Genealogy Chat

This was found on 1901 census in Scotland. Does anybody know what the job entailed please? Beth :)

Hi Beth Would suggest either someone who rang a warning bell in the event of gas being present - ie possibility of explosion, or someone who operated the bell at the top or bottom of the lift going up and down the shaft to indicate that it could either rise or fall safely - on the other hand I could be totally barking up the wrong tree. Regards Trudy

Agree with Trudy as to the likely job of Bell man, but there is this line in a poem, The Oakey Strike Evictions tells how, despite the poor and dangerous working conditions, low pay and long hours, the often tyranical mine owners would not hesitate to resort to evictions to deal with miners' strikes. The `candymen' were bailiffs employed by the mine owners to evict the miners. They were brought in from the docks of the large towns. Despite the pleadings from all concerned these hated men would still carry out their evictions of the families. 'It was in November and aw never will forget How the polisses and the candymen at Oakey Houses met Johnny the Bellman he was there squintin' roond aboot And he put three men at ivvery door te' torn the miners oot And what would a dee if aw had the power mesel' Aw would hang the twenty candymen and Johnny whe carries the bell' http://www(.)afundit(.)co(.)uk/tarmstrong(.)htm

Bells were used as a form of telegraph to communicate. Typically a bell signal would be sent from the bottom of the shaft to the winding house to indicate they were ready to for the cage to be wound up.

Thanks everybody. It must have been really busy going up and down the shaft if somebody had the job of operating bell. I always imagined it would be a 'whoever wants it, does it' sort of thing. Would he have done anything else or would that have taken all his time? Beth :)

See this:- http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0060/D.0060.193602120032.html About halfway down- 'From whom do the poor in general in the cities buy their coal? They buy it from the bellman and the bellman in general buys it here from a registered importer ...' This was in Ireland (1930s) where there we no mines - perhaps where there were pits handy (eg Scotland), the bellman bought coal from the colliery. Or perhaps not.