Coal Mines Act 1911

Last updated

Coal Mines Act 1911
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (Variant 1, 2022).svg
Long title An Act to consolidate and amend the Law relating to Coal Mines and certain other mines
Citation 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 50
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent 16 December 1911
Commencement 16 December 1911
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Coal Mines Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 50) amended and consolidated legislation in the United Kingdom related to collieries. A series of mine disasters in the 19th and early-20th centuries had led to commissions of enquiry and legislation to improve mining safety. The 1911 Act, sponsored by Winston Churchill, was passed by the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith. It built on earlier regulations and provided for many improvement to safety and other aspects of the coal mining industry. An important aspect was that mine owners were required to ensure there were mines rescue stations near each colliery with equipped and trained staff. Although amended several times, it was the main legislation governing coal mining for many years.

Contents

Background

In the United Kingdom a series of disasters in the 19th century brought about royal commissions which developed the idea of improving mine safety. [1]

In 1906 a major explosion at a colliery in Courrières, northern France, caused the deaths of more than 1,000 miners. The subsequent report blamed the accidental ignition of firedamp, exacerbated by coal dust in the air. Concerned that a similar disaster might happen in British collieries, the Royal Commission was formed, reporting back in 1907, 1909 and 1911. [2]

On 9 April 1908 an explosion at Norton Hill Collieries at Westfield approximately 1,500 feet (460 m) underground killed 10 men and boys. As there were no mine rescue teams at that time, the manager and volunteers searched for survivors for 10 days. [3]

The civil servant Malcolm Delevingne had a significant influence on safety regulations in factories and mines. [4] He did a considerable amount of work on the Coal Mines Act 1911. [5]

Richard Redmayne joined the Home Office as the first Chief Inspector of Mines in 1908 and worked with Delevingne to bring about the Act 1911. [6] The royal commission reports led to the Coal Mines Act 1911, which came force into December that year. [2]

Enactment

Winston Churchill was instrumental in the passing of the Coal Mines Act 1911. [3] Implemented by the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith, it was the culmination of legislation enacted in the 19th century. [7] [8]

The act amended and consolidated the law related to coal mines, including the act of 1887 and subsequent regulations. [9] It embodied legislation in the United Kingdom regarding the management of mines, safety provisions, health, accidents, regulations, employment, inspectors and other subjects. [10] The act and other reforms by the Liberal government had the effect of weakening the Labour Party's independence.

The Labour Party had to support the Liberal reforms, and was therefore criticised by revolutionary socialists and syndicalists. [11]

The act was the main statute regulating mining health and safety in the period between World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45). [12]

Under the act the government could introduce new safety regulations without seeking legislative approval. [13]

The 1911 act was followed by a series of acts to further improve working practices including the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage Act) 1912, Coal Mines Act General Regulations 1913, Coal Mines Act 1914 and Coal Mines Act 1919. The acts made working conditions safer and less arduous, and also improved productivity. [14]

Safety provisions

A royal commission of 1886 had recommended that rescue stations be created, but they were not made compulsory until the 1911 Act. The Act required all mine owners to establish rescue stations, provide teams of trained rescuers, and to keep and maintain rescue apparatus. [15]

In 1912 the government revised the regulations concerning ambulances and rescue apparatus, and the training of their operators. [13] There had to be a rescue station within 10 miles (16 km) of any mine with more than 100 employees. That limit was raised to 15 miles (24 km) a few years later. The result was a rapid increase in the number of rescue stations between 1911 and 1918. By 1918 there were ten Scheme "A" stations with permanent full-time rescue teams, and 36 Scheme "B" stations with officers and instructors who trained miners in rescue. [16]

Henry Fleuss developed a form of self-contained breathing apparatus that was used after an explosion at Seaham Colliery in 1881. [17] The apparatus was further developed by Siebe Gorman into the Proto rebreather. In 1908 the Proto apparatus was chosen in a trial of equipment from several manufacturers to select the most efficient apparatus for use underground at Howe Bridge Mines Rescue Station. It became the standard in rescue stations set up after the act of 1911. [18]

The 1911 act required mine operators to guard against coal dust explosions, but did not dictate the approach to be taken. [13]

After an explosion at Senghenydd in South Wales in 1913 Home Secretary Reginald McKenna and the employers yielded to a demand by the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) for a special court of inquiry with representation from miners and employers. The inquiry did not establish the cause of the explosion but did find that the company had failed to comply with the Act's requirement to install reversible fans and to measure underground air currents. [19] The act stated that fans should operate continuously while colliers were working on the face.

Failure to observe this rule was one of the causes of an explosion at Wharncliffe Silkstone in May 1914 that caused twelve deaths. [20]

Other provisions

The 1911 Act granted miners an eight-hour day. [21] [lower-alpha 2] No boy aged under 14 could be employed below ground unless they had been working below ground before the Act was passed. Boys under 16 could not be employed above ground at night, although they could be employed underground. [24] The Act brought in strict regulations to provide for the general welfare of pit ponies working in the mines, although the use of ponies would continue for many years. [25]

The Act provided that a manager or under-manager had to personally supervise each mine on a daily basis. [12] It established the Mining Qualifications Board to ensure that colliery managers and under-managers, firemen, deputies and shot-firers who would be wholly or partly responsible for mining safety were suitably qualified, and to issue certificates of competence. [26] Mine owners were required to secure disused or abandoned mine openings against accidental entry. [27] The Act §97(1) specified that Welsh-speakers in Wales would be preferred as inspectors of mines in Wales, but the Mines Department did not take this rule seriously. [28]

Notes

  1. The "bank" is the area at the top of the mine shaft. "Winding" is the process of lowering or raising the cage in the shaft. Miners had to wait their turn before descending or coming back up, and the waiting period and the period in the cage did not count in the working day calculation.
  2. The Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908 (Eight Hours Day Act) had limited working hours to eight hours, but since it excluding winding times the average bank-to-bank hours in the UK were eight hours and thirty nine minutes. [22] [lower-alpha 1] The Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association had published figures for South Wales collieries that showed that bank-to-bank hours had been reduced from nine and a half to eight and a half hours. The 1908 Act allowed for an additional 60 hours to be worked annually over and above the eight hours daily, and the owners insisted on the hours being worked. [23]
  1. Houghton Mines Rescue 100 Years, p. 8.
  2. 1 2 Brown 2009, pp. 66–70.
  3. 1 2 Johns 2008.
  4. Obituary: Sir M. Delevingne.
  5. Bartrip 2004.
  6. Richard Redmayne – ODNB.
  7. Ginsberg 1959, p. 215.
  8. Singleton 2016, p. 109.
  9. Williamson 1999, p. 234.
  10. British Parliament 1911.
  11. Beer 2001, p. 377.
  12. 1 2 Church & Outram 2002, p. 273.
  13. 1 2 3 Singleton 2016, p. 110.
  14. Wain 2014, p. 28.
  15. Mines Rescue – National Coal Mining Museum.
  16. Bunt 1975.
  17. Preece & Ellis 1981, p. 81.
  18. Davies 2009, p. 133.
  19. Singleton 2016, p. 118.
  20. Baylies 2003, p. 519.
  21. Impact of Liberal reforms – BBC.
  22. Mitchell 1984, p. 141.
  23. Mitchell 1984, p. 142.
  24. US Department of Labor 1913, p. 55.
  25. Ewer 1982, p. 230.
  26. Wain 2014, p. 27–28.
  27. Holmes 2013, p. 29.
  28. Williamson 1999, p. 97.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springhill mining disasters</span> Any of three mining disasters in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada (1891, 1956, 1958)

Springhill mining disaster may refer to any of three deadly Canadian mining disasters that occurred in 1891, 1956, and 1958 in different mines within the Springhill coalfield, near the town of Springhill in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. In the 1891 accident, 125 died; in 1956, 39 were killed; and in 1958, 75 miners were killed.

A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries where safety measures are not practiced as fully. A mining disaster is an incident where there are five or more fatalities.

The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' unions in England, Scotland and Wales whose associations remained largely autonomous. At its peak, the federation represented nearly one million workers. It was reorganised into the National Union of Mineworkers in 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senghenydd colliery disaster</span> Mining explosion in 1913

The Senghenydd colliery disaster, also known as the Senghenydd explosion, occurred at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14 October 1913. The explosion, which killed 439 miners and a rescuer, is the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom. Universal Colliery, on the South Wales Coalfield, extracted steam coal, which was much in demand. Some of the region's coal seams contained high quantities of firedamp, a highly explosive gas consisting of methane and hydrogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oaks explosion</span> 1866 British mining disaster

The Oaks explosion, which happened at a coal mine in West Riding of Yorkshire on 12 December 1866, remains the worst mining disaster in England. A series of explosions caused by firedamp ripped through the underground workings at the Oaks Colliery at Hoyle Mill near Stairfoot in Barnsley killing 361 miners and rescuers. It was the worst mining disaster in the United Kingdom until the 1913 Senghenydd explosion in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mine rescue</span> Rescue of persons trapped after mining accidents

Mine rescue or mines rescue is the specialised job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured in underground mines because of mining accidents, roof falls or floods and disasters such as explosions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gresford disaster</span> 1934 coal mining disaster near Wrexham, Wales

The Gresford disaster occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, when an explosion and underground fire killed 266 men. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters: a controversial inquiry into the disaster did not conclusively identify a cause, though evidence suggested that failures in safety procedures and poor mine management were contributory factors. Further public controversy was caused by the decision to seal the colliery's damaged sections permanently, meaning that only eleven of those who died were recovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Delevingne</span> British civil servant (1868–1950)

Sir Malcolm Delevingne, was a British civil servant who worked in the British Home Office from 1892 through his retirement in 1932. He was a significant influence on safety regulations in factories and mines, and was an original member of the League of Nations' Opium Advisory Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lofthouse Colliery disaster</span> Mining accident in Lofthouse, West Yorkshire, England

The Lofthouse Colliery disaster was a mining accident in Lofthouse, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on Wednesday 21 March 1973, in which seven mine workers died when workings flooded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Redmayne</span> British engineer

Sir Richard Augustine Studdert Redmayne was a British civil and mining engineer. Redmayne worked as manager of several mines in Britain and South Africa before becoming a professor at the University of Birmingham. He was a leading figure in improving mine safety in the early twentieth century and would become the first Chief Inspector of Mines, leading investigations into many of the mine disasters of his time. He became the president of three professional associations, namely the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, the Institution of Professional Civil Servants and the Institution of Civil Engineers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minnie Pit Disaster</span> 1918 coal mining accident in England

The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded in the North Staffordshire Coalfield. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.

The West Stanley Pit disasters refers to two explosions at the West Stanley colliery. West Stanley colliery was a coal mine near Stanley. It opened in 1832 and closed in 1936. Over the years several seams were worked through four shafts: Kettledrum pit, Lamp pit, Mary pit and New pit. In 1882 an underground explosion killed 13 men. In 1909 another explosion took place, killing 168 men. Twenty-nine men survived the disaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gresford Colliery</span> Former coal mine in Gresford, Wrexham, Wales

Gresford Colliery was a coal mine located a mile from the North Wales village of Gresford, near Wrexham.

The Box Flat Mine or Box Flat Colliery was located at Swanbank in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The mine opened in 1969 and operated until its closure on 30 June 1987. Its coal was mined for the operation of the Swanbank Power Station.

This is a partial glossary of coal mining terminology commonly used in the coalfields of the United Kingdom. Some words were in use throughout the coalfields, some are historic and some are local to the different British coalfields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lundhill Colliery explosion</span> Coal mining accident in Wombwell, Yorkshire, UK

The Lundhill Colliery explosion was a coal mining accident which took place on 19 February 1857 in Wombwell, Yorkshire, UK in which 189 men and boys aged between 10 and 59 died. It is one of the biggest industrial disasters in the country's history and it was caused by a firedamp explosion. It was the first disaster to appear on the front page of the Illustrated London News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentley Colliery</span> Former coal mine in South Yorkshire, England

Bentley Colliery was a coal mine in Bentley, near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, that operated between 1906 and 1993. In common with many other mines, it suffered disasters and accidents. The worst Bentley disaster was in 1931 when 45 miners were killed after a gas explosion. The site of the mine has been converted into a woodland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cymmer Colliery explosion</span> July 1856 mining disaster in Wales

The Cymmer Colliery explosion occurred in the early morning of 15 July 1856 at the Old Pit mine of the Cymmer Colliery near Porth, Wales, operated by George Insole & Son. The underground gas explosion resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country" in which 114 men and boys were killed. Thirty-five widows, ninety-two children, and other dependent relatives were left with no immediate means of support.

The 1923 Bellbird Mining Disaster took place on 1 September 1923 when there was a fire at Hetton-Bellbird coal mine, known locally as the Bellbird Colliery or mine. The coal mine was located near the village of Bellbird, which is itself three miles southwest of Cessnock in the Northern coalfields of New South Wales, Australia. The accident occurred in the No. 1 Workings of the mine and resulted in the deaths of 21 miners and their horses. At the time of the disaster the mine employed 538 people including 369 who worked underground.