Pithead baths · AditNow Community

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carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

At the start of the WW2 there were 1,886 collieries in the Uk of which only seventeen had pithead baths. I must be very naive because I find it incredible that such an obvious basic necessity virtually didn't exist.

Although very little building was allowed during the war by the end there were another 345. The money to build these didn't come from the collieries but but from the Miners Welfare Fund. The Fund spent £6.5 million on pithead baths and also opened fifteen convalescent homes and established seven medical rehabilitation centres.

I know there are many ex-coal miners on here and many where mining goes back generations. What I'm interesed in is when did the government (I assume it was after nationalisation) finally get around to supplying pithead baths to all, or at least the vast majority, of collieries?

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

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Moorebooks
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

I wonder how many metal mines had those facilities - I suspect very few until elf and safety came in with minimum provisions

mike

Graigfawr
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

In the first few years after nationalisation in 1947, the newly-created NCB made the provision of pithead baths a high priority. The underlying reasons were partly political - the Labour government undoubtedly subscribed to the concept of dignity in labour and the rights of the common man to a decent existence. And the underlying reasons were partly practical - it was recognised that to attract men back to / into the industry, conditons had to be better than they had been pre-war; as the economy recovered, men had increasingly attractive alternatives to going underground so baths were part of the 'carrot'. An additional underlying reason was the desire to visibly modernise the industry.

There's a pictorial history on pithead baths in preparation but just in caser it fails to appear soon I won't risk embarassing the author by giving more details. Sorry to tantalise you!

Phil Ford
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

Many pit had pithead baths built as part of reorganisation and modernisation of surface facilitys following the war and nationalisation.
Wood Pit in Haydock, St Helens, Lancashire did not get there own baths but had to share the baths at Old Boston Colliery and Training Centre. There was a bus put on for the men at shift changes between Wood Pit and Old Boston but split shift men had to walk. It was about 2 miles. Wood Pit only closed in the early 1970s.

Knocker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

Mike, although I don't know figures, a lot of the mines in Cornwall had drys a long time ago. Two of the most well known ones were Dolcoath, which was actually heated with the condensate from the man engine on Harriett shaft, part of the pipe is still in existance, tho other is bottalack where the bath is still in situ. Croftys old dry was pulled down last year to make way for the heartlands project. Its hard to believe any large mine in the last 100 years wouldn't have had a dry, as the benefit to the mines themselves from improved health of the miners would have been huge.

spitfire
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

"Knocker" wrote:
Mike, although I don't know figures, a lot of the mines in Cornwall had drys a long time ago. Two of the most well known ones were Dolcoath, which was actually heated with the condensate from the man engine on Harriett shaft, part of the pipe is still in existance, tho other is bottalack where the bath is still in situ.
I think you've got your wires crossed on this one knocker. The man engine at Dolcoath was on Wheal Bryants shaft, in the car park of the council offices. The four baths still in situ are at Levant not Botallack
spitfire

Moorebooks
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

"spitfire" wrote:

"Knocker" wrote:
Mike, although I don't know figures, a lot of the mines in Cornwall had drys a long time ago. Two of the most well known ones were Dolcoath, which was actually heated with the condensate from the man engine on Harriett shaft, part of the pipe is still in existance, tho other is bottalack where the bath is still in situ.
I think you've got your wires crossed on this one knocker. The man engine at Dolcoath was on Wheal Bryants shaft, in the car park of the council offices. The two baths still in situ are at Levant not Botallack

Yes of course we operate from the Miners dry at Snailbeach, however many of the smaller sites don't seem to have these facilities

mike

geoff
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

Even with showers being provided at Geevor there was a group of predominantly middle aged bachelors who would just wash down at a sink, god knows what their bedsheets looked like :blink:

slightly :offtopic: , I was a shop steward at Geevor and if there was a dispute in the air by calling a meeting after the men had changed you could guarantee they wouldn't strike as they'd need to shower before going back home. If you wanted a strike call the meeting before they got changed, guaranteed result. :thumbsup:

spitfire
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

This describes the layout at Levant.

🔗Levant-Tin-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-016[linkphoto]Levant-Tin-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-016[/linkphoto][/link]

🔗Levant-Tin-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-018[linkphoto]Levant-Tin-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-018[/linkphoto][/link]

spitfire

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

#10

One of the suggestions from the medical report on the Condition of Miners in West Cornwall by T. B. Peacock in 1864.

“That the changing houses should be sufficiently large to afford full accommodation for the whole of the men who had to make use of them; they should be provided with space for drying all their clothes, and with a sufficient supply of warm water to allow the men to wash thoroughly, and even to bathe themselves. In one of the mines visited the changing house was much too small for the number of men; and from the reports of the men it appears that the supply of water is not always sufficient, and sometimes is not warmed. And as far as I know in no mine are baths provided. I have also been told that the space for drying is not always sufficient and that consequently the men are returning from below and have sometimes to put on their clothes still wet.”

This would indicate that as early as the mid 19th century drys were in operation many mines even if not up to scratch and probably without baths at that time.

I read somewhere but can’t find it in my notes that South Wheal Frances had one of the best drys around. Certainly on the 1909 plan of Marriott’s Shaft (Basset Mines Ltd) the old and new drys are clearly marked.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Bearpark
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#11

The provision of pithead baths was brought about by a private members bill through parliament. The MP was Willie Gallagher the communist MP for East Fife who won the lottery to introduce a bill to parliament and it was passed thus making pithead baths a statuary right for the NCB.

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

#12

Thanks for the info. but was it acted upon across the board? In other words did most collieries get pithead baths.? I only ask because statuary rights don't always translate in pratical terms.

This from the US although I realise the circumstances are different in that we talking individual companys. This in 1910 but as late as the late 30s some coal mining towns in the US didn't have running water and the miners had public bath houses in the towns. So this may well have have been an exception.

Constructed by the H.C. Frick Coke Company during the late 1910s expansion of the company's coal properties in the Connellsville and Klondike districts, this building originally served as a bath and change house for miners who toiled in the Colonial mines and coke works. Controlled by the giant United States Steel Corporation, the Frick Coke Company undertook and ambitious "social welfare" program that included improved sanitation at its collieries and in its towns.

🔗Colonial-no-1-Coal-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-47861[linkphoto]Colonial-no-1-Coal-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-47861[/linkphoto][/link]

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.