Hi, I have just won a miner's tag on ebay and wondered if anyone might know how I go about tracing who it belonged to.
It is from Creswell Colliery (Derbyshire) and has a number in it. I have a big interest in this colliery, and would dearly love to find out who it belonged to.
Any ideas would be great thanks.

Hi, I have just won a miner's tag on ebay and wondered if anyone might know how I go about tracing who it belonged to.
It is from Creswell Colliery (Derbyshire) and has a number in it. I have a big interest in this colliery, and would dearly love to find out who it belonged to.
Any ideas would be great thanks.

If you have a photograph, that would be handy as there should be someone who can help you - if you upload it to your personal album and it can be easily displayed on the forum (click on the "My AditNow" tab at the right of the menu bar at the top; then click "Personal Album" and when the page loads, click "Upload A Photograph" at top right of the page).

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Thanks, I shall have a go at posting a picture of it then.
Thanks very much

Hi I have put a picture on, so fingers crossed.


🔗Personal-Album-6278-Image-53703[linkphoto]Personal-Album-6278-Image-53703[/linkphoto][/link]


[tweak]Image embedded in post by Vanoord - to do this, just copy and paste the links shown under the image ;)[/tweak]

Not my area but I suspect the tag could have 'belonged' to several different miners over a period of time?

Not my area but I suspect the tag could have 'belonged' to several different miners over a period of time?

I agree. It's very likely each hewer / face worker was probably assigned a different tally each shift.

At the same time though, I hope I'm wrong because it adds that personal touch to your item 😎

Oh, that's a shame, was rather hoping it may have belonged to just one person. Only I know of people who have kept pit checks from their relatives. Maybe it depends on the area/colliery they worked in. Thanks anyway guys.

Oh, that's a shame, was rather hoping it may have belonged to just one person. Only I know of people who have kept pit checks from their relatives. Maybe it depends on the area/colliery they worked in. Thanks anyway guys.

When my brother in law started in the local pit he was given a lamp and tally, this was not new so I suppose it was passed on to another worker when he left 10 years later.

I would also take a guess that a long serving miner could have kept his tally after a colliery closure so all is not lost. 🙂

You weren't given a different lamp check (that's what we called them in South Wales) each shift I worked in 2 different mines over 12 years and had one lamp number in one pit and another in the other pit.

Some historic notes from dave Lanes site.

"What are they?

In 1935 there were around 1,600 coal mines in the UK. Now there are very few so there is now no ready supply of checks. When a miner went to work at a pit, he was issued with a lamp check or a pay check - such is illustrated above. The number on the check or tally was personal to each miner and prior to going down the pit the miner would exchange his tally for his numbered lamp from the lamp room. When the lamp was returned at the end of the shift, the tally would be returned to the miner.

In the mid 1900's, legislation introduced additional safety measures incorporating the tally's. Prior to going down the pit, the miner would give one of his tally's to the "banksman" at the pit head - and would retain another one with him for the duration of the shift. When returning to the surface, the miner would give his personal tally to the banksman who would in turn pass it on to the time office or the lamp room. Some mines had different systems. Using this system, it was possible for the mine management to keep track on who was where in the complex and for what periods."

I thought hewers were given a few tallys so that each tub they fill they attach one and when it gets to the surface / screens, someone makes a note of who filled the tub then sends the empty tub and tally back to the face. Assuming it takes longer to empty a tub than to fill it, thus needing more than one tally..

Collier`s chalk marked thier dram`s ie,

TG 1 for the first dram,and so on

TG 2 ,
6 4 1/2`S +3 6 1/2`S
Meaning 2nd dram of the day,and supplies needed,6 four foot six face posts and 3 six foot six posts for a pair of timber,

There is some truth in what Parkus says but I think he is getting his eras mixed up. The Cresswell check is a later NCB type. Things varied around the country but in the North Derbyshire pits I worked in, square and round checks were the ones issued when you went underground. You handed in the square one when you went into the pit and handed in the round one when you returned to surface. Each man also had a pay check to show when he drew his wages, that was triangular. I am not sure about a check for collecting a lamp as this was not needed in the 1970's.
All the coal was carried by conveyor so the tub check thing had long since gone.
Checks were re-cycled when a man left or retired so that number could well have had multiple owners over the years.
However, in 'the olden days' some districts did issue the men with a load of identical numbered tallys, two tied together on a short length of string to drape over the tub edge for counting production. Other districts just used chalk as previously mentioned. What they did about their lamps etc in those days, I am not sure.

when i started in 1976 i had a 4 figure clock number and also a 3 figure lamp and check number.when i passed out from the apprenticeship i was given another 3 figure lamp and check number
at littleton fitters had a blue caplamp ring ,electricians red and officials white
on closure i kept all my checks and the round one for end of shift is on my keyring now,also those who carried a flame lamp could keep it

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There could be considerable local variation in the shape, numbering systems, and usages of checks, even after the creation of the NCB. Most mines seem to have reissued old numbers but some did not. As the level of docmentation necessary to identify individual miners' check numbers has rarely survived, there is little chance of identifying the user of a specific check number.

Using cap lamp bezel colours to designate different grades and jobs, and areas they were allowed to access and whether solo or accompanied, were commonplace. Again, there was no standardisation across the NCB, with various local systems.

It is worth recording the variations of both check systems and bezel colours before memory of these sorts of details are lost.

I have no recollection of numbered tally systems at any of the Cornish mines in the 1970s - you clocked in, collected a lamp and went to the shaft, but I stand to be corrected on that.

at Mountfield in the mid-80s, you rang the lamp-room to tell them you were entering the drift, and again when you came out. Again, no tallies.

I do have a tally on my keyring to this day, a stamped brass one marked CTW203 which is my tally from the London Bridge Station section of the Jubilee Line Extension in the mid-90s. Tags were recycled as people left, but later in the job the number sequence was just left to run down as people left

I didn't have a tag at Combe Down, although I did have a number; there was a big tally board with names and magnetic markers, you moved it across when you went down the shaft. You would ring across from the Byfields entrance and the banksman would do it. I had a numbered lamp and respirator, and the Mine Manager would check every day that all lamps were back in at the end of the day ( there was no nightshift work )

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3058 ?

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3058 ?

That's Numberwang

I think you'll be quite lucky to identify the orginal owner unless someone who worked at Cresswell recognises the number. You could try and see if any records for the pit survive in the local archive office for the area, there might be something, some employment records are also held by Iron Mountain (document storage company). However I suspect in most cases the sorts of records with these numbers on didn't get through the record selection process for archiving, and are either shaft fill on the Cresswell site or went up the chimney...I would however love to be proved wrong as its a question I often get asked.

BTW, token in tubs, often refered to as Motty's in this neck of the woods, often quite a bit bigger than a pit check (relatively speaking - the ones I've seen have always been cast, about 1cm thick including raised lettering and about the size of a large business card).

Around Alfreton, where I grew up in the '50's '60's, The tally system was simple, each miner was issued with two tally's, corresponding to his clock number, one was the lamp tally, this was handed to the lamp man when a lamp and respirator was issued, he hung it on the tally board, giving a quick reference to who was down the shaft at any time, the other was to be kept on the miner all the time he was underground, they called this the dog tag, for the same reasons a soldier wears a dog tag, for the purposes of identification after a mishap.
It was a sackable offence not to claim your lamp tally back after the end of the shift, as if the tally board was not all accounted for at shift change rescue procedures where likely to be put in motion.
As miners left and others replaced them, clock numbers and tally numbers where passed on.

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