Black Vein Pit – 1842 Royal Commission

In 1836 John Russell purchased the Waunfawr workings for £50,000 and opened the Black Vein Colliery (ST 2133 9461) on the site in 1841.  In 1842 his workforce he employed 15 boys under the age of thirteen years.  One of them was Moses Moon aged eleven years; he was described as a carter and had been working twelve-hour shifts underground for the past two years.  A girdle was passed around his body with a chain going between his legs and attached to the cart; he would then drag the cart along on all fours like an animal.    The following is an extract from the 1842 Royal Commission into Women and Children Working Underground and covers the Black Vein Pit.  It gives a fascinating glimpse into the conditions and morality of the times. 

RISCA COLLIERY – BLACK VEIN PIT, parish of Machin, county of Monmouth.

Messrs. John Russell and Company, proprietors.

Number of males employed:

• Adults: 250
• Under 18 years of age: 50
• Under 13 years of age: 15

Steam power, four engines, two 40 horse and one 20 and one 16. Winding engines to pits, which vary from 30 to 65 fathoms in depth.

George Randall Hookey, Esq., part proprietor.

Our mines are well ventilated by airways and air doors and an engineer is kept in the works to superintend the chain and other gear used in the machinery. We have no noxious gases in our workings nor have any been complained of. The thickness of the seam varies from 30 inches to 10 feet. In working the narrow seams we are compelled to use the labour of children as men are too large for the work and from the necessity of the cases, lads from 11 to 15 years of age are employed to draw with the girdle and chain for distances not exceeding 300 yards, the weight drawn from 50 to 1 cwt. Very young children are of no service to us as their strength is insufficient. They rarely commence until 10 years of age. There is a sick fund for all the workmen.

Mr. Samuel Hill, agent.

We have had no fatal accidents since I superintended the Risca Colliery. Many have got hurt and one has had his leg amputated from an injury received in sinking a new pit. There is one society called the Work Club to which the men subscribe small sums and the men when off, receive from it 4s. a week but so many are receiving relief from the club that they are in debt, I believe, as much as £10. The larger proportion of our colliers are Kingswood men and are in the lowest depth of ignorance and from my experience and observation I consider the rising worse than the present generation.

The men marry very early and their state of health is good as they are tolerably clean in their habits. The average rate of weekly wages is about 20s. and we have but few stoppages. Welsh colliers will not be drawn with the girdle and chain. We have no firedamp in our workings but we are sinking a new pit where we expect to meet with a good deal from the nature of the coal.

Dragger Boy

I have been down six years. My employment is to cart the coal and draw with the girdle and chain. (In this mode of labour the chain passes around the body and the chain is between the legs attached to the cart and the lad drags on all fours.) The width of the vein I work varies from 20 inches to 3 feet and the distance I cart is about 60 yards. It is very hard work; indeed, it is too hard for such lads as we for we work like little horses. I cart for two colliers and I load five drams, each weighing 18 cwt. I earn about 9s. a week, about half what a man earns and I work 12 hours a day. My father is the shoemaker and I was at shoemaking before I was taken to work in the pit. I got to the Wesleyan Sunday School and I can read pretty well. I could write but have forgotten it now. I do not smoke a pipe but most of the lads do. I was taught to read by my mother and I do a little now and then at shoemaking.

[Reads very well and is a very nice, intelligent lad. The boys here had a more sickly appearance than usual in the Welsh collieries.]

Henry Beecham. aged 16, carter.

I have been below six years and I cart for two men. The work is very hard and I work for 10 and 12 hours. I was off work till last week with a bad foot injured by a fall of coal in the pit. I do about as much work as Elias Jones and earn about the same money. I work for my father who is a collier. I have two brothers older than myself. Nine of us read.

Moses Moon, aged 11, carter.

I have been two years below and worked 12 years daily. He draws with the girdle and chain. It is sad, sloppy, and hard work. I have never met with an accident. I learned to read the Testament at Sunday School. He knows that Matthew, Mark and Luke are the names of the books of the Testament but can’t say he has ever heard of Jesus Christ nor any of the Commandments.

[John Moon, the father of the boy had lately met with an accident and was off for five months with a broken leg. He receives 4s. a week from the club. He stated that he used to suffer much from the sulphur in the mine.]

William Bentley, aged 13, carter.

He has been four years below and works as the other boys. He was off work for several months from a crushed foot, caught in a dram. He knows his letters but cannot read them.

[The father of this lad, James Bentley stated that the boy’s work in this colliery was extremely hard and very exhausting and that they worked the same number of hours as the men. That he himself had met with an accident some time ago and lost an eye while blasting coal. That they had a work club and a sick fund amongst the men but men were so often on the books that the club was always in debt to the master.]

Thomas Dark, aged 8, air door boy.

I have been below 12 months. I attend Sunday School and am learning the letters.                                                                                                

Thomas Jones, aged 7, air door boy.

I have been below six months. I learned to read a little in the Testament before going down. He now goes to Sunday School.

George Johnson, aged 15, carter.

I have been down about six years and I drawn with the girdle and chain. He has lately been off work above ground in the engine room As he can do only light work, having broken his leg some time since and was off work six weeks. His father was a collier but he now works at the brick house and has very bad breath. He earns 9s. 6d. a week.

[Reads very well and can write a little. He is a very intelligent lad.]

[NOTE. – I found a number of boys, probably 30 to 40 at the brickworks, employed in bearing-off and plate-carrying. Many were very young, not more than six or seven years of age. The work did not appear unwholesome but the overseer stated that the labour was exceedingly hard and that each of the little fellows would frequently bear off 1500 bricks and place them on the stove floor in the course of a day and he considered their work harder than the work of the younger persons underground. Their wages were from 3s. to 4s. a week.]

Edward Robatham, Esq., surgeon, Risca.

In giving you every information in my power. I am sorry I cannot go further back than twelve months and as I have no data to guide me, you will perhaps be pleased with a general answer dictated from memory. As a body, the colliers in this neighbourhood are generally healthy and do not suffer from any particular disease. I have noticed, when they are indisposed, it appears to proceed from, the common cold which affects them as they are predisposed to rheumatism, and inflammation of the lungs and bowels, neither of which can be said to depend n their employment. Indeed, as a class, they are less subject to bodily ailments than those who are daily occupied on the surface. My observations are particularly applicable to the colliers of Mr. Russell’s employ in Risca. Both master and agents are very careful that the works be well ventilated and that their stalls be kept dry which must be a source of health.

As they have a doctor to apply to in every instance of necessity, they are also in the constant habit of taking apperient medicines, whether they require it or not, imagining that they must have something for the money the monthly pay to the doctor. I am in the habit of supplying them freely, feeling assured it has a tendency to ward off disease. Accidents are very rare and when they do occur I am enabled to trace them to the neglect of the sufferer. The services of the coroner have not been required in Risca for some years. His services are more often required by the number of fatal accidents produced by the locomotive engines between the Hill and Newport. These accidents have frequently occurred in Risca and the neighbourhood so that they cannot be said to belong to the Risca Works. There are great may colliers daily occupied in these works between 50 and 70 years of age. Great care had been taken by the former and the present proprietors of these works to attend to the moral and intellectual training of the workmen and families so that the majority of them are more comfortable than they are to be met with in other works. The beneficial effect was very apparent during the Chartist disturbances. Not one of the colliers joined in that unfortunate affair.