Karianne Robinson, Lancaster University

4^th October 2021

Mines and men’s bodies: the intergenerational formation of British coal miners’ masculinity in the 20^th century

On Monday 4^th October Karianne Robinson, a PhD student from Lancaster University, delivered an excellent talk about the coal industry and the development of masculinity in the early 20^th century.

She began the talk by introducing herself as being from a family that had been involved in coal mining and therefore had a keen interest in the subject. Despite the frustrations associated with accessing the archives over the last two years due to the pandemic (it was discussed how folk songs, for example, could enhance this research), the talk was based upon 55 published autobiographies of miners, which gave an insight into the subject.

Since 1842 women had been banned from working underground in the mines, which meant that coalmining, with the exception of the ‘pit brow lasses’ in Wigan, became predominately about men. This had an impact upon the perception of miner’s sexuality.

Robinson explained that Ronnie Johnston and Arthur McIvor have conducted work on the impact of heavy labour on men’s bodies as well as dust and disease. A further example was Stephanie Wards’ work on miners’ bodies. This work highlighted the hereditary nature of the work whereby fathers would be followed by sons. Furthermore, the autobiographies also make it clear the impact it had on the childhood perception of working life.   

The authors of these autobiographies were born in a period of change in education (1880-1930). By1880 everyone was entitled to an elementary education and by 1921 the school leaving age was 14, with exceptions to this rule stopped. Consequently, literacy rates increased and this has led to an increase in autobiographies.

Nevertheless, Robinson made it clear that when analysing these autobiographies, caution is needed. There is an overrepresentation of trade union leaders, politicians, which therefore skews the sample when trying to assess the normalities of the ordinary miners’ experience. It has also been claimed by Vincent that these autobiographies should be seem more as pieces of literature and not analysis. However, Robinson emphasised that her research was not really looking at the ‘truth’ but the author’s perception of life at this time.

So, what did boys know about work before they ventured to follow their fathers into the pit? The miner’s perception of the home was nostalgic, furnished with familiar objects which was rather comforting. Their father was strongly associated with labour and the children would see that the work was dirty and physically demanding. GAW Tomlinson, a coal miner, recollects the association of strength and fatigue.

Jack Lawson in ‘A men’s life’ also emphasises the dangers of the pit and the role of his mother in the family working ritual. He states that his mother felt the need to get up “for it might be the last she would see of us”. This emphasises the fears of the dangers that the miners faced when they went to work.

The risks that the miners faced were uppermost in children’s minds before they entered the pit themselves. Deaths rarely fell below 1000 per year and personal tragedy gave the mining families a distinctive awareness of danger.

Robinson’s concluding remarks outlined how this reinforced the notion of popular masculinity and young boys began to construct this version of masculinity and would take this with them when they entered the pit themselves. Working in the pit therefore marked the transition between boyhood and manhood.