Old Monkland Colliery wood hall?

[paulpesda]

My great great grandfather, Rowland Evans b1828 and his wife Mary, b1835 moved from Trawsfynydd, North Wales to Old Monkland, Lanarkshire after 1855.  (they had a son Abraham, who was born in North Wales in 1855) They were definitely there by 1856, as Mary gave birth to her daughter, and in 1861, as they are noted on the census, despite being down as born in 'England' (for shame!) on that registry. He is noted as being a 'coal miner', which would make sense coming from North Wales, and most probably came up to look for work. Why Scotland, I'm not sure? They were living at Woodhall Square, Woodhall, Old Monkland, and I was wondering if these houses were still there, and what mine he might have worked at?
His son, daughter Annie Elizabeth was born in Old Monkland in September 1856, and son Rowland was born in Old Monkland in July 1859.
On his son's birth certificate, it mentions 'Woodhall' colliery, as their address, so was there a colliery named as so?
any help would be great,
thanks so much, diolch

[bleckie]

Hi

The only Woodhall Colliery I could find in Scotland was at Pencaitland

http://scottishmining.co.uk/439.html

Pencaitland is mentioned at the bottom of the page

Yours Aye
BruceL

[JMStrachan]

The area around Old Monkland had an awful lot of coal mines - it was one of the main mining regions in Scotland. A good web site for the history of Scottish coal mining is at http://www.scottishmining.co.uk which had lots about that area.

The name Woodhall Square sounds as if it was miners' housing, built and owned by the colliery company. If that's what the houses were, they'd be long gone.

There was a Woodhall mine near Coatbridge: see http://scottishmining.co.uk/401.html (scroll to the bottom of the page).

[paulpesda]

thank you. this is all great help to me. how would they have known, in north Wales, about this mine? would the company have placed adverts in local papers for men, or do you think it might have been a family connection up there? I'm struggling to find one, I must admit.

[RJ_Paton]

Up to the end of the 18th Century miners in Scotland were basically serfs of the mineowners and their children were born into the same - any miner who left his employer without consent could even be charged with theft of himself as he was the property of the land owner/mine owner.  At the start of the 1800's this changed but miners were still often considered second class citizens and as the Industrial Boom took off the need for coal and Iron meant that more and more skilled miners were needed. As there was a distinct shortage of the necessary skills in Scotland there were several recruiting drives in mining areas in England and Wales to bring the men north - most were probably engaged through local agents and local advertising rather than newspapers. In the book "The Mineworkers - by Robert Duncan"  he mentions that in the Coatbridge area in the 1830's and 40's  there were many Welsh miners present so it is possible that in the 1850's some family members were already there.

[paulpesda]

thank you. diolch yn fawr. I've ordered the book too.

[mosstrooper]

Woodhall Colliery No. 1,2 and 3 were next to Calderbank Old Monkland, south of Airdrie.

Waggon Filler Killed at Woodhall Colliery - On Saturday a man named Alexander Barclay, about 65 years of ago, employed as a waggon filler at Woodhall Colliery (Barr & Higgins , Ltd.), Calderbank, lost his life on a line of railway at the colliery. He had been underneath a stationary waggon clearing out some dross that had fallen between the rails when several other waggons were shunted up against the stationary one, and in an attempt to got clear Barclay was run over and instantaneously killed. He was unmarried, and lived in Calderbank with a brother. [Scotsman 31 December 1923]

Read here :- http://www.monklands.co.uk/faskine/

James.

[MonicaL]

Up to the end of the 18th Century miners in Scotland were basically serfs of the mineowners and their children were born into the same - any miner who left his employer without consent could even be charged with theft of himself as he was the property of the land owner/mine owner. 

Had never come across this info previously, Falkryn. Sounds like slavery here, in the same period really, ....

[JMStrachan]

Yes, Scottish coal miners, and salt workers, were legally bound to the coal master by an Act of Parliament in 1606 and added to in 1641 and 1661. It wasn't quite serfdom or slavery but it wasn't far off. There was also "arling" in which a mine master gave a baptism gift in return for the parent agreeing that the child would be brought up to be a miner. The Acts were  partially repealed in 1775 and fully repealed in 1799.

However, from my reading up on the subject it appears that strict application of the law mainly took place in mines in the east of scotland, and in the west (Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and parts of Lanarkshire) it wasn't as strictly applied.

Not sure they were always considered "second class citizens", especially at times when their wages were higher than a lot of other manual jobs, but their tendency to live in miners' housing meant they were very much their own community and tended to marry within that community.

Robert Duncan's book "The Mine Workers" is excellent.