensure they hold records relating to employees for the exact period you are interested in. The NRA search engine can be used to search for records by place name as well if you know where the colliery was but are unsure of the name of the company that owned the mine where your ancestor worked. Equally, if you had an ancestor who worked in a mine belonging to a landed gentleman's estate, such as the Duke of Norfolk or Lord Fitzwilliam, you can search for the location of their estate papers using the Family Name search engine. Estate papers for some of the earlier mines may be fruitful for locating records of pay and subsidized accommodation for miners.

Another method of locating records held in local archives for specific collieries is to consult the Access to Archives database at www.a2a.org.uk. Simply enter the name of the colliery where your ancestor worked and descriptions of the documents containing those words will be found. The document descriptions tell you the date range they cover, where they are held and the document references. There are many documents relating to collieries that have been catalogued using the Access to Archives database, but which may not be found using the National Register of Archives, and vice versa, so it is important to consult both.

Not all records deposited in local archives will be found using either the NRA or A2A databases, but some local record offices and archives have catalogued their collections on their own website, so always check the website of the county record office covering the area where your ancestors mined. Cornwall Record Office has a catalogue that can be searched online and where descriptions of the records of Dolcoath tin and copper mine, affectionately known as ‘The Queen of Cornish Mines', can be found dating back to 1588.

Local institutions have also made attempts to preserve the history of the local industry in some areas, such as the University of Wales, Swansea Archives, Library and Information Services, which holds the South Wales Coalfield Collection (SWCC), established in 1969 in an attempt to collect and preserve documentation about the history of the South Wales mining community. The South Wales coalfield covered parts of Carmarthenshire, Swansea, North Port Talbot, Bridgend,
Rhonnda Cynon Taff, Vale of Glamorgan, Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Powys. The archive is open to all researchers and there is an online catalogue to the SWCC records available from www.swan.ac.uk/swcc.

Descriptions on the SWCC catalogue include documents relating to the South Wales Miners' Federation, which became the National Union of Miners (South Wales Area), records from miners' institutes, co-operative societies and documents concerning prominent individuals within the mining community, as well as some colliery records. The SWCC catalogue also contains descriptions of audiotapes, videotapes, photographs, banners and manuscripts deposited between 1983 and 1993. Material deposited before 1983 is catalogued in two paper guides available from the Library & Information Centre. Audiotapes, videotapes and banners are held at the South Wales Miners' Library, also in Swansea. Coalfield Web Materials, a website based on the SWCC, is a fantastic resource that has started to provide digital images of photos and online audio recordings from the collection as well as giving a background history to the South Wales coalfield. The website can be found at www.agor.org.uk/cwm where there is a search engine to find specific items within the collection.

In addition to the South Wales Coalfield Collection, the University of Wales archive also holds documents among its Local Collections relating
to other metallurgical industries in the region, including the Whiterock Copper Works, the Morfa Tinplate Co. and John Player & Sons of Clydach Tinplate Works. To locate records of other mines in Wales, including those that mined the North Wales coalfield, try the Archives Network Wales database run by the Archives and Records Council Wales at www.archivesnetworkwales.info.

The National Archives in Kew is where the majority of paperwork concerning the administration and government involvement in the mining and quarrying industries is deposited. It does not, however, hold mining personnel records, but some of its records may be helpful if you would like to research the history of a particular mine where your ancestor worked.

•  Records of the Home Office contain some papers relating to individual mines and quarries, occasionally found among correspondence in HO 42 between 1782 and 1820, in HO 44 for records dated 1820 to 1861, and in HO 45 for those from 1841 onwards. There is a register in HO 46 for records kept in HO 44 and HO 45.

•  Home Office Registered Files for Mines and Quarries between 1887 and 1920 are kept in POWE 6.

•  The reports generated by the Mines Inspectorate are held in series HO 87/53 for the years 1851 and 1852 and in POWE 7 for 1850 to 1968.

•  Some mining records were formerly deposited in the Land Revenue Record Office, and these can be found in series LRRO. For example a set of accounts for Yorkshire lead mines dating from 1697 to 1831 were deposited in LRRO 3/84, and LRRO 1 contains some maps and plans.

•  The Coal Mines Inspection Act of 1850 required colliery owners to make plans of their coal mines and some colliery plans are held in COAL 38.

By the end of the nineteenth century the Board of Trade had become concerned with the industrial and economic characteristics of mining and quarrying. In 1920 the Board of Trade set up the Mines Department to replace the Mines Inspectorate, whose responsibilities were in turn taken over by a succession of government ministries and departments between 1942 and 1992, including the Ministry of Fuel and Power, the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Technology, the Department of Energy, and the present Department of Trade and Industry. The Ministry of National Insurance was also responsible for assessing and granting compensation for industrial diseases, while the Ministry of Labour handled issues concerning industrial relations, health, safety and welfare. The records of all of these government departments are held at The National Archives.

In addition to documents found among the records of those departments that worked in conjunction with the mining industry are also some stray records relating to privately owned mines that have been deposited at The National Archives in the form of estate papers, such as those of Lord Derwentwater's forfeited Northern Estate covering Cumberland, Northumberland and County Durham, whose assets went to Greenwich Hospital after he took part in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. Along with other Greenwich Hospital papers, the records of this estate are kept with Admiralty records in series ADM 75, ADM 79 and ADM 169, and include deeds, plans, reports, rent rolls and other estate records. These types of records may be found by a keyword search using the online catalogue.

Occasionally there are references to particular mines among papers deposited at major archives, though these are less likely to be rich in information about individual workers, and if they are you may struggle locating a mention of your own ancestor as the papers are unlikely to be thoroughly indexed. However, if you would like to research the wider history of the mine where your ancestor worked and the general history of the industry, then it is worth visiting some of the following archives.

Some records of post-nationalization coal mines under the control of the National Coal Board, British Coal and the Coal Authority are held by the Coal Authority at the Mining Records Office in Mansfield. The
public records kept at the Mining Records Office are unlikely to be of much use to family historians, but if you are interested in researching the history of the colliery where your ancestor worked it may be worth a visit. Their collections are principally made up of Coal Abandonment Plans dating back to 1872 depicting areas of coal extraction, the locations of mine entrances and the extent of coaling operations; the Coal Holdings Register, which dealt with the transfer of coal ownership prior to nationalization and contains associated records such as former Coal Commission claim files with plans and mining leases; and a Licence Register with information about licence applications and granted licences with plans showing the area to be mined.

The Mining Records Office is open daily between Monday and Friday. There is a charge of £50 plus VAT to view the Coal Holdings Register and the Licence Register. To make an appointment at the records office contact them on 01623 637233 or write to them at

The Mining Records Office

200 Lichfield Lane

Berry Hill

Mansfield

Nottinghamshire NG18 4RG

National Library of Scotland

The National Library of Scotland is home to some Scottish coal-mining records, including papers relating to Scottish mine-owning families. There are documents and books about the history of mining in Scotland, such as an original draft of R. Page Arnot's book
The History of Scottish Miners
written in 1955. To locate documents for specific mines in Scotland and descriptions of papers held in the Library, the National Archives of Scotland and regional Scottish record offices, visit the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) at www.scan.org.uk and try their online catalogue.

Specialist mining museums are the best places to go to find out more about the colliery your ancestor worked at, what conditions would have been like for them there, and to locate photographic and additional archive material. If you are very lucky the pit your ancestor worked at may have been turned into a museum. Greevor tin mine in the west of Cornwall is the largest preserved tin-mining site in Europe, turned into a museum in 1993 after its closure following 300 years of industry. The mine has a website at www.greevor.com where there is a timeline following the history of tin mining, but as with all of the museums mentioned here, the best way to get a taste of what life would have been like for your ancestor working as a miner is to visit the museum and see their working environment with your own eyes.

Lesley Garrett was born in Thorne, near Doncaster, in the traditional heart of Yorkshire's mining belt. Her love of music came from growing up in a musical family and in a community where music went hand in hand with the industry of the area. Lesley knew that some branches of her family had worked in the mining industry. Yet when she dug deeper, she discovered that a talent for music appears to have run in her family for several generations.

Lesley was intrigued by her maternal great-grandfather, William Wall. Born in 1874, he had worked down the pit most of his life, as had his father before him. However, his son Colin – Lesley's grandfather – was born with a weak chest. Realizing that Colin could never work in a mine, William took the radical step of introducing him to music in the hope he would find alternative employment. William borrowed a book from the library and taught himself to play the piano. By keeping a few lessons ahead of Colin, he was able to teach his son to play. Colin would become a fine classical pianist and father and son even composed their own music.

Colin won a silver medal in the London School of Music exams in December 1915. He went on to make a good living playing the piano with a small orchestra that gave concerts for the miners and accompanied silent movies. Later, during and after the depression, he played at the White Hart Hotel in Thorne. Though this was a marked change, Colin insisted on playing an hour of classical music before agreeing to accompany the popular performers of the day (the ‘turns'). Soon classical music lovers from across the area came to hear this talented musician play.

Although employment records no longer survived for mining members of her family such as great-grandfather Frank Appleton of Beeston, Nottinghamshire, Lesley was able to gain a greater understanding of their lives, and the daily conditions they faced, by visiting the National Coalmining Museum in Wakefield, Yorkshire, and travelling 450 feet underground to the coalface. By seeing first hand the cramped conditions, the equipment they used, the dust and danger they faced, she finally began to understand quite why they made the most of their time above ground – and used music to celebrate their close community spirit.

Tower Colliery in the South Wales Valley was one of the world's oldest continuously worked mines. Opened in 1805, it finally closed in 2008. The colliery has a website at www.towercolliery.co.uk where there are pages on its history and a photo gallery as well as information about what it is like mining the colliery in the twenty-first century.