John Merriman b1853, Littledean Hill miner (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, February 04, 2012, 04:02 (4675 days ago) @ slowhands

"like to know more about the life and work of both John and Catherine"

Slowhands,
as I understand it a miner of coal is traditionally termed a "collier", whereas a miner of iron ore is a "miner". In your considerable experience, do you know if these meanings are reflected in the occupation terms used in the PRs ? Certainly I've seen the "coal miner", "coal hewer", or "collier" used wrt my Lydbrook ancestors who were indeed coal miners, but off-hand I don't have experience of researching other "miners" in the PRs.

Sheila,
I ask as John spent his life mining in the "Littledean Hill/St John's" end of Cinderford. I believe Littledean itself was the first & main iron mining area of the Forest, dating back to the C13th. Cinderford (as a town) originated in the C19th, as a result of the growth of the local iron & coal mining industries which served the local ironworks owned largely by the Crawshays, this site has a good history.
http://way-mark.co.uk/foresthaven/historic/gfodmin5.htm

"Henry Crawshay, who took over his father's mining and smelting interests in the Forest and became known as the 'iron king' of the Forest of Dean, employed as many as 250 hands to dig ore in Buckshaft, Shakemantle, and St. Annal's mines in the mid 1860s."

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html search "St Annals" and see 1881 map,
ditto search this page for a definitive history of the town
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266&strquery=annals

This map shows all the Dean Coal & Iron Mines in 1894.
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/forestcoal/Overviewmap.html
Click to enlarge the "East Dean" section for the Cinderford area. You can see the brown spot (iron mine) at St Annals, also at Buckshaft (uphill above Cinderford Bridge, very near to St John's Church where John is buried) and Shakemantle at nearby Ruspidge.
The black spots are the coalmines. Of course it's perfectly possible John was a coal miner. Even in the "modern" 1940s or so it wasn't unusual for miners to walk five miles or so eachway to work their shift, as the small mines closed and they maybe had to work farther from home. By then only the big "deep" pits were working, such as Eastern United in Ruspidge.

Hopefully these links plus the others I sent you will help gain an idea of the hard life John had working underground. The underground workings were often only a few feet high, so very cramped and difficult working conditions, not too mention of course the grime and dust. It didnt surprise me John died aged "only" 66, the burial record doesn't suggest anything unusual and there isn't an Inquest for him on this site's Records. When I started using my local Cinderford pub (coincidentally the Miners Welfare Club) in the late 70s it was always busy and you could easily recognise the retired miners by their characteristic stoop and often breathing difficulties, ditto in the town or at Rank Xerox where many exminers ended their working days. My grandfather Jones died age 68 albeit after many years of homebound illhealth due to his mining life, although oddly my father died a year younger despite leading a healthy lifestyle; "luckily" he had asthma so couldn't go down pit, "thankfully" his active life in the fresh Forest air ended very suddenly & painlessly aged 67, so..?.
If you visit the beautiful Yew Tree Brake Cemetery (just up from Cinderford Bridge toward Speech House, and next to the old Lightmoor Pit), you can see how often local men were significantly outlived by their wives.

Re the Inquests, you can find one for a Kate Merriman d1890, wife of Henry, which may interest you.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/inquests/php/do_search.php?page=1&surname=merriman&am...

Re this website, please do search the rest of THIS site, particularly the Documents section, you will find many more interesting and relevant items I'm sure.