Durham E-Theses Class, culture and community a study of social change in mining through biography Williamson, W. How to cite: Williamson, W. (1980) Class, culture and community a study of social change in mining through biography, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7650/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk CLASS, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY A Study of Social Change in Mining through Biography by W. Williamson B.Sc. (Soc) London.M.A., Dunelm A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy- University of Durham I98O The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. 0m1 X Abstract W. Williamson. Class, Culture and Community. A Study of Social Change in Mining Through Biography. Ph.D. I98O This is a study of social change in a mining community in the North East of England. It is based on a biographical study of a miner and his family and covers the period from the 1870s to the 1960s, The aim is to show that biography, a literary form, is nonetheless a method of reconciling sociological and historical analysis. The focus on one person through time it is claimed, makes it possible to see how changes in society are experienced in everyday life. The argument develops to show that the routines of everyday life , particularly of work and of the family, together with the taken-for-granted forms of understanding the world in the village, were embedded in the structures of the community itself and these, in their turn, were shaped massively by the changing relationships of class. Class analysis is discussed here as being essentially a tool of historical study. Such relations cannot be understood statically as if they existed outside of time. The mining community is described as a constructed community defined historically by the actions of a paternalistic coal company and by the local actions of the organised labour movement each seeking to achieve their own ends and protect their interests. The outcome was a system of social relationships shaping the constraints which miners and their families faced together with their outlook and opportunities. The changes in British society discussed here and which form the spine of the whole account is the shift from the paternalistic capitalism of the late Victorian period and up to the mid 1930s, to a system of corporate capitalism and the welfare state after the Second World War. The aim of the study is to show how these changes, forced by crisis, changed the mining community and through that, the life of the man who is the subject of this study. The sociological methods used here, particularly those of working closely with respondents to interpret their own past represent one way of carrying out historical ethnography. By the same author The Poverty of Education; A study in the politics of opportunity (with D. S. Byrne and B. G. Fletcher) Martin Robertson 1975 Education, Social Structure and Development Macmillan 1979 "See to your needs first, then your wants." - James Brown of Throckley i PREFACE I have incurred many debts in writing this book and most of them are of the sort that can never be repaid. Many people have given me their time and willingly allowed me to question them closely. I have been given advice and help and above all, support. I have borrowed books, photographs, scrap books and letters. Above all I have borrowed a lot of time and memories; they can not be returned. I only hope that if the people I have spoken to read this book they will feel that for all its faults it conveys accurately something of the life of the community in which they spent a good part of their lives. To name but a few of those who helped is invidious. But I must thank Jack Armstrong, Throckley's local historian for guidance and access to his photographs, Mrs Donaldson of Heddon-on-the-Wall for having the fore• sight to keep her father's union records, the Headmistress of Heddon School for allowing me to use the school log books. Hubert Laws of Houghton Farm, Heddon, showed me photographs and documents; but better still, he has allowed me to thoroughly explore the farm my grandfather spent so much of his own youth on. Jack Davison of Pegswood, the man who wrote Northumberland Miners' History 1919-1939 gave me some helpful clues at the outset of my work. The Vicar of Newburn gave me access to old parish magazines. Mr Walton of Newburn Public Library helped with photographs, i i and information about Methodism. Albert Matthewson, Tom Stobbart, Charlton and Jean Thompson, all from Throckley, gave me much of their valuable time. John Stephenson of Wylam, former coal Owner helped a lot with the history of the coal company. Mrs Gibb , of Cambo, Former northern Region organiser of the Labour Party gave me plenty to think about concerning the Labour Party i n Th r o c k 1 e y . The staff of the Northumberland Record Office and of the Tyne-Wear Archive have been incredibly helpful. 1 would like to thank them for the enthusiastic and impressively competent way in which they have dealt with my queries, I should like to thank, too, the staff of the Northumberland Miners at Burt Hall, Newcastle. They gave me access to their records and made me feel very welcome every time 1 went to use them. Bill Dowding of the Durham Miner's at Kedhills, Durham helped, too, with information and support. The photographic archive at Beamish Museum, County Durham, is a fantastic resource for researchers. I would like to thank the museum staff for the help they gave me in locating some of the underground photographs I have used. My colleagues in the University of Durham, Richard Brown in particular, have steadied my hand throughout persuading me when I doubted it that the enterprise of writing this book was worth its risks. David Chaney and Robin Williams have helped me with many questions of method and of approach in what came to be known as Ill my "grandad project." Martin Daunt on of University College London University and formerly of Durham, helped a lot with questions about, sources and historical methods * The main thanks, however, must go to my own family. My mother, aunt Eva, uncles Dill and Jim and aunt Nelly must be pleased the project is at an end. I have pestered them with visits and telephone calls and they gave me material in abundance. Gloria, aunt Mary, Olive Prancy and Sadie have had their memories dredged, too. The composite picture of my grandparents which has been built up from these discussions is, of course, my own doing. Without them, however, I simply could not have done it. The colleague who told me that a biography of a working man who had not committed his thoughts to paper was impossible gave me a special,if unintended spur. If what I have done encourages just a few ordinary folk to treat their family history seriously then I shall be well pleased; we might then make more sense of history itself. Diane, Johnny and Joanna managed to live with me while 1 was writing. They have checked tables, read proofs and, Diane particularly, searched archives and libraries. They, too, must be relieved that "the grandad project" is finished. Finally, I want to thank iv once again Trudy Harrison. There can't be many mothers- in-law who will turn a tatty typescript into a smart manuscript with such ease and skill and still remain friends with the author. W. Williamson Durham May 1980 V CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION 1 James Brown of Throckley 1 Moments of Social Change 3 Questions of Approach 6 Class and Community 8 The Person and Biography as a Method l8 Problems of Method 23 CHAPTERS 1 HEDDON-ON-THE-WALL AND FRAGMENTS OF A CHILDHOOD 30 His Parents 33 Northumberland: Landownership and Squirerarchy 35 Heddon-on-the-Wall and The Paternalism of Squirerarchy 'iO Home Life for the Browns 60 2 SCHOOL 70 Resources 78 Staff 80 Curriculum 81 Performance 9^ The Brown Family at School 98 3 INTO THE PIT 101 Heddon Pit 117 The Heddon Lodge 122 k IMAGES OF A YOUTH 135 Local Lads IkO Settling Down lk6 vi 5 THROCKLEY 151 The Throckley Coal Company 160 Paternalism in Action: Chapel and School 179 Managing Men 192 Community: Structure and Division 206 Social Conditions 208 Social Differentiation: Perception and Paradox 21k Political Parties 220 The Co-operative Store 226 6 PIT WORK 236 Throckley Pitmen 2k0 Work Underground 2k6 Accidents and Risk 256 Relations Underground 26^1 The Union 277 7 TIME OFF 287 Home , Hearth and Pipe 293 Drinking and the Working Men's Club 296 Gardening 309 Keeping Pigs 312 Leek Growing 315 8 DOMESTIC WORK 322 Housework and Routine 323 A Woman's Place 3^8 9 FAMILY LIFE: THE EARLY YEARS 352 Kinship 36l Parents and Children: "Having Bairns" 36^ Christenings 370 The World of Children 37^ vii Chapel Life and Children 38l Images and Expectations