Hi, I'm very fascinated by your web site. On one of your pictures you have a miner’s cracket. I'm busy searching all my mine books to find a picture and description of a hewer's cracket. I remember it was angled at 45 degrees to accommodate different positions for his neck. Carry on the great work you are doing.
Frank Moran
Ex-Ashington Colliery, Northumberland. |
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Above Right - Woodhorn Colliery: Cracket - a miner used a cracket to rest his head and/or shoulders on when working lying down. They were made from spare bits of wood found lying around, such as bits of pit props.
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Hi Fionn
Finally I have found the picture from Thunder Underground Northumberland Mine Disasters 1815 - 1865.
The cracket is on the left foreground. You can see the curve for the neck. Although this man was a Hewer he must have hit geological problems so he used the drill. This picture was taken in 1896.
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Right - Lawerence Armstrong holding a 'Hewers crackett'. I am not sure if the name was just used in Northumberland or they were used all over the coalfields.
James Findlay
Blenkinsopp & Wrytree Pits |
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Hi Fionn
Another picture of a cracket. Description was a small stool upon which to rest his thigh (if crouching) or his shoulder if reclining.
19 & 20 century crackets were three pieces of wood, the seat and two end pieces to form legs. Occasionally found in old workings. They were often circular (6 inches dia) with three short legs, one shorter than the other see attachment.
Frank Moran
Cracket or Working Stools:
Left 18th Century
Right 19th Century
These are in the collections of the Northern Regional Open Air Museum |
As a child during the 2nd world war, my sister and I lived with our parents at Heworth Colliery in what was then County Durham (Now Tyne and Wear). My Dad worked as a fitter at the pit. Like many of us in the era, I had few toys as a bairn. Growing up in the colliery village during the years leading up to the WW2 we kids made do with whatever was at hand and counted on a creative imagination to find adventure and learning.
Precious to me as a play toy was a cracket my coal miner dad had made out of scraps of wood. Aside from being a stool to sit on by the coal fire, this simple piece of furniture came in handy to get to things that had
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deliberately been placed too high for an inquiring child to reach. But more than that, in my mind this cracket, turned different ways became a tank, a battleship, or a fort. Now, in my retirement, I occupy myself by making wooden toys for my grandbairns who are with their parents in Phoenix, Arizona. I just got done making a cracket. My hope is that somehow, I can arouse in the kids a curiosity and interest about their family history and coal mining heritage. What I need is stories and pictures that might convey the use and importance of the cracket doon the pits and as a vital piece of furniture in many miner's cottages. - Bill Macdonald |
