Mining Women
Hey, lovely human 👋
If I asked you to think about the kinds of jobs that British women during industrialisation, how would you answer?
Textile factories?
Pottery production, maybe?
Or agriculture?
How about dressmaking?
If you’ve followed this newsletter long enough, you’d probably say domestic service, too.
But today I want to talk to you about one occupation that often gets forgotten. In fact, this one is particularly interesting because it was also the first occupation that British women were barred from.
I’m talking about coal mining.
With that in mind, let’s meet Patience Kershaw.
Before we get into it, you might have heard her name before. Several bands, including this one, have written songs about Patience. The reason she’s so (relatively) well-known is because she gave evidence to the royal commission that preceded the passing of the Mines Act.
Hurrying Women
Patience was 17 years old when she gave evidence to the commission. She was employed as a “hurrier” at a coal mine near Halifax in Yorkshire. Hurrying was a female-dominated job in coal mining, and it was brutal. Check out this illustration:
Let’s start in the middle. The wagon that you can see in this illustration is called a corf. The corf carried coal that had been mined at the coal face up to the surface. The two children you can see on the left are “trappers.” It’s their job to push the corf while the girl on the right is “hurrying” (or pulling) it. If you look closely, you can see that the hurrier is attached to the corf via a chain and belt.
This was Patience’s job in the mine. Rather than describe the conditions that she – and so many other women and girls – endured in the mines, I’ll just pass the mic to her:
“My father has been dead about a year; my mother is living and has ten children, five lads and five lasses; the oldest is about thirty, the youngest is four; three lasses go to mill; all the lads are colliers … one lives at home and does nothing; mother does nought but look after home.
All my sisters have been hurriers, but three went to the mill. Alice went because her legs swelled from hurrying in cold water when she was hot. I never went to day-school; I go to Sunday-school, but I cannot read or write; I go to pit at five o'clock in the morning and come out at five in the evening; I get my breakfast of porridge and milk first; I take my dinner with me, a cake, and eat it as I go; I do not stop or rest any time for the purpose; I get nothing else until I get home, and then have potatoes and meat, not every day meat. I hurry in the clothes I have now got on, trousers and ragged jacket; the bald place upon my head is made by thrusting the corves; my legs have never swelled, but sisters' did when they went to mill; I hurry the corves a mile and more under ground and back; they weigh 300 cwt.; I hurry 11 a-day; I wear a belt and chain at the workings, to get the corves out; the getters that I work for are naked except their caps; they pull off all their clothes; I see them at work when I go up; sometimes they beat me, if I am not quick enough, with their hands; they strike me upon my back; the boys take liberties with me sometimes they pull me about; I am the only girl in the pit; there are about 20 boys and 15 men; all the men are naked; I would rather work in mill than in coal-pit.”
The official response to Patience’s testimony will probably shock you:
“This girl is an ignorant, filthy, ragged and deplorable-looking object, and such a one as the uncivilised natives of the prairies would be shocked to look upon.”
(As an aside, let me draw your attention to two interesting things in this comment. The first is that Patience is physically judged. Even though she’s giving evidence about her work, her physical appearance still matters. (Some things never change, right?!) Secondly, note the racialised judgement in this comment. The commissioners would expect a Black or Brown woman to look this way but not a white woman).
Navigating the Mines Act, 1842
She didn’t know it, but Patience was sitting on the precipice of a huge change. When the government passed the Mines Act, women and girls could no longer work as hurriers or trappers, so what happened next?
Well, thanks to the census, we can find plot out the rest of Patience’s life.
By 1851, she’s moved to the town of Ovenden and is living with a man called William Horsfall. Both of them are working in the wool industry as wool combers. Combers were employed to disentangle woollen fibers before they were spun. From what I can tell, most combing work took place at home. I can’t help but wonder about the nature of Patience and William’s relationship - were they friends or maybe lovers?
Well, if we skip forward to 1861, Patience has moved on, from both William and wool combing. She’s now 37 years old and still living in Ovenden but working as a domestic servant for the Shaw family. The head of the family is Henry, a saddle cover weaver, and he has three kids. There is no mention of another woman in the house, so it’s possible that Henry was a widower.
This is the last time that Patience appears in a census return. In 1867, she’s admitted to the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum (AKA, the Wakefield Asylum) where she died two years later, in 1869.
I did a bit of digging to find out what happened to Patience. I found a reference to her in a book from 1868, the Transactions of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. She was examined by a Mr T. Clifford Allbutt who was researching the state of the optic nerves and retinae in cases of people with ‘general paralysis of the insane.’ In other words, Patience had syphilis. According to Allbutt, she was in the “third stage” of the disease, which is typically characterised by language problems, mood and personality changes, hallucinations and seizures. (The full range of GPI symptoms is wild, which explains why people were cared for in asylums). Remember that in the 19th century, no effective treatment for syphilis existed.
We only get a few glimpses of Patience’s life from the records, often leaving us with more questions than answers. But I’m glad to have found out what happened to her, as sad as it is.
Until next time,
Kaye x