Work of Miners’ Welfare Fund
Achievements of the Miners’ Welfare Fund in helping to make the lives of coal miners easier and happier are shown in the Miners’ Welfare Committee’s 16th Annual Report 1938.
This committee has been at work since 1920, and derives its revenue from a levy of a halfpenny per ton of coal produced and a levy of one shilling in the pound on mining royalties. It includes representatives of coal-owners and mineworkers, and is assisted in each of the 25 coal-mining areas by district committees of employers and employees.
Pithead Baths
One of the chief objects of the Miners’ Welfare Fund is to provide pithead baths and in 1937 a sum of £657,690, two thirds of the total grants from the fund during the year, was allocated to this object. By the end of 1937, 208 baths had been completed, giving accommodation to nearly 275,000 miners, and a further 70 baths, and accommodation for 90,000 miners were under construction.
This accommodation is sufficient for more than half the total number of miners to be catered for, and the main building programme for baths is planned to be completed about 1944.
Although once regarded with apathy in the coalfields, pithead baths are appreciated not only by the miners who use them, but also by the womenfolk, who find that much of the labour traditionally associated with their lives has vanished.
Illustrations of bath buildings included in the report show also that their value is not limited entirely to bathing facilities and that clean modern design has already noticeably improved the appearance of the coalmining districts.
Besides building pithead baths, the committee has spent large sums for a variety of different purposes ranging from bowling greens to scientific research. A summary of the amount spent under broad headings will show the magnitude of this work.
Miners Welfare Holiday Camp Skegness
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Nearly £5,500,000 has been spent on sports grounds and all kinds of children’s playgrounds, boys’ clubs and camps, swimming pools, halls, institutes and pavilions.
Other pithead welfare included canteens, |
cycle stores, first aid rooms, convalescent homes, and safety in mines research.Altogether, the committee had by the end of 1937, made grants to a total of £16,523,533 and the receipts of the fund amounted to £16,701,774
Mossfield Pithead Baths 1930
Mr. Ben Turner, M.P. the veteran Labour leader who holds the position of Secretary of Mines in the Government, spent the weekend in North Staffordshire, which he visited at the invitation of the local Miners’ Welfare committee for the purpose of opening the newly installed pithead baths at the Mossfield colliery Longton. He was also to open the splendid new pavilion on the Bignall End Cricket Club’s ground, together with the bowling green attached, laid down through a grant from the Welfare Fund.
A Famous Pit Pony
Many top mining officials attended the opening ceremony, and the chairman, Sir Francis Joseph, C.B.E. made an introduction speech, then handed Mr. Turner an exquisite tea service as a memento of the occasion from the directors of Mossfield Colliery Ltd., and a framed photograph of Boxer, a pit pony which retired on pension last year after 30 years continuous service underground, coming to the surface for a fortnights holiday once a year.
Returning thanks, Mr. Turner said, one thing he noticed was that Boxer had been given a fortnights holiday each year “with pay” and it was a reminder to those who controlled the pits that miners might have the same privilege.
Continuing the speaker congratulated the colliery on having pithead baths installed. It had been a dream of such leaders as Mr. Enoch Edwards, one time M.P. for Hanley. Since the war they had developed new ideas about social amenities. They were coming back to the old proverb that cleanliness was next to Godliness and they were realising the miners should be as clean as any other man when leaving his work. So far they had 85 pithead bath schemes in hand and Mossfield was the 16 th to be completed.
Following the ceremony, Mr. Ben Turner was entertained at luncheon at the North Staffordshire Hotel and afterwards journeyed to Bignall end to open the £3,000 Pavilion and bowling green.
Hanley Deep Baths 1932
The new pithead baths provided for the colliery workers at Hanley Deep Pit of the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Co. Ltd. At a cost of £28,000 were opened December 1932 in the presence of a large gathering of persons connected with the North Staffordshire coal trade. The baths, which have taken about 18 months to erect, contain 18 cubicles and provide facilities for 2,180 miners. Mr. John Cocks, joint managing director of the Shelton Co. presided over the opening ceremony.
The chairman said he was glad to find that pithead baths were becoming more generally recognised as a necessity. The baths they were opening today were the fifth installation to be put into commission in north Staffordshire and others would be erected when the penny per ton contribution fund had further accumulated. These had been allocated from the Welfare Committee to the north Staffordshire coalfield the sum of £209,000, of which £100,000 had been earmarked for the provision of baths.
The baths not only raised the status and self-respect of the men, but also made their home life happier by eliminating the dirt, which pit clothing carried into the homes, and the committee were determined to equip every colliery in the district with baths.
In declaring the baths open, Mr. Summers paid a tribute to the staff and officials controlling the company, and said that at the present rates of output at the Deep Pit, the reserves of minerals were estimated to last another 150 years, “so that no one need worry very much.” He new of the harmonious spirit that existing between the workmen and the management, and hoped the workmen would continue to realise that the prosperity of the company was at least as important to them as it was to the owners.
The Lord mayor, in adding his congratulations to the company, expressed the hope that the period of depression with the consequent unemployment was coming to an end. Sir Francis Joseph, seconded by Mr. I. W. Cumberbatch, proposed a vote of thanks to the opener.
Great Fenton Baths 1933
The new pithead baths and canteen erected at the Great Fenton colliery of the Stafford Coal and Iron Co. Ltd. Were opened by the Secretary for Mines, Mr. Ernest brown, M.P. in may 1933 in the presence of a large gathering of influential persons connected with the coal industry. On arrival at the colliery premises, Mr. Brown and party, were met by Mr. E.P.Turner, the colliery manager and made a tour of the surface, including the Cardox plant, which is an improved method of shot firing, instead of by explosives.
