The Denaby dispute – Nearly 50 families evicted
Mexborough and Swinton Times April 10 1885
The dispute which is now taking place at Denaby Main between the employers and the workmen of the Colliery company will be memorable in the annals of the struggles between capital and labour. For more than three months the men and held out with great pertinacity against the terms proposed by their employers. The latter have been equally obstinate. For some time after the commencement of the dispute the company were content to receive deputations from the men with a view to arriving at an amicable arrangement. Various means were tried by the men to arrive at this desirable consummation, but their employers held firm the terms they proposed to the men.
Having failed to arrive at a settlement by peaceful means the company at length decided to obtain their ends by the very unorthodox method of ejecting the miners from their cottages. Without going into the reasons as to how the houses owned by the Denaby Main Colliery company have been occupied, it suffices to state that the majority of employees at the Colliery reside in the cottages owned by the company. About two thirds of the dwellings are situated in Denaby proper, the remainder being built in Conisbrough.
With a view to obtaining possession of the cottages, notices were served on the occupants to quit within seven days. There was a very cogent reason why this request could not be ceded to. The houses in the neighbouring parishes of Mexborough and Conisbrough were fully occupied, and as an epidemic of smallpox was then raging in the village it was not thought advisable to subject any benevolent persons who might give the families of the miners shelter to the risk of infection.
The company also had apparently determined not take harsh measures until they were forced, and consequently the days grew into weeks and the weeks into months before any further steps were taken in the matter. At length a decided move was taken and the necessary notices have been given, ejectment orders were applied for. Among all of the men employed at this colliery there was hardly one who believed that the orders would be carried into effect, and little or no provision was made for the occurance.
The application for the ejectment orders made to the Doncaster and Rotherham’s benches of magistrates at first surprised the miners but even then they could not be made to believe that the iron hand of the law would be used against them to such a degree as to eject them from their homes.
Their dreams of security were rudely dispelled on Wednesday morning. At an early hour the inhabitants of the village were alarmed by the appearance of a strong body of police, marching with soldierly step and military gait. Their presence in large numbers and at so unwanted an hour created great consternation among miners and their families. Children were hurriedly washed and dressed, the customary household duties of the housewives were abandoned, the breakfast remained untasted, and hasty preparations were made in event of them being forced into the street.
The weather was bitterly cold, “cold enough for December,” as one of the constables remarked. The easterly wind sweeping along the valley struck a chill into the bodies of the ill clad families of the miners: but this was all but forgotten in the numbing anguishing feelings which rent the hearts of those whose fate it was to be rendered homeless.
The Rotherham contingent of police, were a very strong force and`officered´ by Supt Hammond and Inspector Burkinshaw. This body of men was marched to the scene of operations along the M. S. and L line of rail, and was stationed a few yards on the Conisbrough side of the houses where the ejectment orders were to be carried out. The chief constable of the riding (Capt Russell), the chief Clerk (Mr W. S. Gill), and Supt Sykes (Doncaster) shortly afterwards arrived on the scene. The constables were drafted from Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley, Leeds, Bradford, Doncaster, Mexborough, Swinton, Wakefield, Rawmarsh and most other places in the Riding.
The sad work then commenced. Inspector Anten, with a small force of police commencing in Rossington Street, and afterwards ejecting the families from Tickhill Street and Melton Street. The inhabitants were first warned to get ready. The men were under the impression that if they did not touch their goods themselves the company would be unable to recover the rent due. In every instance the occupant refused to take their furniture into the road themselves, and the police were marched into the houses in order to take the furniture and deposit it in the roadway immediately opposite the respective houses. The occupents of the cottages were left standing in the road with their goods. The doors of their houses being locked and the windows being nailed up as the last piece of furniture was taken into the roadway.
The scene was a very sorrowful one, some of the police engaged in the work being as much affected as the evicted familes. Women were standing disconsolate by the side of their scanty stock of household furniture anxiously asking where they were to go. Children were crying, some of them already feeling the effects of the weather, which was miserably cold for an April day. Some of the women who possessed more fortitude than their weaker sisters were urging the latter to cheer up while others were talking of making their way to the workhouse with their families. Others again expressed their determination to starve rather than go to the poorhouse. The men were standing listlessly idle talking in low tones, and discussing the chances of obtaining shelter for their families for the night.
The police undertook their duties with a due regard for the feelings of the familes to be ejected from their houses and were not molested in any way the crowds observing a strict silence, the men having passed resolutions at their meetings in favour of keeping the peace. Some laughter was congained at one portion of the proceedings by the overturning of a huge tub filled with rainwater, which caused a general scattering of the bystanders. Indignation was expressed in several quarters on account of the large force of police presence, one man remarking, “There need not have been two bobbies; we know what we are doing.”
Much concern was expressed at the non arrival of the supply of tents which Mr Chapple was instructed to negotiate for. Those who were yet to be evicted would be in a deplorable condition, as a the houses in the neighbouring town off Mexborough are already fully occupied. One policeman engaged in taking the furniture into the roadway was visibly affected, and a woman standing by for so much surprised at this `touch of nature´ on the part of one who appeared to be exceedingly obdurate, that she called out to a knot of a friends standing near; “There´s a Bobby round here roaring!” She was answered with the remark, “poor fellows! They have to do their duty. If they don’t do their business someone else will.” The groups of crying children watching the desolation of their homes with frightened faces to complete one of the saddest scenes ever witnessed in South Yorkshire.
The furniture was piled in heaps opposite each house, the majority of it being worth but very little, the 13 week strikes having made inroads on the little stock possessed by the cottagers. The miners notwithstanding the hard battle they have fought expressed their determination to go on with the struggle. In one case where an inmate of the house had been confined a week, the police allowed the furniture to remain. In a few cases only were the household goods of valuable description, and as much damage would result to even these from yesterday’s proceedings, as a necessity they were removed from the roadway in a very hurried manner. While the heads of the families were engaged in trying to obtain shelter for their wives and offspring for the night, the latter were in many instances left standing in the road exposed to the pitiless winds engaging guarding the furniture.
It was some hours before any attempt at organisation was made, into such a state of demoralisation had the men being thrown by the actions on the part of the officers of the law. When they collected their scattered senses they rose to the emergency. Wagons were borrowed from Mr R. Dickinson and others for the removal of furniture, and offers of help as a period were quickly made known to the leaders of the men. The Chief Constable and superintendent Gill journeyed to Mexborough and made arrangements by which the use of Mr H Waddingtons auction room was obtained and Mr W Chapple the secretary of the Association, provided 10 houses in Swinton for the reception of some of the homeless families. The Salvation Army, to their lasting credit, threw open their barracks for the reception of women and children, and a great deal of private benevolence was bestowed on the unfortunate ones had been removed from their dwellings.
Mr Dickinson of Mexborough and Mr Horsfield of Conisbrough, threw open their barns for the reception of furniture, the latter also offering to lodge a few families and supply with fuel. Mr R Champney of Mexborough, placed a horse at the disposal of the men, who attached it to one of the wagons, laden with furniture. In other cases, the wagons heavily laden with the “goods and chattels” of the evicted miners, were dragged along the streets to their destination by means of ropes, the miners yoking themselves to the shafts and working with a will. Some amusement was caused by the antics of one of the men nicknamed “sugar” who, with a huge bun stuck in a cleft stick, was waving it before the “horses” in order as he observed, “to `tice them on.”
The kindness by the miners who were not evicted to their more unfortunate brethren cannot be extolled too highly. Numerous women and children were asked to share in their scanty meals, and were invited in doors to warm themselves.One good Samaritan spent a great deal of money in refreshments for the evicted ones, and many a person will remember with gratitudethe frequent supplies of ale at a time when comfortably clad persons were to be observed shivering in their topcoats. The police were by no means behind and in their desire to aid the homeless people, gave away the greater portion of their own supply of food in order to satisfy the hunger of the shivering women and children. Numbers of men did not taste a meal during the whole of the day, being too intent onfinding shelter to take much notice off the pangs of hunger. By nightfall nearly all the furniture was safely housed, and no signs that anything unusual had taken place were observable beyond the desolate aspect of the deserted cottages.
The Managers Viewpoint
In an interview with the companies manager the correspondent of a contemporary was informed “that for the last six years the men have been continuously employed, except in the case of accident and at holiday times. He further states that work has throughout that period been so good in most respects that the average wages earned by the miners has been seven shillings (35 p) per day. Up to the end of the year the men had been allowed to send the coal to the surface in a mixed form, large and small together. The masters came to regard this system with disfavour, believing that it led to careless work, and, what was of great importance to them, to an unnecessary production of small coal. This point will be better appreciated when it is remembered that the weekly output was 10,000 tons. The addition of steam or small coal to that for the use of householders was opposed to the sale of the better class, and the employees sought to remedy this state of things by different rates of payment for the production of the two sorts. Prior to the dispute it was customary to pay 1s. 3d (6 1/4p) per ton for all the coal raised. The masters hoped to obtain results satisfactory to themselves and their miners by allowing 1s 6d (7 1/2p) for every ton of large coal and 8d (3p) for each ton of small coal – rates which, in the opinion of the directors of the company, were more favourable to the men than those obtained at neighbouring collieries. The masters held that this change would not result in a reduction of wages and that the best workmen, indeed, would be able to earn more than under the old system. The miners, however, replied that if they accepted those terms they would suffer to the extent of at least 9% and this was admitted in the event of a continuance of a practice which had recently been too much follow – that of breaking up large pieces of coal in order to conceal the smaller in the corves.
There is another feature of the dispute. Hitherto the custom at this pit of paying the miners eight shillings per yard for the building of gate packs. For the execution of this work, however, the colliers have employed labourers, to whom they are paying five shillings to 5 shillings and sixpence per yard, and have thus been able to profit by a system which, it is said, is not acted upon at any other colliery throughout the kingdom. This work is not immediately connected with coal getting; and the company for economic all reasons, desire to undertake the construction of the gate packs. The men objected to the proposal, arguing that the existing arrangements enable them to fill spare time by assisting in the operation. The masters replied that they were willing to concede this privilege to the colliers if they were accepted on the terms that it would all be paid for market value of such labour. So far the men have held out against this change and asserted that altogether thenew system off working would reduce their remuneration by at least 20%. When the dispute arose about 1260 men and boys were employed by the company
Mr. Lowe of the George and Dragon Inn accommodated several families. On Thursday morning Mr C Scorah, butcher, distributed 100 pounds of beef and mutton amongst the men on strike, and the Rreverent T.J. Leslie also gave away a hundredweight of peas, a quart of peas being given with each piece of meat. Other gifts have also been given, and frequent donations are being received. Only yesterday a commercial traveller at the Montagu Arms, after expressing sympathy with the men, presented them with a sovereign, which he said they could spend in beer or in whatever they thought fit. It is very much to the credit of the men to state that after receiving the gift they decided to spend iton soupand bread for the youngsters, which intention they communicated to the donor, on which he gave them an additional sovereign.
The miners last week collected £121.18s 0d from the general public towards their support.
We are pleased to state that no cases of smallpox now exist in Denaby Main, therefore all fears as to the spread of the disease by the removal of the inhabitants may be allayed.