Our Huckle-Parker Family History

Hewer - Coal face worker who works or digs coal. He cuts and loosens the coal with a pick, referred to as ragging in some pits. He could be aged from 21 to 70. Back in 1849, as part of his wages, which averaged 3s. 9d. to 4s. 3d. per day for 8 hours working, 4 or 5 days a week, he was given a house with two or three rooms, according to the number in his family, and a garden, also a fother (a cart-load) of small coals each fortnight, for which he paid sixpence. 1890s The hewer was the coal-digger. The seam he worked could be so low that he could hardly creep into it on hands and knees, or high enough for him to stand upright. He was the responsible workman who loosens the coal from the bed. The hewers were divided into "fore-shift" and "back-shift" men. The former usually worked from four in the morning till ten, and the latter from ten till four. Each man worked one week in the fore-shift and one week in the back-shift, alternately. Every man in the fore-shift marked "3" on his door. This was the sign for the "caller" to wake him at that hour. When roused by that important functionary he got up and dressed in his pit clothes, which consisted of a loose jacket, vest, and knee breeches, all made of thick white flannel; long stockings, strong shoes, and a close fitting, thick leather cap. He then took a piece of bread and water, or a cup of tea, but never a full meal. Many prefer to go to work fasting. He would take a tin bottle full of cold water or tea, a piece of bread, which was called his 'bait', his Davy lamp, and "baccy-box." At the pit he got into the cage, and was lowered to the bottom of the shaft, where he lit his lamp and proceeded "in by," to a previously arranged place to meet the deputy. This official examined each man's lamp, and, if found safe, returned it locked. Each man then found from the deputy that his place was right and proceeded onwards to his cavel (lot drawing or a lottery to decided the working-place of each individual). He then went to his place of work with his picks in one hand, and his lamp in the other. He would travel like this a distance varying from 100 to 600 yards. Sometimes the roof under which he had to pass was not more than three feet high. To progress in this space he kept his feet wide apart and his body bent at right angles to his hips. His head was held well down, and his face looked straight ahead. On arrival at his place of work he undressed and began by hewing out about fifteen inches of the lower part of the coal. He thus undermined it, and the process was called kirving. The same was done up the sides. This was called nicking. The coal thus hewn was called small coal, and that remaining between the kirve and the nicks was the jud or top, which was either displaced by driving in wedges, or was blasted down with gunpowder. It then became the roundy. The hewer filled his tubs, and continued thus alternately hewing and filling.