Coal Mining in North Wales
Social history and the formation of early Trades Union
Article written in June 2014 by Ted McKay, former coal miner and North Wales Miners' Agent.
Ted and a colleague showed a group of Society members around the mining exhibition at Llay Miners lnstitute that summer, and this article followed the talk.
It will never be known when or where or by whom the first coal in North Wales was mined. That is now lost in the mists of time. However there can be no doubt that it was before the first recorded date of coal being worked commercially in North Wales.
ln 1286 there was a detailed account of coal being sent by boat from Bagillt on the banks of the River Dee to the new castle which was being built by the Plantagenet King of England, Edward I at Conwy.
Although there is plenty of information about the amount of coal, the price per ton, shipping costs and timetables, there is no mention of the miners who produced the coal, how they worked and lived. The problems of transporting coal were enormous so coal was to remain a very local industry with low output for many years.
The coming of the canals, and more so the railway, was to change the coal industry in North Wales dramatically. Now that coal could be transported almost anywhere there was a rapid expansion of coal production and with it an influx of people from the rural areas of North Wales to the mining districts.
For the first time there were printed reports showing that miners and their families lived and worked in the most appalling conditions. ln 1848 a Royal Commission on Education in Wales stated:
'The lowest form of social degradation and moral depravity in Wales is to be found in the mining districts which extend from Ruabon to Ffynnongroyw'.
ln the village of Rhosllanerchrugog they found that the average age of children starting work underground was 8 years old. he Wrecsam Coal Owners in 1842, when asked by a Government lnquiry, did not think that 7 year olds were too young to work underground for 12 hours a day 6 days a week, and thought that this would not be detrimental to their health.
ln the 19th century there came out of that poverty and deprivation men who had the courage to try and change the social structure of the mining districts of North Wales. These were men who were not seeking vengeance, but who had a vision and a determination to obtain fairness for the miners and their families.
These men got their inspiration and courage from the Chapels in their mining communities and applied their strongly held principles to their union work. They encouraged the miners to take pride in who they were, to take an interest in their own history and culture. With their faith and pennies from the miners they built lnstitutes and libraries. They formed choirs and brass bands,.organised galas and carnivals. These may seem trivial by today's values but in those early days of change they were vital to give a sense of community.
They were also responsible for initiating social health schemes which were the forerunners of the NHS.
But most important to them was education because that was the key that would unlock the door to bring the miners and their families out of the darkness of ignorance and into the light of knowledge.
