Pit Brow Lassies
On the 1861 English census that lists the family of Richard Moore, there is an entry for a Margaret Moore. She was just 17, about the age of an American high school senior. Next to her age is listed her employment. It says that she was a pit brow lab. I am pretty sure that the lab is short for laborer. My great grand aunt was one of the famous Wigan pit brow lassies. (I also heard that my grandmother Phoebe Blinkhorn was also a pit brow lassie. I have never been able to confirm this. It would not surprise me at all if she was.)
After the coal was brought to the surface, some it ended up by the opening of the mine. This coal would soon stack up sometimes growing into a little hill. This was called the pit brow. Women were hired by the miner owners of mine to work the pit brow by collecting coal, sorting it and doing a number of odd jobs on the surface of the mine that often were very dangerous. The women who worked the pit brow were called pit brow women or more commonly pit brow lassies. Margaret Moore, the daughter of Richard and my great, grand aunt was such a pit brow lassie.
The pit brow lassies were generally young, in their teens, and worked the pit brow until their late 20’s or early 30’s. They would quit when they married. However, there were many exceptions to this rule. The oldest lassie I know of was 73 when she retired after working 62 years. She must have started working at mine when she 11 years old. (Davies p. 118).
These women would work in very distinctive outfits. They would wear a shawl over head to protect their hair form all coal dust. They would men’s pants. At first the pants were noticeable. As time passed they started wearing a skirts over the pants to hide them. (I have read that men would come to the pits just to see these women wearing pants. I would guess to a Victorian gentleman watching the lassies wearing pants would be the modern day equivalent of visiting a strip club.) Many of the women would carry a basket with a grid on the bottom which they would use to sort the coal. On their feet they would wear the wooden clogs that were pretty much the same as the men would wear in the mines.
It was dangerous work. In his book, Alan Davies, has four pages of samples of women and children who were injured and or died at the pit brows. This is just a small sample of what he has in his book. I believe his book has just a small sample of the number of women and children injured a killed. (Davies pp 112 – 115)
Priscilla Jones, 4 years old, died by a tub rolling down a dirt heap. Her aunt placed her there.
Margaret Barker, 17, was crushed between coal trucks.
Ellen Taylor, 15, fell into a tub of hot water and scalded to death.
Mary Heyes, 20, crushed to death.
Elizabeth Farrimond, 16, ran over by a railway wagon
To Be Continued:
Sources
Davies Alan, The Pit Brow women of the Wigan Coalfield, Tempus Publishing Limited, Gloucestershire, 2006.
Lane, Dave, Pit Brow Lasses, Lulu (www.lulu.com) 2005.
Photo is from the website wiganshades.pwp.blueyonder.co.kk. http://www.wiganshades.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/pitbrow2.jpg
Copyright 2011 Paul F Moore
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