Although the law relating to miners had been changed for the better at the turn of the century, life was still very harsh for miners & their families in the mid 1800s. Miners were expected to work at least a daily twelve hour shift on weekdays, reduced hours on Saturday, and Sunday being the day of rest. Working in the mines was very dangerous & unhealthy and most miners who survived the physical dangers inherent in the working environment eventually succumbed to mine-related respiratory diseases such as silicosis in later life.
Miners were among the first workers to organise into unions, and many prominent union organisers came to the fore.

One of the more prominent fighters for miners' rights was Andrew McAnulty who was born in Lanarkshire in 1860. Andrew and his two brothers were working in the Blantyre Colliery in August of 1877 when a firedamp explosion occurred which killed Joseph McAnulty and seriously injured Andrew and left his brother William injured also.
To read more about Andrew McAnulty go to a page devoted to him by clicking here

The best illustration of what conditions were like in the pits, comes from contemporary accounts such as those found in reports like the one quoted below

This following is an excerpt from the report by Robert Tancred on the Employment of Children & Young Persons iin the Mines and Collieries and Iron Works in the West of Scotland and Treatment of such Children & Young Persons. (report kindly provided by Ian Winstanley)

GOVAN IRON WORKS.

There are four pits now in work at this colliery, and six seams in work.
The workmen are divided into colliers and 'on-cost men.'
The latter perform all the work not done by the collier, such as building sides of roads and heightening them, clearing away the rubbish left by the collier, cutting through dykes, &c. The on-cost men always work at night and not in the day, unless at a dyke or slip, when they work night and day, till the colliers can resume.
These men go down between five and six at night and come up about same time in the morning, taking down 'their piece' [i.e. meal] with them.

To three of the pits one stair goes down and to one pit by the engine. This plan is adopted as safer, also requiring less time to draw up coals than men; coals are hoisted up in about a third of the time, so that using the engine for raising men causes a loss of time.
The colliers go down from four to six a.m. and must be down by half-past five, otherwise there would not be coals ready in time to start the engine at six.
The boys in the pits are divided into 'drawers' and 'trappers;' the first draw the 'whirleys,' or carriages, in which the coals are brought to the foot of the shaft and the 'trappers' open and shut the trap-doors for the ventilation. The work of the drawers and trappers does not commence till six o'clock but some who are sons of the colliers may go down with fathers earlier.
The engine works from six a.m, till the coals are out at night but it works beyond seven at night and the children do not come up till the coals are all out. They begin as trappers about eight years old.

The market for the coals is partly for consumption in Glasgow and about half for exportation to towns along the Clyde and to Ireland. Not a third part are used in the iron-works.

All the breakfasts, [generally tea and loaf bread, cheese or ham, and a piece for the rest of the day], goes down in one corf about nine o'clock and there is generally a slackness in the work for about half an hour but no regular m time is allowed.
They get their regular dinner after they come up.
At one pit, called the Quarry Pit, where the greatest quantity of coal is just now produced, about one-third of the men work a night shift but this is an expensive way of working, as, if the work could be equally distributed amongst all the pits, the men in them could put it all out in the day-time.
There is no combination amongst the men at these pits as to the quantity to be put out by each per day; they have established a friendly and free labour society, to which all are obliged to belong and the purpose of which is the support of the sick and mutual protection against the combined colliers.
Where the combination exists, every man's 'darg' or day's work is restricted to about two carts or six corves or hutches and none are allowed to work but the regular bred collier, who has been taken down early.

In the combination, if a man takes down a boy only to the pit bottom and sends him up again, or lets him sleep on his coat, he may work out another hutch. If the boy has reached 10 years old he is considered as 'a quarter man' and at 12 'a half-man,' at 17 'a whole man,' i.e., a collier taking down his own son at 10 may work out two carts and a half; at 12, three carts; and one of 17 may work out for himself.
If a man takes one, not his own son, the boy is not considered 'so strong' - i.e., is not so soon a half or a whole man. Mr. Allen thinks they should not be taken down under 12 years old.

The pits here are examined every morning by men with Davy-lamps, to ascertain that all is safe but they do not generally work with them.
All the pits in this colliery are worked on what is called the long wall system i.e., the roof is supported by walls and all the coal worked out without leaving pillars. The coals here are preferred large, which is one reason of this system both in Scotland and Ireland.

The holidays in the year are principally about New Year's Day and they generally take two or three days then, not being restricted.
Twice a year the colliery hands are all idle for a day at the fasts and there is slack work about Glasgow Fair.
Individuals may take the whole of any one day, or two half days, in each week but there is no general holiday or half holiday.

Any man earning less than four full day's work a week has to pay house rent, whereas, otherwise, he gets his house rent free. Pay day is Saturday on each fortnight. More of them take holidays on Monday than any other day of the week.

The 'drawers' are always paid by the men they work for, unless the contractor pays them, and the men do not draw their own coal.
The trappers are paid by the contractor when the on-cost is let, which is the usual plan.
The on-cost is let in each seam separately or to different contractors, perhaps in different parts of the same pit.
There are rules sanctioned by the men which forbid any striking below ground and if a complaint is made of children being abused [as they often do complain when it is not their father who does it] an inquiry is made and fines levied according to the rules, which are put into the friendly society fund.

By printed rules of the work, a written warning on both sides of 14 days is required, on discharging or leaving, unless for some valid reason allowed by the courts and men have been put into Bridewell for leaving without.
There is a rule in the work that all employed at the colliery and residing in the colliery houses, shall pay for the schooling of all their children, 9d. a month each from six to twelve year old for boys and from six to ten for girls whether they go or not.
The children under 12, taken from the day-school by their parents to work, have a right to go to the night-school for the same payment.

Most of the colliers but few of the on-cost men, live in the colliery houses, the rest in town. No store or shop is connected with works. Till within 18 months there was a shop close to the office, and the men were constantly asking credit in the office, called subsistence and spending it next door in whiskey, &c.
It was found such a nuisance, that it was pulled down and given up as an evil and now the whole money is paid without deduction.

Each individual is now paid in change. About 10 or years ago they used to be paid collectively but it was found that they went to public houses and often spent all their money there instead of paying their shops.
It was a great evil to the men and though it causes a great deal of trouble to pay all in change, yet they find a pleasure in doing it.
The school was never found to succeed, or any other attempts for their benefit, till the whole management was thrown upon the men themselves. They have a school society, a reading-room and library, a funeral society and a friendly and free-labour society, as well as an instrumental band, which are all managed by the men.
They have an instrumental band of about 25 instruments and a violin band of six or seven besides a bass. A bandmaster is provided by the work, and £10 a-year allowed to the band-master.

The schoolmaster gets £10 from Mr. Dixon and his coal free and £52 from the school-fund and about £2 as a present at the end of the year and the proceeds of the night-school for himself. His assistant receives from the fund about £35 per annum.
The schoolmaster and the clerk at the forge every other Saturday give a lecture in the school-room on scientific subjects, admission to which is provided by tickets purchased at Is. a-piece during the winter.
The band is in attendance and after the lecture they perform and there is singing and recitation. This is the third year; the two first years admission was free but now they have adopted tickets and 400 were sold, as many as the house would hold, this year. Besides this, the 2d. paid at the door amounts to from 5s. to 10s. per night.

The following paper has since been forwarded by Mr. Allan:-
Answer to Query 1.

The method which is generally adopted for ventilating the workings of pits is to divide the shaft by a midwall or partition of timber, the air descending by the one division, and, after traversing the workings, ascending by the other; this method is found sufficient in ordinary circumstances for conducting the air, when proper attention is paid to the air-courses, the ascent being accelerated, when necessary, by a fire in the bottom of the ascending division of the shaft; however, this method cannot be depended upon in a deep pit, where two or seams are being wrought at the same time, particularly where carburetted hydrogen gas exists to any extent. The difficulty arising principally from the impracticability of making and keeping the partition at all times sufficiently air-tight.

The above method was found quite inadequate for the purposes of good and safe ventilation in one of the pits at this colliery. The pit is 90 fathoms deep; the output from it was extensive, and was produced from three different seams of coal, which emitted a great quantity of carburetted hydrogen gas. Every precaution was taken to prevent an accumulation of the inflammable air; nevertheless several explosions did take place. by which a number of the workmen were burned and some lives were lost. The employment in consequence was very unsteady and attended with great expense.

In order to remedy this great and growing evil, an additional shaft was sunk (seven feet diameter) at the distance of 12 feet from the original one, new machinery adapted for raising the coals by these two pits was erected; the wooden partition taken out of the old shaft and a furnace erected at the bottom of the new one, which is kept constantly burning. The effects of this alteration, as was anticipated, have been the efficient ventilation of the workings, the workmen enjoying comparative safety and being kept in regular work-.

All the pits at the colliery are now fitted up upon the same principle, having a partition of solid strata betwixt them in place of a wooden one. The first outlay is considerable but after being fitted, becomes a great saving of expense, independent of its other beneficial.

GOVAN COLLIERY (visited personally)

No.4. April 1. Robert Ferguson, collier, adult, examined in the colliery at work:

He comes down at three in the morning, and works till four, or five, and sometimes as late as six in the evening. He and his brother and another collier, have four drawers amongst them, three of which drawers are his brothers. They each work six or seven carts of coals and fireclay a-day, according as the powder brings down more or less of the coal at once.
[He shows me how he works. He kneels, and inclining to one side, picks out the fireclay beneath with his pick. In this way he undermines a mass of coal and then applying wedges, and perhaps a blast of powder, between the roof and the top of the seam of coal, he brings down mass, which he supports with wooden posts if inclined to fall before lie wants it.]

The six carts would make 18 whirleys full of coal a-day, to be drawn about 30 fathom from the place where he is at work to the bottom of the pit and the empty whirley to be brought back 18 times. Each collier works at 10 yards of the face of the coal. His oldest brother, who is a drawer, is about 17, the next about 15, the next 12, and the fourth drawer between 11 and 12. This boy lives in his house and he feeds and clothes him but does not pay him any wages.
He is not related to him. The boy's father is in the iron-works. He has no contract or bargain with the boy's father but just has the boy for his meat and he may keep him all his days if he likes it. They all come down the tow at the same time [i.e., by the engine], never by the stair, if they can help it. He has never paid 'his passage-money' i.e., a fine for using the engine when they are throng of work. He is paid 14d. a cart for coals and 6d. a cart for fire-clay and last week he worked out 50 carts, 21 of which were of fire-clay, the rest coal [29 carts of coals at 14d. a cart, 38s. 2d. 21 carts of fire-clay, at 6d., 10s. 6d., together his week's wages, £2. Ss. 8d.]

The on-cost, i.e. night-work and the drawing of the coals in the day, in this part of the workings, are let to a contractor, Ritchie, who consequently pays the drawers. The collier's business is to hew out the coal, to 'break out' the coal (i.e. break up the large masses into pieces which can be lifted], and to fill it into the whirley with the hands or the shovel. For this he is paid by the company and the contractor makes some arrangement with him about his drawer. In other parts the 'on-cost' alone is contracted for and the drawing is paid for by the company to the collier, who hires and pays his own drawer.
[The temperature where this man was working which was as warm as any part of the pit, I found to be only 58 degrees and a very good ventilation constantly kept up.]

No.8. April 1. Another collier.

Is working at 150 or 160 fathoms from the Quarry Pit, which is the nearest to him. He works about six carts of 14 cwts. each per day, for which he gets 16d. a cart and pays own drawer, who must either be a man, or he must have two boys, on account of the distance to be drawn. His drawer is a man with a family, to whom he pays 2s. 9d. a-day. Another collier near him employs two boys. of 12 and 14 years old respectively. They come down [i.e. the colliers,] at four or five a.m. The drawer has his whirley at the bottom of the shaft ready for the engine when it begins to hoist up the coal at six. If the boys 'are forward' before five o'clock, they get down by the engine, otherwise, by the stair, which most of them do. The stopping of the engine in the evening regulates the time when the drawers can go which varies from three to six p.m., according to the quantity to be raised. Generally on Monday after pay-day the engine stops at two o'clock and only the steady men work on that day.

One of the more dangerous risks of mining in the Scottish coalfields especially those of Lanarkshire & Ayrshire, was that of the gas referred to as "Firedamp". Firedamp was/is a highly explosive gas found in coal mines, it is easily ignited by flame, friction or electrical energy.
Its principal constituent is Methane (CH4)or as it is sometimes referred to "Marsh Gas". This gas was found in all of the pits in the Lanarkshire coalfield and often large volumes of it would be broken into during the mine workings, resulting in "blowers".
Men employed as "Firemen" under the supervision of a "Firemaster" had the responsibility of checking the pits for the build up of firedamp and other dangerous gases such as "Afterdamp", i.e. Carbon Monoxide (CO) which is poisonous & Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which suffocates.
These gases were removed by various means including ventilation forced by furnaces and steam and or by "burning off" in small pockets.
The firemen & firemaster would normally carry out their checks prior to the commencement of the day's work.

To read more about Firedamp and its terrible effects read the pages on Disasters!