The Mining Heritage of

Kiveton Park and Wales,

c. 1700-1994

Resource Pack for

Key Stage

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Worksh e e t Index

Historical Context• 1.1 What is coal like? Observation (needs coal, bag provided!)• 1.2 Where does coal come from? Information Sheet• 1.3 What was coal used for? Multiple Choice• 1.4 Early mining in Kiveton Park and Wales – Sketching Bell-pits Activity• 1.5 The Industrial Revolution and Deep Mining in Kiveton Park and Wales –

Information Sheet• 1.6 What the Deep Mines Looked Like – ‘Mine Maths’ Numeracy

Working in a Coal Mine• 2.1 A Day in the Life of a Miner – Heads and Tails Exercise• 2.2 A Day in the Life of a Miner – Picture Match Up• 2.3 Working in a Coal Mine – Word Fill/Choice• 2.4 What was Mechanisation? • 2.5 Pictures of Mechanisation – Sketch a Mega Mechanical Machine!• 2.6 Miner’s Memories – Reading and listening exercise (pupils can listen to these

extracts and many more on the oral history section of our website• 2.7 What would you ask the miners?

Human Geography• 3.1 The Emergence of Mining Communities: Census Exercise

Strikes• 4.1 What is a Strike? Information Sheet• 4.2 Waleswood Colliery in 1901:At Its Peak? Sketching Exercise• 4.3 Waleswood Colliery in 1948: Past its Best? Numeracy Exercise• 4.4 ‘We’re Famous!’ Newspaper reports of the strike and ‘Be a Reporter’ exercise.• 4.5 Staying Down in Pictures: Cartoons by Zog• 4.6 Songs of the Strike: Original Song written by the stay-down mines, to the tune of

Lili Marlene (included on CD).• 4.7 Letters to the Top

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1.1 What is Coal Like?

This is coal. How would you describe it?(How does it feel? Does it smell of anything?

What does it look like?)

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1.2 Where Does Coal Com e From?

Coal is found underground. It was made when plants died millions of years ago. These were covered with water and dirt and then, over millions of years, heat and pressure have turned them into

coal.

Coal is found in a seam. A coal seam is a layer of coal which stretches out underground, sometimes for hundreds of miles.

It is a bit like the jam in a sponge cake!

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In this picture you can see a coal seam that has been revealed

when a road was built. This seam is quite near to the

surface.

1.3 What Was Coal Used For?

Coal was used for lots of things. Which of these things do you think it was used for?

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To power bicycles? To power

trains?

To power ships?

To power factories and

mills?

To keep houses warm?

To make clothes out of?

1.4 Early Mining in Kivet o n Park an d Wales

Over a hundred and fifty years ago, people often used to get coal by mining in from a hillside or using what was called a bell pit. There were many mines like this around Kiveton Park and Wales. You can sometimes see the pattern of where they used to be in the fields.

Can you spot the following things on this picture of a bell pit?

• The coal seam

• A pony being used to pull buckets of coal up from the pit

• A bucket of coal ready to be pulled to the surface

• A winding wheel

• Miners with pick axes and basic tools

Try to draw a picture of a bell pit yourself, with labels of the different things you can see

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1.5 The Indus trial Revoluti o n,

Coal an d Deep Mining

Big changes began in Britain over two hundred years ago. Things changed a great deal, as factories and mills took over from the old ways of making things. This was called the Industrial Revolution.

People had used their own power, that of animals, or running water to make things work. Now they started to use steam, which is made by burning coal.

This picture shows the chimneys that used to be in Sheffield. You can see the smoke pouring out of them. Sometimes it was so dark and grimy you couldn’t see the sun!

Coal! Coal! Coal!

Everybody needed more and more coal to power this Industrial Revolution. This needed new ways of getting coal, so deep mining began.

This was very different to the old bell pits and basic mines. Now men would be plunged hundreds of metres under the ground to get coal. Digging down until they reached the seam of coal was called ‘sinking’ a pit.

Two deep pits were very close to where you are now:

Waleswood Colliery was sunk in the 1850s

Kiveton Park Colliery was sunk in 1866-7

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Mine Maths!

Kiveton Pit was 401 metres deep when

it was sunk.

A double-decker bus is 4 metres

high.

How many buses could you have put

on top of each other in Kiveton Pit?

______ buses!

1.6 What THE Deep min e s OF KIVETON PARK AND WALES WOULD HAVE

lo o k e d like

This picture is from a magazine of 1871. It is useful evidence for historians because it shows us what a deep mine looked like at that time. What are the main differences between this picture and

the bell pits that you looked at earlier?

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2.1 A Day in th e Life o f a MinerSo, what was a day like if you worked down the pit? See if you can

match up these sentences!

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A Miners w o ul d w al k t o th e pit.

Som e o f th e m w o r e clo g s, bi g…..

…… w o o d e n sh o e s Tha t you

could he a r fr o m a lon g w a y

a w a y .

B To t a k e th e m t o th e

b o t t o m o f th e pit th e min er s

g o t……

C At Kivet o n Park, min er s

w o ul d s o m e t i m e s hav e t o w al k

f o r….

…. or childre n w a s h e d th eir b a c k s.

Baths w e r e la t e r built a t th e

pits. could g e t w a s h e d b e f o r e

g oin g h o m e .

… fl a m e s didn’t m a k e d a n g e r o u s

g a s e s ex pl o d e .

…. thr e e mile s d o w n d ark tunn el s

t o g e t t o w h e r e th e y w o r k e d .

…. w h o lo o k e d a f t e r th e s e

p o ni e s w e r e calle d pit p o ny

driv er s.

…… t o dig co al. This w a s very

har d w o r k.

….. int o a ca g e . This w e n t d o w n

very f a s t t o th e b o t t o m o f th e

pit.

F Miners ha d t o b e very

car e f ul an d us e d sp e ci al la m p s

s o…..

G A lon g ti m e a g o , min er s

w e n t ho m e t o g e t cle a n. Their

wiv e s ……

E Pit p o ni e s w e r e us e d t o

m o v e co al tu b s ar o u n d th e pit.

The p e o pl e ……

D Befor e th e mid 2 0 th cen t ury,

min er s us e d b a sic t o o l s…

2.2 A Day in th e Life o f a Miner (ii)

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Match these pictures to

the sentences.

Write the right letter

in each circle.

A

2.3 Working in a Coalmin e: Choo s e th e corr e c t w o r d e a c h ti m e!

Men went down into the pit in a metal frame that was called a cage or chair and worked like a lift. This went down so fast it felt like you were

going SIDEWAYS/UPWARDS/INSIDE OUT.

The part of the mine where coal was got out of the ground was called a COALFACE/COALARM/COALHEAD.

The coalface was very NOISY/QUIET/SILENT.

Explosives began to be used to break up the coalface. The men who were responsible for this were called

SHOTFIRERS/EXPLODERS/RIPPERS. If they were clever, they could play rhythms with the bangs!

Miners could tell if there was going to be a roof-fall because there would be a noise like THUNDER/MUSIC/BARKING.

SHEEP/DOGS/PONIES used to move coal around the pit. However, Waleswood Colliery installed a special system which used compressed

air instead.

For most of its life, Kiveton Park Colliery was split into two major seams. In the Barnsley Seam there were lots of ANTS/RATS/CATS.

In the High Hazel Seam there were lots of LICE/ICE/MICE.

Men would not allowed to take anything into the pit which could make a NOISE/SMELL/SPARK, because it could cause an explosion. In 1991, even CRISP PACKETS/AFTERSHAVES/SOCKS were banned from

Kiveton Park Colliery because some had started to be made out of aluminium.

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2.4 w h a t w a s m e c h a ni s a t i o n ?

In the decades after the Second World War, more and more technology and machines were used in mines. This was called ‘mechanisation’. Some of these machines are shown on the next page – they were very powerful indeed and look like huge robots!

How do you think the introduction of this machinery changed things in the pit? (Write your answers in full sentences)

Safety? Did these machines and technology make mines safer or more dangerous?

Noise? Did these machines change how things sounded on the coalface? What problems do you think this might have caused miners as they grew

older?

Output? Did the machines mean coal would be mined slower or quicker?

Manpower? Did these machines mean more or less men were employed in coal mines?

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2.5 Mega Mechanic al

Mining Machines!

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Design you own mega mechanical mining machine!

This is Ken Mawson, standing in front of one of the machines he used to use at Kiveton Park Colliery.

2.6 Miner’s Memorie s

It is very important for historians to record people’s memories – we call this oral history. The following extracts are interesting and tell us important things about what it meant to work in the mines of this area.

• Eddie Ashton, describing his first day at Waleswood Colliery:

‘They’ll come to the window with your lamp and give thee thy tallies, thy’ll leave one with them on the bank, one with the banksman when you go down,

and thy’ll collect it when you go back. Never bumped my head as many times in my life.’

Miner’s tallies are shown to the left. Why do you think miners gave one of these to somebody on the surface when they went underground?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Lance Wilks, describing how miners got washed at the end of a shift at Kiveton Park Colliery:

‘You’d all come into the baths at the same time and you’d run to get the best showers. … I was upstairs in the baths. One end of the showers; there were two rows, there were cubicles that went off the left and there were space for about four people, three or four people, with no cubicles. … So we always tried to get there because there’d be say three of you having a shower. You’d be sponging yourself down and washing yourself. Then, you’d tell

the lad next door, you know, stood at the side of you ‘Here, give him your sponge. Wash me back and he’d scrub your back and

you’d turn around and do the same for him.’

Why do you think the miners had to wash so well when they finished a shift?_________________________________________

__ _________________________________________

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These are the pithead baths at Kiveton Park Colliery. You will get the chance to see the baths and photos of the inside of them when you visit.

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2.7 What will you a sk our min er s?

You might get the chance to ask miners questions about what it used to be like working Waleswood or Kiveton Park Collieries. Based on some of the things you have done in these worksheets and the other work you have done in your lessons, what questions might you want to ask?

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

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3.1 The Coming o f

Mining Com m uni ti e s

When the pits were sunk men began to flock to the area, particularly from other mining areas where things were not going so well. Many miners came from places like Warwickshire or Derbyshire.

Every ten years, people checked every house in Britain to find out how many men, women and children lived in the country and information about them. This was called a census. There was one in 1871, five years after mining began in Kiveton Park. It shows us a lot about what life was like in a mining community in those years.

This is in old-fashioned handwriting so you might need a magnifying glass or a grown-up to help. This form shows us the

Barber family’s house in Kiveton Park in 1871.

How many children were in the family, even though they only had two bedrooms?

• Mr and Mrs Barber had ________ children.

What did Mr Barber do for a living? • He was a _________________ .

Where had the family come from?• They came from _________________ .

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4.1 What is a Strike?

A strike takes place when the men who work at a pit want something or are defending themselves. For example, the owners might want to give the men less money or make them work longer hours. On the other hand, they might want more

money or to work less hours.

In a strike the miners refuse to go to work. The pit has to shut. They hope by doing this they will change the owner’s minds.

There have been lots of strikes in coalmines.

Most strikes are led by trade unions, organisations which working people create so they can act as a group.

However, there were lots of disagreements and arguments during strikes, often between those who wanted to carry on

striking and those who want to go back to work.

There was a very big strike just over twenty years ago which people remember very well. Many people do not like to talk about

those times.

Write in your own words:

A strike is ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You will now study a very interesting strike at Waleswood Colliery in 1948. These worksheets will help you

understand what happened.

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4.2 A Pit a t its Peak?

Wales w o o d Colliery in 19 0 2

This photo shows Waleswood Colliery in around 1902. It was very near to Wales Primary School. The children in this picture had gone to see the pit ponies. How

many years ago was this? ______ years ago

Draw your own version of this picture in the box below. We have given you the top of the winding gear to get you started.

4.3 A Pit Pas t its Time?

Wales w o o d Colliery in 1948

In 1947, just after the Second World War finished, there were rumours that Waleswood Colliery might be closed.

Seven hundred men worked at the pit. This was a large proportion of the local community. However, it was argued that Waleswood Colliery was old fashioned and wasn’t producing enough coal.

MINE MATHS! At that time, Waleswood pit was

producing 5,000 tonnes of coal each week. If a baby elephant is about 2.5 tonnes, how many elephants is this

coal the equivalent of?

_____________ elephants

There were lots of discussions and arguments but the government decided that the pit should close (the government took charge of

the mines after the Second World War – this was called nationalisation).

How do you think the men who worked at the pit would have felt? Explain why you think they would have felt these things.

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Sad? Relieved?

Nervous?Upset?

Happy?

Bored? Excited?

4.4 The Waleswood Stay-Down Strike!

As you have seen, strikes normally involved men staying away from work. The miners at Waleswood decided to stay in work – down the pit!

They did this on two occasions, on the second occasion they stayed down for many days in the dark silence of a ‘stood’ pit (a pit is said to be ‘stood’ when it is not doing any work).

The exercises on the following pages will give you an idea about what it was like to be in the stay-down strike.

Be a Reporter!The press reported the strike in lots of different ways. Because it was so unusual, news of the strike reached lots of national newspapers. You can see reports about the strike in the following pages. They will give you information about what the strike was all about and what it involved.

Write a short article about the Waleswood Stay-Down Strike. You could include lots of different things but it is up to you what exactly you want to write about. You could include photographs too. For example, here is a photograph of a miner’s wife and her children, taking a bundle of papers for the men down the mine.

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Angry? Miserable? Disappointed?

4.5 Zok the Cartoonist

One of the reasons why the strike got so much publicity was because one of the men down there was an experienced cartoonist, who had drawn cartoons before for the Sheffield newspapers. He signed his cartoons using the name ‘Zok’.

The cartoon on the next page was just one of many drawn by Zok. It shows Jack Coxon with his birthday cake, as he was down the pit for his birthday party.

Draw a cartoon about the staydown strike in a style similar to Zok. You might want to include one of the following things which we know the men did while down the pit:

• Looked at fossils • Played dominoes• Sang songs• Had a birthday party• Tried to sleep• Wrote letters to their loved ones• Worried about how their families were• Spoke about whether their pit would close• Ate lots of food – we know that the wives sent so much food

down the pit that the miners had too much!

What will you draw a cartoon about?

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4.6 The Song o f th e s t a y- d o w n s trik e

While they were down the pit the men wrote songs and sang them together. We know the words to one of their songs because the men wrote them down.

These are the words for one of the songs that the men wrote. It was written to a very famous tune, called Lilli Marlene. This song had been made famous because German soldiers had sung it in the war (just three years before). It had been so popular the British troops had sung it too.

Listen to Lilli Marlene on the CD and then try to sing these words to go with it!

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4.7 Lett e r s t o th e Top

Men in the stay-down strike spent lots of time writing letters to their loved ones.

Write your own letter here – what type of things might you want to include – your family, the weather, sport, the health of relatives, what’s in the news?

Remember to include what you have been doing – look at the page about Zok the Cartoonist to give you some ideas.

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Underground at Waleswood Colliery

Dear ,

From,

Despite all the efforts of the stay-down strikers, Waleswood Colliery closed. Many of the men moved to other pits, most to

Kiveton Park where some stayed for decades.

Coal-Mining in Waleswood had come to an end, after almost a hundred years of deep mining and many hundreds of years of

more basic ways of getting coal out of the ground.

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