Voices in the Coalshed: Coal Mining and Allotments

Coal miners in Britain often lived in rural villages that had rapidly expanded during the 19th century with the thirst for coal to power the industrial revolution. The houses were usually small and were in terraced rows with no gardens and often a communal yard. Wages were low, work was dangerous, and employment could be unstable. Mining records show that many miners lived in poverty and relied on welfare and charity when wages fell or accidents occurred.

The Allotments Act 1887 required local authorities “to facilitate the provision of allotments for the labouring classes” and gave them new powers including compulsory purchase to acquire land when needed. This act of parliament saw a rapid expansion of allotments especially in the coal fields of Yorkshire, Northern England, Scotland and South Wales. Colliery companies often owned large areas of land round mines, much of which was unsuitable for industrial or agricultural use but could be divided up into allotments. Colliery owners were supportive of allotments as it was a social palliative against poor wages, mechanisation and pit closures. Gradually allotments became part of the fabric of mining communities. They showed self-reliance and dignity in communities where coal miners had little control over their working lives.

Coal mining was a hard physical job. Diets in these communities were often poor due to low pay. Allotments improved nutrition at low cost. Surplus produce could be traded or bartered with other members of the community. They offered fresh air, social interaction, exchange of skills which helped to strengthen morale and improve wellbeing.

Pigeon ‘lofts’. New Milverton allotments, Leamington Spa / CC BY-SA 2.0     

Allotments were often used to keep livestock such as hens for eggs and rabbits for meat. One of the rules concerning allotments is that where hens are allowed to be kept a cockerel was not allowed, this was to avoid early morning disturbance to allotment neighbours by the crowing of the cockerel. One of the more iconic aspects of coal miners’ allotments especially in northern England was that of pigeon lofts. These were sheds constructed from surplus, salvaged and acquired timber often liberated from colliery waste dumps in which racing pigeons also known as homing pigeons were kept and bred. These sheds would have a pent roof and would be distinctive on an allotment from other sheds.

People who owned racing pigeons were known collectively as pigeon fanciers. Pigeons were usually raced at weekends. A common site in pit villages, especially in spring and summer, on Friday evenings would be men carrying a wicker basket with their best racing pigeon in it to the village working men’s club. They would also be carrying a small wooden box in which was a special racing clock. The pigeons would be registered with the race official who would be in the concert room. Once the pigeon had been registered the race official would attach a rubber ring to its leg which would have a race number on it. The race official would then keep the bird within the basket in a secure location for the race the following day (Saturday). The race official would then synchronise the pigeons’ owners’ clock and lock it in its retaining box. On Saturday all the pigeons entered into the race would be loaded onto a specially adapted lorry and driven to a prearranged destination from where the race was going to start. This could anywhere in the U.K. or near continent. At a set time the operator of the pigeon transporter would pull a lever, the sides of the transporter would lift and at the same time the pigeons’ individual baskets would open and the birds would fly free. The pigeons’ owners would calculate how fast they thought their bird would fly back to the loft on their allotment.

Racing Pigeon Clock NCMME collection

They would have a tin with some corn it in and they would be rattling the corn and shouting for their bird. As soon as the bird landed on top of their loft, they would remove the race ring from its leg and push it through an aperture in the locked racing clock box. This stamped a time on a ticket within the clock. After the race was over the pigeons’ owners would return to the working men’s club where the race official would unlock the clock and recover the time ticket. When all the tickets had been recovered the race official could calculate how long it took each pigeon to return home. The winner was the bird that flew the fastest. Racing pigeons was an opportunity for owners and supporters to engage in unofficial gambling. Prize birds, which were those that had won many races or were bred from race winning birds, could be sold providing an opportunistic source of income. An example of a racing clock and box can be found in the upper miners lives gallery in the hub at the museum.

Growing competition fruit and vegetables on allotments became a miners’ tradition because it fit their working lives, strengthened community identity, and offered pride, competition, and an opportunity for unregulated gambling outside the harsh world of the pit. Working Men’s Clubs formalised it, pit stoppages reinforced it, and the culture of rivalry made it a defining feature of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and the North-East mining villages. The growing of giant and prize leeks is still today associated with the former coalfields of Durham and Northumberland. Villages and towns such as Cramlington, Blyth, Ashington still have competitions usually in working men’s clubs and often sponsored by the Club and Institute Union (CIU).

Champion leek grower Geoff Moscrop has broken two world records for his leeks. At the Cramlington, Northumberland leek show, Geoff learned his entry was officially the biggest leek ever grown, He also broke the world record for the biggest pair of leeks. The Ambler 7 October 2013. 

Even after the widespread closure of collieries in the 1980s, the allotment tradition in former mining towns has survived. Many historical plots are still held by multigenerational mining families. Today, the preservation and use of these community spaces are managed either by local councils, parish councils or community groups, and they remain a defining feature of the cultural landscape in former coalfield communities. My own allotment at Netherton, Wakefield was previously leased from the parish council by Herbert Wood a coal face worker at Denby Grange Collieries (Prince of Wales) which is now part of the NCMME and I still use old mine conveyor belting which I inherited with the allotment as temporary pathways and which I assume was liberated from the Denby Grange mine.

Written by Volunteer Roger