Glossary.
Some mining terms and their meanings, please note that some terms varied from colliery to colliery even within the same area.
Headings in Red are click-able for popup images.
Air door. Airtight wooden framed doors covered in "Braddish" (Brattice) usually arranged in pairs to control the airflow between the "main" and "return". A person or persons would enter between the doors closing the first door behind them before opening the second. In the early days a young or very young boy would be employed to open and shut these doors to allow drams to pass.
Air leg. A compress air device for supporting a rock boring machine.
Banksman. The person who is responsible for loading and unloading drams and men onto/off the cage at pit top and also signalling that the cage is ready to be moved.
Bar hook. A bar attached to the back of a dram as a safety device to stop the dram running backwards.
Bell. A smooth sided large stone, shaped like a bell, which could fall from the roof without warning.
Blast pick or puncher. A smaller version of the pneumatic drill used in road repairs on the surface.
Blast. Compressed Air used to drive various kinds of machinery.
Blast-Bag or Bag. A hose that delivers the compressed air or water from the pipes to the machine.
Braddish. Real name Brattice, heavy woven material onetime impregnated with tar to make it airtight, later a lighter material used. see air door above.
Buller or Cronje. Real name Sylvester, a ratchet and lever implement for removing roof supports at a safe distance with the use of a chain.
Bumper. Loud thuds, which could shake a whole underground district, believed to be caused by the above strata settling after the removal of the coal. More frequently heard at night.
Bunkin/Bonkin. A soft layer of black shale usually found at the bottom of a coal seam. The slabs of bread pudding sold in the pithead canteens was often ridiculed with this name.
Button/Button man. The control switch of a conveyor belt, which was operated by the button-man, who was usually an old ex-collier or someone not fit enough for heavy manual work because of ill health or injury.
Buttie. This term probably derived from the days of canal transport when the lead barge sometimes towed a smaller barge or barges called Butty or Butty's. It was initially then used in the pits to mean a miner's young helper, it later evolved to mean any workmate, now it applies to any friend.
Chock. Hydraulically powered modern coalface support.
Cleats or Wedges. Small pieces of timber sharpened at one end used to tighten props or laggings.
Clod. A layer of soft rock on the top of some coal seams.
Cog. Lengths of over-lapping timber built box shape and filled with "muck" to support the roof.
Collier or Hewer. Someone who worked at the coalface.
Dobby and Doughty. Two types of hydraulic props manually pumped up and released using a special "key".
Dram. Tram or Truck.
Dukie or Main Road. The main roadway especially where the full and empty journeys travel to and from the pit bottom, usually on the air intake.
Duff. Fine small coal.
Engine Man. The man who operated the Haulage Engine.
Flat. A length of half rounded timber, placed flat side against the roof and supported at each end by a prop.
Foot Block. A short thick piece of wood used under roof props or the "legs" of rings particularly when the bottom is soft.
Gob or Waste. The area left behind as the face advances between the main and return headings.
Haulier. A man in charge of a pit pony.
Heading. Roadway or Tunnel.
Hitcher. A hitcher is the person who is responsible for loading and unloading drams and men onto/off the cage at pit bottom and also signalling that the cage is ready to be moved.
Holing Out. The collier would dig a narrow channel into the bottom of the coal seam, in order to release the coal above, sometimes referred to as "cutting his legs off".
Jigger. A type of early conveyor consisting of deep U-shaped pans, which rode on cradles and was rocked by a blast powered engine. This jerking movement made the material (coal/muck) slide in the pans towards the dump-end.
Jim Crow. An implement used by a roadman for bending rails.
Journey. Usually about 25 drams hitched together with shackles, hauled in and out from the pit bottom by an endless or main and tail steel rope.
Journey-man or Rider. A man who looked after the Journey.
Jump or Fault. Where the coal seam and rock strata is displaced either upwards or downwards.
Knocking wire. A length of thin wire rope, hung along a roadway, connected at regular intervals to a signal device. This was used by the Rider to signal to the Engine-man.
Lagging. Lengths of timber placed to support the area between the pairs of rings.
Lid. A short length of timber, set centrally on top of a prop.
Mandrill. Also called "shaft and blade" the colliers pick. The blade
could be removed from the shaft, and carried easily to the surface for sharpening
at the Blacksmiths.
In the lower seams mandrills were sometimes used as gauges to measure the length
for wooden props. If required, to make up the extra distance the fingers, hand
or arm would be used also, e.g. example a mandrill's length and the thickness
of two fingers.
Mandrill (Bottom). A much heavier version of the above used for cutting pwkins (bottoms).
Manhole. Small recesses driven into the sides of the headings at regular intervals where men could gain safety as drams past by, or when shot firing was taking place.
Muck. Rock or waste.
Muck, (Band of). A thin layer of rock within the coal seam.
Ostler. Man in charge of the horse’s welfare at the underground stables.
Pack. Large stones are formed into a wall and filled with "muck" behind the face and on the side of the heading, to support the weight as the worked ground settles.
Pair of Rings. Two halves of an arched girder roadway support, bolted together with fishplates.
Pair of Timber. Form of heading support used before rings. Two lengths of timber (arms) each pointed at the top, were placed upright at opposite sides of the heading, then a "collar" a length of timber with a notch cut into each end to facilitate the pointed arms was set against the roof. These would be set in pairs; each pair would be about 3 to 4 feet apart and where needed laggings would be used to secure the roof between.
Panzer. The first description of the newly introduced German armoured conveyors.
Podger or pinch bar. A long steel bar pointed at one end and wedge shaped at the other, generally used to prize down loose stones at the rippings.
Pwkins or Bottoms. Heaved up floor of the roadways.
Post and lid. A prop (post) with a short length of timber on top (lid) driven tightly with a sledgehammer to support the roof.
Red Indians. Large red coloured Cockroaches, which were abundant in the warm, moist atmosphere of the return airways.
Repair Holt. Holt from the Welsh Hollt. A place where the roof of the heading is ripped down and the old rings replaced with new to regain the original height.
Return. The ventilation out-bye roadway where supplies to the coal faces travelled.
Rib. The ends of the face where a right-angle corner was formed.
Rippings. Rock that is removed from behind the coalface and in front of the roadway to make room for the Rings.
Sprag. A short length of timber tapered at each end used to slow down or stop drams by placing through the wheel spokes.
Stamping or Punching. Dig a hole with a mandrill in the bottom large enough to accommodate the foot of a prop, so that the prop is set on solid ground. Also acts to stop the prop foot from being skittled out when shot-firing.
Squeeze. When the roof moves as a whole, gradually breaking props and bending steel rings.
Stent or Stint. The coalface would be divided into sections (stents) of about 8 to 10 yards in length, e.g. a coalface 150 yards long would have 15 to 18 stents. A collier would work his stent supporting the roof as the coal was removed.
Strut. A length of timber or a steel clamp used to keep the Rings the required distance apart.
Temp. A temporally prop erected while the ground was prepared for a more permanent roof support.
Tommy Box. A tin box used for carrying sandwiches, rounded at one end for easier access into a pocket. This rounded end was a perfect shape to accommodate an onion, the ideal companion for the usual cheese sandwiches. The metal box was essential to stop the Mice or Rats and in some cases Red Indians from stealing the food.
Toolbar. A thin piece of metal rod with a flange at one end and a slot at the other. Miner’s tools had a hole drilled through the handles to accommodate this rod enabling them to be locked up at the end of each shift.
Twist or Screw. Chewing tobacco, many miners chewed bacca (tobacco) underground has a substitute for smoking, which of course was banned. It was also thought to help in the dusty conditions by keeping the mouth moist and ensuring breathing via the nose.
Wedge and feathers. Used in the early days. The "feathers" two narrow lengths of steel were place into a split or a drilled hole in the rock or coal, then a wedge of steel was driven with a sledgehammer between them, this would break away the material being mined.