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The economic and social conditions of lead miners in the Northern Pennines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Hunt, Christopher John

How to cite: Hunt, Christopher John (1968) The economic and social conditions of lead miners in the Northern Pennines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9958/

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2 The ^ponomic and ^nn^.^ nonditlons of lead miners in the,

Northe nine Hunt uinma submitted M. Litt. of the Univf^rsitv of Durham. 1968.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the lead

mining industry of the IJorthern Pennines passed through a

managerial and industrial revolution. Superficially, life

, in the lead mining dales changed less between 1750 and I85O

than in the neighbouring coal fields and-shipyards. The wild

and romantic Pennine scenery remained little corrupted by

industrialisation. Mining continued ;to be governed by an

apparently unchanged' elaborate system of sub contract. But

population increased by a factor of three or four, and below

the surface ( metaphorically speaking ) social institutions

changed fundamentally. Technological advances in underground haulage and in

ore dressing at the beginning of the nineteenth century forced

organisational changes on the mine owners. In these fields sub -

contracting was either abolished, or regulated so closely that

the sub-contractors were direct employees in all but name. The

contracts governing actual ore getting became tighter, reducing

the practical status of the theoretically independent miner to

that of an employee. The proportion of agents to workmen

increased, allowing greater supervision. The miners were .paid more regularly - and were:expected to work more regularly. 2.

Outside working hours there was little of their social life not influenced by the mine owners by I85O. Education, churches and chapels, benefit societies, even organised amusements were provided or subsidized lay the mining companies. But, misdemeanours in private life - drunkenness, fathering a bastard child, etc. - were as much the province of managerial discipline as any offence during working hours. By I85O, at work and outside, the lead miner was dominated by his employer, QLANGLEY MILL

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J MILES. The Economic and Social Conditions of Lead Miners in the

Northern Penn°ines in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

By Christopher John Hunt

A thesis presented for the Degree of Master of Letters

of the University of Durham,

1968

The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior wrinen consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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