Question about mining

My Grandad came from North Dublin after the civil war - found himself on the losing side. Worked on the Fitzwilliam estate the down the pits. Nan from Cork.

And yes, we’ll thrash u English on St Paddy’s day

 

My great grandfather (originally from Cork, I believe) came over and worked at Barrow Colliery. He was active in the Holy Rood RC Church community. He suffered a serious back injury - I imagine due to a roof collapse - that finished his working life and ultimately contributed to his death. Lady Kaht has ancestors who came over from Mayo to work in the mines locally, so it's interesting to hear of so many others who are descendants of Mayo natives. That's what got us wondering really, and it's interesting to hear of so many other connections on here. You realise that you know snippets of information, but not a full story. For instance, I always assumed that there was a small nook of Worsbrough that was called Barrow! I now understand that the Barrow name comes from the owners of the mine. The 'Black Diamonds' book gives some interesting insights into some parts of the early industry. I don't know how their working conditions would have been looked upon now, but it seems that the Fitzwilliams were regarded as good employers. Other owners before nationalisation seem to have been less philanthropic, with evictions from colliery-owned rented properties not uncommon - especially in times of industrial unrest.

I questioned on the other thread whether Scargill might have achieved more for his people had he been less confrontational. But I have to concede that in Thatcher, he was up against possibly the most confrontational politician of my lifetime. And I guess some of those battles probably echo back to divisiveness dating back to the early 20th century, and take in along the way episodes such as Manny Shinwell digging up the Fitzwilliams' lawns - about which the Yorkshire NUM itself protested to Attlee. There are also curious episodes such as the previous Lord Scarbrough marching with the Maltby miners in 1984, and paying them a few bob to act as temporary grouse beaters when the strike was on and they were struggling for cash. By 'eck, there's a lot to know!

 

There's a train station at Foxford - I've stood on it as a sort of tribute to mi grandad.
That's where my grandad and his 2 brothers started their journey to England.

Also - Spanish Armada came aground in Mayo.
My grandads relatives from that area are comparatively tall (mixed race?) for their generation and have a Mediterranean look about them.

 

If yer relatives are from that area around Foxford like mine are - mine are from a tiny village called Cuilkillew on the banks of Lough Conn - then they will have definitely known each other.
And probably known each other well.
People living there know each other from miles around because it's only sparsely populated.
Past and present relatives there are:

Earley - e.g. Dermot Earley - Irish Defence Forces Chief of Staff.
Madden
Queenan - e.g. Joe, owner of Foxford Woollen Mills

 

My Grandad was raised in a village called Kiltimagh, Co.Mayo. I remember as a lad how he told me a sad story about witnessing his brother get run over and killed by a car in 1922.
It was only years later that it occurred to me that to get run over by a car, in a remote Southern Irish village in 1922, he must have been hit by the only car in Ireland at that time. Luck of the Irish!!!???

 

Yep - when mi grandmother went to visit her in-laws in Mayo there were kids still walking around the countryside without any shoes.
In a wet and cold country.
And it weren't that long ago really.
So seeing a car would have been extraordinary.
Then again - I remember the days when there were no cars down our street - so it were great for playing football.

 

Mine owners paid for as little as possible, so I can't see them paying fares for Irish immigrants. They paid a ganger to distribute wages and give out jobs. They always had the whip hand.

 

My grandad came over from Roscommon during the war and helped clear the bomb damage in London

 

There were also Cornish tin miners who came to work in our mines. There a mention of them living in Lundhill Row at the time of the Lundhill Colliery mining disaster. My own Family's origin is Cheshire. My ggGranddad was listed as a Wheelwright when he married ggGrandmother in 1837 at Darfield Church. They were living in Jump in 1851 but by 1861 he was working as a Coke Burner probably for the Fitzwilliams. My Greatgrandad was 15 and working as a miner. The Fitzwilliams did pay up to 3 times more than other mine owners but there workers were still living in relative poverty.

 

The family surname was pretty distinctive - Padham. Don't think there's many with that name.

 

most of the owners or Landowners were aristocratic or new aristiocrat families such as earl of strafford(ie the Wentworth family/duchy of argyll clan), earl fitzwilliam, and earl of wharncliffe at least in South and West of Barnsley prior to the Labourite Nationalisation.

Barrow was worsbrough park colliery and named after the engineers from barrow in Furness who sunk the seams there into the Silkstone seam..

Intersting to see how many have links to Mayo and Connaught .. hardest hit areas of the British imposed an Ghorta Mor of the mid 1800s

 

No wonder all these people left Ireland. ...it must have been packed solid.

 

My great grandparents on my mother's side came from Swinford in Mayo. They were tenant farmers, but got turned off the land when it became more profitable for the owner to graze sheep. That was in the 1870s. They were poor, and got a free ride from Dun Laoghaire to Heysham on a livestock boat by opting to travel with the pigs in the hold. Tough times. They came to England to look for work, making for Barnsley because the parish priest at Holyrood Church at that time was from Swinford and they hoped he might be able to help them. He did; Grandad Cannon was given a job as a gardener at the convent attached to the church, and grandma Cannon worked in the convent kitchens.

 

Mine were from Ballinar, also in Mayo. Lived in Pontefracf, for some time and then moved to Low Valley.

 

If you go to farms in the area - unless it's been modernised - there's always a few small rooms in the barns where the Irish used to live - mostly during harvest time.

 

What's their surname?

 

A lot of the 'navvies' who were involved in sinking the shafts before mining started were Irish. I am not sure why, but it also fits with the roles they played in constructing the railways, London underground etc. I would presume that, once the shaft sinking stopped as mining reached its eastern margin beyond Doncaster, they may well have got jobs as face-workers like most others.

 

My maternal Grandparents came over from Bahola County Mayo and were staunch Catholics.
When I got to the age I could go in the local WMC some of the lads told me about my Grandads
exploits as a ganger in laying the roadways in most of the pits in South Yorkshire. In their time the
family lived in Askern, Edlington, Rossington, Armthorpe and finally Hatfield.
One of the lads told me that when they had finished a roadway, my Grandad was very generous.
The lads said that when you celebrated with big Pat Mullany at the end of a job he would have you
supping out of buckets.!
Apparently they finished a roadway down Yorkshire Main ( Edlington) and the road gang were in the pub
celebrating. Apparently the Salvation Army Band came by playing a rousing hymn. Mullany put his pint down
went outside and dived headfirst through the big drum. As he landed on the grass verge he shouted " be Jayzus
that's the first time I've been up to my ass in music."
When my Grandma heard of what he'd done she dragged him off to the Salvation Army HQ where he had to
apologise and hand over some money to buy a new drum skin.

 

McHale one of them was a winger for Huddersfield. There's a McHale stadium in Mayo.