Lucy Steele - Glossop

Thanks mum. Taken from a cutting from the Glossop Chronicle - Times gone by

Miss L Steele who represented Transport and was the first woman member of Glossop, Hadfield and District Trades Council.

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In response to a comment by I
I also am interested in how our ancestors lived

I have a thin book called "Pits and Looms" A photographic look at two of Lancashires traditional industries by Peter Riley The reproduction on the photos is not very good but an interesting book nevertheless. There is not much text and the section on coal mining is better than the cotton section. Here are some quotes -:

Coal Mining in Lancashire, 1936
There was a special camaraderie among miners and their families, and it is little wonder that this part of Britain was known as the workshop of the world. Coal and other fuels were produced by tough, no-nonsense men who relied exclusively on the local pit for their livelihood. When pits were the scene of accidents or deaths, the whole community were intimately involved, and when they closed for one reason or another it was often the death knell for whole towns.

Preparing to go down the pit
There was always a look of apprehension on the faces of miners preparing to drop a mile underground, where they would remain for the next eight to ten hours. The days work would not begin at the bottom of the shaft, for these men would often have to walk or crawl to the pit face which could be two miles away. To say it was a tough life is an understatement!

At the coal face
Crawling on all fours, squatting in unimaginable confined spaces was often the lot of pit men, particularly in the 1930s before modern technology was introduced in the pits. In pre-nationalisation days the private companies who owned them would often refuse to invest in machinery that would have made the lot of miners a whole lot easier. Not that mining is easy for anyone, but just watching these men at work is enough to make us all appreciate just what a brilliant job they did.

Loading coal at the washery in 1936
Despite the hardship of the miners digging out the coal, Lancashire housewives even in the 1930s were a fussy lot and did not like receiving coal with dust on it. This meant the pits normally washed the fuel before shipping it out.

The Dive Underground in Atherton
One visitor to the pit early in the 20th century wrote: "The change from daylight to darkness is dramatic in its suddenness. The whole drop is 600 yards, or four times the height of St Paul's Cathedral in London...........The air presses on the drums of the ears; there is a catch of the breath; the stomaach is left at the pit head, and overtakes the toner later; there is a feeling of utter helplessness......"

Colliers strike, 1912
Strikes among miners were becoming more common in the early 20th century than they had been in the Victorian era, as colliers realised they had the right to better pay and conditions, but most strikes brought extreme hardship to families. In 1912 soup kitchens were set up throughout Lancashire to help feed the families of striking pitmen, and a fuel shortage meant sneaking onto coal heaps and picking whatever bits of coal or coke was available, though anyone caught could face a jail sentence.

Our relatives who worked in the coal mines

Richard Steele b. 1851
James Steele b. 1856
WIlliam Steele b. 1854
Joseph Aspinall b. 1865
Ephraim Aspinall b. 1872
Joseph Steele b.1876
Samuel Steele b.1880
Christopher Steele b.1885
James Steele b.1887
William Steele b. 1883
James Steele b.1873
Cornelius Steele b.1874
Aquilla Steele b. 1880
Walter Steele b. 1881
John Ephraim Steele b. 1897 information supplied by I.
William Steele b. 1904
Ernest Steele b.1911

What brave men.

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I do not know which pits these men worked at.
The following link is interesting.

http://www.communigate.co.uk/lancs/acl/page14.phtml