Disability in Industrial Britain
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Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access DISABILITY IN INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access DISABILITY IN INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN A CULTURAL AND LITERARY HISTORY OF IMPAIRMENT IN THE COAL INDUSTRY, 1880–1948 Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin and Steven Thompson Manchester University Press Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Copyright © Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin and Steven Thompson 2020 The rights of Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin and Steven Thompson to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of the Wellcome Trust, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the authors and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5261 2431 9 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 2432 6 open access First published 2020 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Cover image: Patients at Porthcawl Rest home. Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University Typeset by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Contents List of figures page vi Series editors’ foreword vii Acknowledgements viii List of abbreviations ix Introduction 1 1 Work, economy and disability in the British coalfields 18 2 Medicalising miners? Medicine, care and rehabilitation 64 3 Systems of financial support for impaired miners and their families 105 4 The social relations of disability 140 5 The politics and politicisation of disability 178 6 Sites of struggle: disability in working-class coalfields literature 211 Conclusion 249 Select bibliography 256 Index 269 Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Figures 1 A miner is tested for nystagmus using ‘the head test’. From the First Report of the Miners’ Nystagmus Committee, 1922. National Archives. page 84 2 Miners partaking in exercises and handicraft at a rehabilitation centre, 1940s. National Archives. 91 3 Miners practise archery at Uddingston Rehabilitation Centre, near Glasgow. Courtesy of the National Mining Museum Scotland Trust. 92 4 Disabled miner George Preece, c.1909. National Museum of Wales. 151 5 Crochet panel depicting a naval gunship made by George Preece during his re-habilitation after a mining accident at Abercynon Colliery in 1909. National Museum of Wales. 152 6 Pneumoconiosis banner in NUM march, 1952. 230 7 ‘The Toll of Industry’: a plate fromThe Labour Leader, 1911. British Library. 231 Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Series editors’ foreword You know a subject has achieved maturity when a book series is dedicated to it. In the case of disability, while it has co-existed with human beings for centuries the study of disability’s history is still quite young. In setting up this series, we chose to encourage multi-methodologic history rather than a purely traditional historical approach, as researchers in disability history come from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Equally ‘disability’ history is a diverse topic which benefits from a variety of approaches in order to appreciate its multi-dimensional characteristics. A test for the team of authors and editors who bring you this series is typical of most series, but disability also brings other consequential challenges. At this time disability is highly contested as a social category in both developing and developed contexts. Inclusion, philosophy, money, education, visibility, sexuality, identity and exclusion are but a handful of the social categories in play. With this degree of politicisation, language is necessarily a cardinal focus. In an effort to support the plurality of historical voices, the editors have elected to give fair rein to language. Language is historically contingent, and can appear offensive to our contemporary sensitivities. The authors and editors believe that the use of terminology that accurately reflects the historical period of any book in the series will assist readers in their understanding of the history of disability in time and place. Finally, disability offers the cultural, social and intellectual historian a new ‘take’ on the world we know. We see disability history as one of a few nascent fields with the potential to reposition our understanding of the flow of cultures, society, institutions, ideas and lived experience. Conceptualisations of ‘society’ since the early modern period have heavily stressed principles of autonomy, rationality and the subjectivity of the individual agent. Consequently we are frequently oblivious to the historical contingency of the present with respect to those elements. Disability disturbs those foundational features of ‘the modern.’ Studying disability history helps us resituate our policies, our beliefs and our experiences. Julie Anderson Walton O. Schalick, III Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Acknowledgements This book has been written as part of the Wellcome Trust Programme Award in Medical History, ‘Disability and Industrial Society: A Comparative Cultural History of British Coalfields, 1780–1948’ [grant number 095948/Z/11/Z]. It draws on the work of the research team: Professor Anne Borsay, Professor David Turner, Professor Kirsti Bohata, Dr Mike Mantin and Dr Alexandra Jones (Swansea University); Dr Daniel Blackie (University of Oulu); Dr Steven Thompson (Aberystwyth University); Dr Ben Curtis (University of Wolver- hampton); Dr Vicky Long (Newcastle University) and Dr Victoria Brown (Glasgow Caledonian University); and Professor Arthur McIvor and Dr Angela Turner (Strathclyde University). We are grateful to the Wellcome Trust for the generous support that made the research project and this publication possible, and to the various members of the research team and the Advisory Board who helped make involvement in it so enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. We are grateful too to our respective institutions, Swansea and Aberystwyth universities, for the support and assistance that we have received over a number of years. Many archivists and librarians have been so very helpful and knowledgeable when gathering resources for this book and we acknowledge our considerable debt to them. We have also benefited from comments and suggestions of the many scholars who attended the academic papers and public lectures we gave at various workshops and conferences over recent years. Lastly, we have been particularly fortunate to benefit from the comments, suggestions and criticisms of Alun Burge, Hywel Francis, Angela V. John, Huw Walters and Daniel G. Williams. We are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce images: Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University (cover image), the National Archives (figures 1 & 2), National Museum of Wales (figures 3 & 4), British Library (figure 7). Figure 3 is reproduced courtesy of the National Mining Museum Scotland. We have been unsuccessful in identifying the copyright holder of figure 6; the image is held by National Museum of Wales. The research project from which this book derives was planned and initially led by Professor Anne Borsay. Our debts to Anne, both intellectual and personal, are incalculable and it is difficult to conceive of this project having been started without her wisdom, guidance and expertise. Anne was intended as the lead author for this volume but, tragically, passed away before work could be started. We dedicate this book to Anne’s memory and hope that she would be pleased with the way in which we have attempted to realise her ambitions for the project. Kirsti Bohata, Alexandra Jones, Mike Mantin, and Steven Thompson - 9781526124326 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/05/2021 08:43:48AM via free access Abbreviations DCRO Durham County Record Office GA Glamorgan Archives ILP International Labour Party MFGB Miners’ Federation of Great Britain ML Mitchell Library, Glasgow City Archives MP Member of Parliament NA Northumberland Archives