Today we see mining as mens work, but Saltom pit was full of women, as well as children, working alongside their menfolk. Although there are no known complete records of who these miners were, some fragments of information exist.
The following stories of three pit women come from an1841 document. It was probably part of the enquiry into the Employment of Women and Children in Mines. The Enquiry was anxious about the morality of men, women and children working together semi-naked in the hot, dark mines, so they focused their questions on religion:
Margaret McGahin, a deserted wife aged 34, drove pit ponies in Saltom Pit. Her two sons aged 10 and 11 also worked there. The record says that she had educated her children well. They went to Chapel and one son was Clerk to the Chapel. They had a rent-free house.
Elizabeth Nicholson was the same age, doing the same job. She supported a girl aged 7. They too went to Sunday Service and the child prayed each night. Elizabeth’s husband had been killed in the pits 5 years earlier. She must have struggled to pay 1/- per week for a house in Dixon Square. The prospect of going into the work-house must have worried her.
Perhaps most remarkable was Peggy Hodgson aged 72. She was lame and worked greasing the wagons for 11d per day.
So much for the Victorian idea of the weaker sex. After the commission banned women and children from working below ground, Women continued to work above ground as “screen lasses’ until the 1970s.
For more information on women in mining, see Balmaiden, thanks to them for the image of the Bearmouth mine.
The story of Sal Madge
Sarah Magin (Sal Madge) was born in 1831 in the workhouse in Penrith. She began working in the pits at the age of 8 before the 1842 Act of Parliament banning the employment of children and women underground. She was described as being of powerful build and 5 feet 8 inches tall. She must have been a striking figure when poor diet and hard work often stunted the growth of people who worked in mining.