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Shaft sinking for the extraction of minerals has taken place for centuries, and for much of this time, coal mining was carried out in the North East of England. Various methods of pit sinking developed from the use of shallow bell pits to the excavation of deep shafts, in order to access rich seams of coal and other minerals for sale in rapidly urbanising areas such as London. In the close mining communities of Northumberland and Durham, those who dug the initial shafts, the sinkers themselves, were regarded as the mining elite. This book not only tells the story of mining itself, through upheaval and technological developments, but also focuses on the lives of miners and their families above ground in the emerging pit towns adn villages; places where religion adn miners' galas were an integral part of life. Peter Ford Mason, descended from three generations of County Durham miners, has written a fascinating investigation onto miming society, which makes a compelling read for anyone interested in the social history of the North East or the mining industry as a whole.

Excerpt from A Treatise on the Coal Mines of Durham and Northumberland: With Information Relative to the Stratifications of the Two Countries; And Containing Accounts of the Explosions From Fire Damp, Which Have Occurred Therein for the Last Twenty Years; Their Causes, and the Means for Their Remedy, and for the General Impro Under these, considerations the obsta'cles which would otherwise intimidate the inter ference of mere argumentative humanity, appear but as the natural ascents to a great and com manding eminence - an eminence whereon the latent principles of science will mutually con verge, and dissipate the gloom which still so unaccountably pervades one feature of our in ternal polity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.