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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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THELEAD MININGREGION OF THE NORTHERN PENNINES
SCALE
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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