Norfolk farm labourers in the Northumberland/Durham coalfields

[BigOoms]

A very interesting thread.
I too had family move from Hindleveston, Norfolk to Dudley in Northumberland. Bastard was the family name, an Uncle of my Grandfather.
My direct line, my GGrandfather moved from the same village to Staffordshire (Packmoor) to work down the mine. Sadly he died at 29 after just a couple of years and his wife soon followed, leaving 3 small children.
My Grandfather was sent for by the Uncle in Dudley, as he only had daughters, obviously to supplement the family funds. My Grandfather couldn't take the life and managed to become an Engine Driver with LNER.
Whilst in Norfolk my GGrandfather had worked for a farmer by the name of Bacon, so this name became added to their family name and they were known as the Pearce-Bacons! Sounds very posh!
   My Grandfather hated being called Billy Bacon so reverted for the rest of his life to
William Pearce but his younger brother retained the Bacon  and was throughtout his life
   Alfred Pearce-Bacon.
My paternal side also migrated to the mines but this time from small coalfields in north Northumberland( Norham area) to County Durham, Hetton-le-Hole working alongside the Middleton ancestors ( Harrisons) for the Bowes-Lyon family!

[Diane Parker]

I have been tracing a branch of my family - my great grandmother's elder brother moved from South Creake in Norfolk to Parkgate near Rotherham between 1871 and 1881. He was a labourer at first but later became a miner as did his sons. I wondered why the family left Norfolk for the grime of a coalmining area but realise that it was economic necessity. I am having trouble identifying the jobs the younger boys did as there are big, black crosses on the census and the writing is not great.

[c-side]

Welcome to rootschat, Diane 

Why don't you start a new thread - possibly in the Handwirting/Deciphering or the Occupations sections and attach part of the census which you are having a problem with.  Someone will be able to read it!

Christine

[Diane Parker]

This information is fascinating - how I wish they had taught us about it when I was a Norfolk Schoolgirl!
Following Christine's suggestion I am the relevant part of the 1901 census. 
Entry 7.  The family name was Doughty. John and his sons Fred, Jothan ( Jonathan) and Walter were all working at the Colliery. It is the occupations of Jothan and Walter that I cannot work out.
I hope that someone  can help me decipher these occupations. The family were living and working in the Parkgate area.
The youngest son Percy was 11 in 1901 but is missing from the census. In 1909 he enlisted enlist in the York and Lancaster Regiment giving his occupation as miner. He survived the war but was discharged in March 1919 having been wounded. In addition to the 3 WW1 medals he was awarded the silver war badge so that people would know he was not avoiding his duty!

[Millmoor]

Hi

One transcription has the following Coal trammer below ground and cinder wheeler at colliery above ground ( but there is also an additional part which seems to say below for coke).

William

[Diane Parker]

Thank you for that.
Any idea what a cinder wheeler might do? We wondered if cinder is another term for slag. The coke bit is puzzling.

[dolly dimples]

 Taking my mind back to childhood here,              Coke is a piece of coal which has most of the gas burnt out, but still usable in boilers and furnaces etc'. Cinders was the dead coal pieces that we cleaned out of the grate of a morning, but some were put back on the fire if they still had a spark of life. ( hence Cinderellas' name )
 Not sure what the cinder wheeler did, but a cinder wench was a woman who picked the cinder's heaped around the pit yard, a common job for women at that time. Slag was all the waste that created the pit heaps around Northumberland..  Dolly .

[c-side]

I'm wondering whether it should say 'Wailer' which was a job for boys picking our unwanted substances from the coal.  The Trammer, I suspect, is a boy who works on the trams and usually referred to as a Putter

See - http://www.dmm.org.uk/educate/mineocc.htm#w

Christine

[belfordian]

If you look on the census around Earsdon you will find whole streets full of Norfolk-born households. Families in these parts today often have lost the knowledge of their Norfolk ancestry. Recently I traced the ancestry of a Cramlington-born friend back to Norfolk and was amazed in so doing to find a connection between his ancestry and mine through a different line!

My 2xgrt grandfather came from Blakeney Norfolk as a seaman, signed on at Sunderland in 1846 and settled in BLYTH where he married a local girl. He was drowned in1864 and only 2 of his daughters survived out of 4 children. But the surname MALLETT survived as a middle name for a few generations. However none of my relatives knew anything about the link with Norfolk despite my grandmother having a photo of him on her wall for years. It was a big surprise to discover his origins when I researched my family history and traced the line back to 1700 in rural Norfolk.