Colliery Workers/Employees

What employment records do you hold?

None! As stated below what employment records survive have been deposited with the County Record Offices. However, occasionally we do see partial or full lists of workers, these we have transcribed and indexed as follows:—

1766	Bushblades Colliery
	Miners who signed the annual bond at Bushblades Colliery for Mr. George Silvertop
1802	Wylam Moor Colliery
	From "Account of Coal work wrought in the Peggy and Malley Pitt yd Coal seam Wylam Moor Colliery for the use of Mr. Chr. Blackett esquire."
1827	Keelmen
	Keelmen employed by Nathaniel Clayton, Hoastman of Newcastle upon Tyne, to move his coals on the River Tyne.
1842	Children's Employment Commission.
	Hundreds of witnesses in the area were examined for the Commission and the evidence they gave was published in a Parliametary Report. We have indexed the names of those who gave evidence and in the majority of cases we have reproduced the evidence they gave to the Commission. This covers County Durham, Northuberland and Cumberland.
1840's	Miners' Condition Books.
	The condition books provide names of men employed at the Blackett collieries (Northumberland); details of their employment, (hewer, putter or offhandman); a description of the work undertaken; details of earnings and allowances and an indication of whether the employee is a householder. These Condition Books are held by Northumberland Record Office.
1860's	Blackett Collieries Pitmens' Bonds.
	Alphabetical list of names referred to in the Pitmens' Bonds of men employed at the Blackett collieries (Northumberland). These Bonds are held by Northumberland Record Office.
1938	Durham Miners' Association — Seaham Lodge Members.
	Names and roll numbers extracted from the Membership Register for the Seaham Lodge of the Durham Miners' Association for the first half of 1938. Some of the names in the register have been crossed out (reason unknown). The entries in the register were checked and signed as being correct on 19th March 1938 and again on 23rd June 1938 by G. Oxley and A. Vickers. The register was also "Examined at Head Office 25th October 1938 & found satisfactory."
1947	Wingate Grange Colliery.
	These names have been extracted from a hand written ledger listing the employees at Wingate Grange Colliery for the week beginning 4th May 1947. This list shows the men and boys employed a few months after nationalisation along with their occupation and the seam or area within the colliery they were working in at that time.
	19th Trade & Commercial Directories.
	Alphabetical list of names extracted from Published Directories that relate to mining occupations, extracted from the following Directories:
	1822 — Pigot & Co.'s Trade Directory for Northumberland. 1827 — Directory of Durham and Northumberland, Wm. Parson & Wm. White. 1828 — Pigot & Co.'s Commercial Directory for Cumberland, Lancashire, Westmoreland. 1834 — Pigot & Co.'s Commercial Directory of Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire. 1848 — Pigot & Co.'s Commercial Directory of Durham. 1848 — Slater's Trade Directory of Northumberland. 1850 — Ward's Northumberland and Durham Directory. 1858 — Post Office Directory of Northumberland and Durham. 1890 — Kelly's Directory of Durham. 1894 — History, Topography, and Directory of the County Palatine of Durham by Francis Whellan. Second edition.
	Lead Mining Bargain Books.
	The extracts from these bargain books have been transcribed by John Stark as part of his family history reseach. John has very kindly allowed us to reproduce the extracts here. We have also indexed the names mentioned in the bargains. Please note that these are not full transcriptions of the bargain books.
	Bargain Book 133 (1743-1757).
	Bargain Book 134 (1759-1760).
	Bargain Book 148 (1852-1857).
	Bargain Book 152 (1868-1870).
	Bargain Book 171 (1746-1758).

Please note that there is no database of mining employment available! Given the number of people employed in the industry over the centuries this would be a very large database — and the records do not exist. Where records survive they show the list of employees by Colliery, if your relative moved between collieries (quite likely!) then you will have to consult a number of lists and with the lack of records remaining this could well be a fruitless task.

How can I find out where my ancestors worked? There are two parts to this question:—

1 — In which collieries could they have worked?

If you have an address or village name from your research then it is possible to find the local collieries using our web site. For each colliery we show all the other collieries and pits for which we have information within a 5 mile (8 km) radius of each other. If the only information you have is for the latter part of the twentieth century then this information will not be enough as people travelled further to work as the availability of public and private transport increased. For the nineteenth century and before the information we provide will be sufficient as it is likely that your ancestors walked to work each day — from the house provided by the colliery companies as part of the miners pay. Be aware though that when the Miners' Bond was active it was possible for a miner to work in a different mine (locally) each year!

2 — Are there any employment records for colliery X?

What records survive from the colliery companies (including the NCB) will have been deposited with a local archives service. Tyne and Wear Archives have a web page that shows what records they hold for individual collieries. The index of holdings for Durham Record Office can be searched using their web site. Both of these web sites show what documents have been deposited with them — you will have to visit the archives to view the documents themselves.