Coal trimmer:
When coal was dropped from wagons into the hold of a ship it formed a conical heap which would soon block up the hatchway. To prevent this, sheets of iron were laid on the cone as it rose so that the coal slid off in all directions. These were put in position by men called trimmers. They got their name because they trimmed the cargo – with large shovels and rakes they distributed the coal evenly in the hold.

Banksman:
The banksman’s job was a responsible one. His station was by the cage at the pit top, or bank. He pulled out the full tubs of coal from the cage and replaced them with empty ones. The full tubs he dragged to the weighing machine, and then to the screens, where he tipped out the coal so that it could be graded by size and the stones and impurities removed. He had to keep a record of the amount of coal mined each day. He also oversaw the descent and ascent of the workmen to and from the mine in the cage.

Corver:
Corvers made corves, strong willow baskets in which the coal used to be carried from the coal face to the surface before tubs were used.

Hewer:
The hewer was the actual coal-digger. Sometimes the seam might be so thin that he could hardly crawl into it. The hewers worked either the fore-shift or the back-shift. The fore-shift men worked from four in the morning till ten, and the back-shift from ten till four. Each man worked one week in the fore-shift and one week in the back-shift alternately.

A fore-shift man wrote the number 3 on his door as a sign for the ‘caller’ to wake him at 3am. Once woken, he dressed in his pit clothes: a loose jacket, vest, and knee breeches, all made of thick white flannel, and long stockings, strong shoes, and a close-fitting cap of thick leather. His breakfast was a piece of bread, with water or a cup of coffee, but never a full meal. Many preferred to go to work fasting. With a tin bottle full of cold water or tea, a piece of bread (his ‘bait’), his Davy lamp, and his ‘baccy-box’, he hurried off to work. He entered the cage and was lowered to the bottom of the shaft, where he lit his lamp and went to meet the deputy. This official examined each man's lamp, and if it was found to be safe, returned it locked to the owner. Then the hewer would have to walk to the seam he was working, a distance varying from 100 to 600 yards, with the roof of the passage sometimes less than three feet high. To progress in this tiny space he kept his feet wide apart, bent his body at right angles from his hips, and held his head well down, with his face turned forward.

When he arrived at his place he undressed and began by hewing out about fifteen inches of the lower part of the coal, undermining it – this was called kirving. He did the same up the sides – nicking. The coal thus hewn was called small coal. The coal remaining between the kirve and the nicks was known as the jud or top, which was either displaced by driving in wedges, or blasted down with gunpowder. This coal was known as the roundy. The hewer filled his tubs, and continued alternately hewing and filling.

Putter – tram, headsman, foal or half-marrow:
The putters used to be divided into trams, headsmen, foals, and half-marrows. These were all boys or youths. Their job was to push or drag the coal from the face to passages big enough for horses to be used. Formerly the coal was in corves (baskets) or tubs; later small waggons called trams were used. When a boy dragged or put (pushed) a load by himself he also was called a tram. When two boys of unequal age and strength helped each other, the elder was called a headsman and the younger a foal, and the headsman usually received two-thirds of the amount earned jointly by the two. When two boys of about equal age and strength aided each other they were called half-marrows, and their earnings were equally divided (a marrow was a mate or partner).

When metal plates were installed on the floor of the mine’s passages, and waggons were used instead of corves, the work became a little easier, and joint labour was rarely seen. But the putter’s work used to be incredibly hard and distressing. A contemporary commentator described it thus: ‘It was generally performed by boys, in nine cases out of ten too weak for the purpose, if even the materials had been better than they were over which the trams then passed. What must it have been when a beech-board was a godsend? And, more frequently, they had to drag their load over a fir-deal or the bare thill [the natural floor of the mine], the former too often split from constant wear, and the latter too soft to bear the load passing over it. Now the whole way is laid with metal plates, even up to the face of the workings, so that a man or lad may run the tram before him both out and in, the plates being so formed as to keep the tram in a right direction.’ It was customary at one time to employ girls and young women as putters. This disgraceful practice was prohibited by law in 1843.

Trapper:
Trappers were the youngest boys employed in the mine. They were stationed at traps, or doors, in various parts of the pit. They had to open the traps to let a tram (a small waggon, pushed by a boy) pass through, and then immediately close them again, so that the current of air for ventilation followed the right channels. In the early days of the industry it was the practice to send boys less than six years old to work in the mine as trappers. They remained in the pit for eighteen hours every day, and received fivepence a day each as wages. These little boys were alone and in total darkness the whole time they were in the mine, except when a tram was passing. Their work began at two o'clock in the morning, so that during most of the year it was literally true that they did not see daylight from one Sunday till the Saturday following.


(With acknowledgements to Durham Mining Museum)

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