An extract of a transcription by Peter Livsey

An extract of a transcription by Peter Livsey

Collections forming a General History of Coal, Collieries, Colliery-Engineering and Mining, Together with the Local History of the Collieries and Coal Trade of the North of England: Printed by John Gray Bell, 17. Bedford St., Covent Garden. Volume 9.

NRO 3410/ Bell 9/71-72:

Newcastle Journal, Saturday June 11th, 1842:

“The details furnished by the Commission of Inquiry are certainly revolting in the highest degree, but it is satisfactory to know that the employment of females and the binding of pauper apprentices are unknown in the colliery districts of Northumberland and Durham.”

“Lord Ashley’s Bill, if carried as originally proposed, will affect the employment of children in the coal mines of this district, for he proposes to limit the age of employment to thirteen years, and it is well known that many go to work long before that period. Their work, however, is not laborious, and the mines are in general well ventilated. The average period at which boys are used to work in the mines of Northumberland and Durham is between nine and ten years; occasionally some are sent as early as six or seven, but when that is the case it generally happens through the cupidity of the parents, who are alone to blame.”

Extracts from House of Commons Debate:

Lord Ashley: “Fourthly he would abolish the present system of apprenticing the boys [workhouse orphans] who were kept until 21 in a state of slavery exceeding the hardship of anything ever known in the West Indies, while their masters lived in utter idleness on their labour. There was no pretence for any binding; for the business had nothing in it that could not be learned in ten or twelve days. He instanced some cases of cruelty scarcely equalled in the records of African slavery; and attended with this aggravation, that the young sufferers in the mine had none to whose sympathies they could appeal.”

A Dying Breed

The Grainger Women Writers will be launching their anthology, created during a series of workshops with myself, at the Lit and Phil on Thursday 11 December, from 7pm.

Here's the title poem to get you to come along:

A Dying Breed


Dark cold mornings,
a steady hum of industry all around.
Everything is grey or black.
No colour. No comfort.
The horn of the ship saluting the day.
The whirr of machinery in the workshops.
Ever increasing traffic bringing the town to life.
Serious, no nonsense, hard work,
until the weekend. Paydays. Playdays.
A dying breed and a dying art.
Redundant silence.


Sue Murray

It's the final count down ...

My month of being away from the Mining Institute and working on the exhibition is nearing an end. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm any further forward with the exhibition. I'm more certain about what I don't want rather than what I do want. But I suppose that's something,
Hopefully, my time in Barcelona visiting all those art galleries will inspire.

Granddad Tommy

An ocean in your lungs,
as a smoker of Woodbines,
you sat, coughed and demanded.
You were a submerged memory
who wasn't man enough to fill
my father's shoes.

But now, my heart chooses
to honour you with a lone
whisper in the dark, hushed,
torch-beam tight as you must
have breathed, in
the buried river of coal.

The seam of something precious
gone, I think of you,
trying to scavenge a little warmth
by touching you. But I know
you're not what
I presumed you to be.

The subtle ripple of time passing
makes strange the familiar.
Reducing you to an object
you were no use to me.
Once again underground,
your tangibility is mined.

Exhibtion - The Big Meeting

I'm working from home for the next couple of weeks. I;m trying to get my head around how to use the Mining Institute and the Lit and Phil for The Big Meeting, the Face of Coal Showcase running for the month of January 2009.
I must say that see the recent play We've Got Mittens Too taking place at the Lit and Phil has inspired me in how to use the building. But as always time and money are the issues.

Pitmatic - A series of haikus

the pay packet given
from her soft hand –
an end of shift pleasure

***

nimble fingered
screen lasses sort
the beans from the rondees

***

pulled up from the shore
a canny-jagga-coal-
clean, bright and ready

***

the mothergate -the main
road into the pit,
nurses the men back, to life

Coloured Headgear