Coalowners, Coalminers and Compulsion: Pit Clubs in England, 1860-80

Abstract

It is suggested that, insofar as coalowner stereotyping rests upon the denigration of pit clubs, it stands in need of substantial modification. It is true that many coalowners organised pit clubs for their own purposes, and that the assistance they provided was seriously and sometimes scandalously deficient. However, it is shown that many owners offered their pit clubs significant financial support, and that the clubs provided their members with benefits in a form, and on a scale, which both contributed towards the relief of coalfield suffering and compared well with the assistance provided by the other agencies to which coalminers and their dependants had access.