Jarratts Buildings - The Community

Most working men in Worsborough Dale were employed in some aspect of coal mining, and most families owed their income to it. Many men who are recorded on the census with specialised occupations, were using their skills in the industry. Carpenters, for example, were needed to craft and install the wooden props that supported the roof of an underground tunnel.

Boys (initially as young as ten, though later the age was raised) began their working life as pit lads, assisiting with a variety of tasks, such as cleaning lamps or walking pit ponies. The stronger ones became trammers, helping to fill and move coal trucks underground. The strongest and most skilled men became hewers, who cut the coal. The men who did not make the grade as trammers often found unskilled work above ground, though at a lower rate of pay. Skilled men who became too ill to work underground might also step back into an unskilled labourer role.

A few workers, who probably had technical skills, authority and initiative rose to be foremen, who were variously known as banksmen or pit deputies. They were responsible for ensuring that the mine was worked in an orderly manner, and allowed to use explosives to blast coal loose. The coal industry could provide skilled working men and their families with a good living, but it was also prone to periods of reduced demand, when wages, and therefore living standards fell.

The industry was a dangerous one. What are now seen as avoidable accidents, were, in the nineteenth century, regarded as part of the job. The section about coal mining cover some of the major accidents and incidents affecting the Jarratts community and an ever-growing roll of honour to remember any Jarratts resident who lost his life in the coal industry, whether or not he was living at Jarratts at that time.

As wives, mothers and daughters looking after a family and a home, perhaps also helping older relatives who lived nearby, women played an important role, and a tiring one. Regrettably, it is difficult to find information about most women as their contribution to the community was rarely recorded, even on censuses.

Some information is available in newspapers, but this is partial and mainly refers to incidents when a woman found herself in court. The roll of dishonour pages include several examples of women who were summonsed for trivial incidents. Many of these reveal the difficult conditions that women had to contend with.

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