What was precisely a colliery banksman?

[joger]

My GGgrandfather was a stone mason in the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses but when he died he was a colliery banksman.
What was this job ?

[Gadget]

My father used to talk about Banksmen at the colliery where he worked. I believed that they carried out various duties  on the surface.

This is one definition

Bank, pit bank or pit brow

    The bank, pit bank or pit brow is the area at the top of the shaft.[3]

Banksman or banker

    A banksman, banker, hillman or browman works at the pit bank to dispatch the coals, and organise the workforce. He is in charge of loading or unloading the cage, drawing full tubs from the cages and replacing them with empty ones.[1] The counterpart role at pit bottom is the onsetter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_coal_mining_terminology#B


Gadget

[joger]

Thanks very much Gadget.
Have a good day.

[Gadget]

I knew there was a thread about mining occupations somewhere on Rootschat!  Here it is:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=164035.0

Gadget

Add - more on this section

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/occupations/

[joger]

Thank you for the links

[Zaphod99]

A banksman is also a safety lookout.

Zaph

[Calleva]

https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/faq-banksmen.htm

[JenB]

https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/faq-banksmen.htm

But that is not the job description for a colliery banksman.

This is what the Durham Mining Museum has to say:

 1825: those who, at the bank or top of the pit, unhook and empty the laden corves into the carts or waggons, from a frame or stage.
 1849: a man who draws the full tubs from the cages at the surface, when wound up by the engine, and replaces them with empty ones ; he also puts the full tubs to the weighing machine, and thence to the skreens, upon which he teems the coals. It is also his duty to keep an account of the quantity of coals and stones drawn each day.
 1894: Person who controls the unloading and loading of the cage at the pit top and signals the descent of the workmen

http://www.dmm.org.uk/educate/mineocc.htm#b

[Gadget]

More or less what I quoted in Reply #1. Jennifer