A COAL MINERS' LIFE --- DVD --- ONLY £4.99. REGULAR PRICE £7.99
The coal miners life was a hard one. They worked long hours for low wages. The potential dangers were always there for them and their families. This created close comradeship and tight knit mining communities.
Marras were a very important part of a miner's life. Quite often your life depended on the man next to you when underground, and they shared a great trust in each other. This forged great and lasting friendships away from work.
Imagine entering the cage to go underground for the day, not seeing daylight for eight hours or more, with only the light of your lamp, swallowing coal and stone dust for hours on end, sometimes up to the waist in water. Most times, the miners would be lying on their sides, working in coal seams as low as eighteen in height.
It was up to the men and older boys to earn enough money to feed their families by digging for coal. Their wages depended on how much coal they produced by hacking away at the coal face on their hands and knees, or even of their sides, in a cramped, pitch-black space less than one metre high.
They had to look after their two-up, two-down mining cottages without the luxury of modern conveniences.
The women were expected to cook meals, using the most basic ingredients over stoves and which provided the only source of household heat. Water had to be fetched from a pump outside. Washing days was a nightmare, not like today, no automatic washing machines. Imagine keeping a clean house with the coal dust blowing about from the pit. Even the children played near the pit and were dirty, covered in coal dust, however, as always, the miners wife always kept everything clean.
Even the toilets were outside.
Witness the sights and sounds of the past, along with archive footage from start to finish, of the miner and his family as you may have never seen before. See how mining techniques changed over the years, and the miners struggle to fetch a wage into his home.
This DVD is a must-have for anyone interested in coal mining and is very educational.
Running time approx 30 mins
This product was added to our catalog on Friday 06 March, 2009.
