LEAD AND LABOUR
.The Miners of Leadhills.
W.S.Harvey.
Chapter 1.
INTRODUCTION.
One June day in 1910 the streets of the little Scottish village of Leadhills were filled with thousands of visitors. They poured from the railway station, descended from wagonettes, or came panting on bicycles up the hilly roads. The villagers stared from their doors as the crowds surged past. "Gudeness !", one was heard to exclaim, "Where ha'e they all come frae" ?
The reason why they had all come was to rally to the support of the lead miners, who had joined a trade union the previous year in an attempt to secure a better wage structure. When attempts at negotiation failed, the men had been locked out by their employers, the Leadhills Company Ltd. What had begun as a local affair had become something of a cause celebre, and the rally can be seen as unique in the story of British lead mining.
Much has been written about lead mining in Britain but little about the miners themselves. The mines are explored, the skills are remembered, but the miners' aspirations are forgotten. The picture is of an industrial archaeology set amid attractive scenery, but lacking any sense of the reality of the work force.
The relics of the lead mines are now seen as being among the most rewarding areas of field studies, but the popular Victorian writer, William Howitt, described the mines as "sad and dreary places", compared with the coal pits, which, although "wild and strange", were none the less "objects of interest". The lead miners too were not admired. Howitt thought they were a "curious race"; and George Borrow wrote that those he met when travelling in Wales were a "wild, fierce, lot".
On the other hand the Victorians who inquired into labour conditions regarded the lead miners in a favourable light. Investigators wrote how most were "well conducted" and "contented", and reported they were not influenced by radical ideas or Chartism. Indeed C.J.Williams remarks how the lead miners' demeanour "received the almost universal approval of their social superiors, particularly when comparison was made with the colliers". It is a perception that remains.
Colliers have a firm place in British labour history but the activities of metalliferous miners have left scant imprint. There has been little perceived record of any militancy among them, and the Webbs, in their history of Trade Unionism, claimed there was no evidence of lead miners combining in the nineteenth century. In 1891, L.L.Price wrote of Cornish mining that this was "an industry where strikes were unknown", and in a recent study of the miners in the Pennines, C.J.Hunt finds when strikes did in fact occur there was no continuity of organisation, and no examples of men in different mines combining to confront the owners. The apparent lack of any union structure seems to have discouraged research, and Raphael Samuel remarks that the colliers are the only class of miners to have lodged in the historian's consciousness.
In reality many lead miners did rise in protest against what they saw as injustices; but their combinations and strikes received little attention outside the communities involved. Lead mining was a speculative industry, so any news of labour unrest was discouraged for fear it would depress share values. What you see is what you get and many observers looked for the best. When local records are now examined it is clear there was a darker side. Not all lead miners were as contented as portrayed by the Victorians, and many of them believed that only by combining could they effectively react to despotic managements. There were strikes among the miners of the Northern Pennines; in particular R.P.Hastings finds that those in Teesdale combined to confront the London Lead Company - whose Quaker managers have been often portrayed as paragons in terms of industrial welfare; and J.A.Thorburn has drawn attention to the strikes among lead miners at Talargoch in North Wales.
Writers have also remarked on the contented nature of the miners at Leadhills and Wanlockhead; indeed it has been claimed that their seemingly passive attitudes earned them the reproach of trade union leaders. Strikes at Leadhills and disturbances at Wanlockhead nevertheless demonstrated a different reality, and in his book Amongst Scotland's Lead Miners J.M.Harkness, miner, trade unionist, and local historian, wrote how the Leadhills men had:
"time and time again taken a stand for justice, and
by a slow and painful process had secured better wages
and the recognition of their union."
The lead mines did not produce the sort of politicised elite beloved by labour historians but, even though Leadhills had neither martyrs nor agitators, the men there have a place in the saga of Scottish workers.
There have been many accounts of the mines and minerals in the "Lead Hills" but what is the story of the miners' themselves and the "slow and painful process"? There is no reference to an active interest in Chartism, that indicator of the beginnings of socialism in Scottish communities, but there is much evidence which points to the development of a militant consciousness. In 1836 the Leadhills' men formed a "union or society" and gave notice that they were striking work. By the end of the century there was a trade union at the mines and the men had the concerned support of Alexander Macdonald and Robert Smillie, leaders of the Scottish colliers.
To explore this evolution, the story of the lead miners has to be looked at in its totality; and considered in terms of the business of mining, of economic and management changes; of social developments; and the condition and culture of the community.
* * *
The miners' art is of great antiquity and in many respects it is a peculiar one which by its nature moulded the character of the men themselves. Flint was mined in the Stone Age and metals were extracted when stone gave way to copper and bronze, but mining never became a craft industry. The miner was an independent worker and it is perhaps significant that the medieval miners never had their Guild. Nevertheless, the alien environment in which they worked set the miners apart. They were seen as "different from other folk", with a fierce pride in skills learnt within the mine; and the sharing of danger and appalling conditions produced strong loyalties. It was said of the colliers at Coatbridge that they regarded themselves as "honourable men", and the lead miners in Cornwall "held other occupations with contempt". The Wanlockhead poet Robert Reid expressed such sentiments when he wrote of the lead miners:
"They're buirdly and bold like the hills o' their hame,
An' no' cruppen doon wi' inherited shame".
But, although Reid acknowledged the miners' proud spirit, he would also have known that many were pale and aged by the conditions in which they worked.
What particularly influenced the lead miners' concept of themselves and their relationship with their employers, had much to do with the so called "bargain system" by which they were rewarded. They were not paid by the hour or the week, but on the basis of a contract, a "bargain", made between a group of the men and the mining company, to carry out a particular task. This was usually for tunnelling or raising ore; and it meant that, at one time at least, the men were paid not so much for their labour as for what that labour achieved. Unlike their fellows in the factory and the mill, the lead miners did not have their work pattern dictated by machines, and enjoyed a measure of independence and autonomy. This encouraged self-interest but discouraged combination with their fellows, and created difficulties in managing production.
Bargain working meant that day to day problems had to be resolved within the group, and Hunt quotes Charles Darwin as claiming the virtue of the system was that it created a "singularly intelligent" set of men. Skill plus an understanding of the ore veins reaped the greatest reward, and the system produced an elite who was not only confident in its abilities but also in its future. As a Leadhills' miner, William Gibson, remarked in 1840 "We have aye been provided for and aye will yet". This independent attitude may be found in the motto chosen for the bookplate of the Leadhills library "And leave the Rest to Heaven". The line is from the play, Horace, by the sixteenth century French dramatist, Pierre Corneille, and its significance will be discussed in a later chapter.
Something of the ethos of the miners is also found in the letters Gibson wrote to his son Robert, a "lad of pairts", who was at the University of Glasgow. The letters point to Gibson's strong sense of morality and deep religious convictions; and they show he had not inherited any feelings of servility, or believed his employers had any special prerogative to his labour. It is unlikely that he had read Jean Jacques Rousseau but he knew he was "born free". He knew too that he and his fellows represented an heritage of manual skill -
... the bold peasantry, the Country's pride,
(Who) once destroyed can never be supplied.
The miners lived together, but were divided both by the scattered nature of the mining operations and by differences in ability and fortune. All worked in or about the mines but differed widely in their condition and attitudes. Theirs was a classless society but one with a layered hierarchy nevertheless. Some, like Gibson, were in relatively comfortable circumstances; a son could indulge in a "pretty green coat", and a daughter a "white furr" for a scarf. Others lived in the "extreme of destitution" and slept on beds of heather.
Some were "company men"; others were seen as "mischief makers". The latter were sacked whenever the opportunity offered, and maintaining the rest as an elitist and fragmented body was much in the interest of the mining companies. Managements could isolate the militants, play one group against another, and insist they would only negotiate with individual bargain partnerships.
The order and diligence which was to earn the Leadhills' miners the most fulsome commendations, was instigated by James Stirling, Jacobite gentleman and cosmopolitan mathematician, who was appointed agent for the Scots Mines Company in 1735. Prior to this the men were said to have been "thoughtless and dissipated" and "no different from ordinary colliers" but, aided by the landowner, the Earl of Hopetoun, Stirling embarked on a programme of social control by dominating the lives of the workforce. No activity was left untouched and Stirling's reforms were acclaimed long after his death for the respectable and respectful workforce he was said to have created.
The sober attitude of the Leadhills miners was noted by Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the poet, when her party visited the village in 1803, for she recorded in her diary how the men they met had "decent" manners and there was no "hooting and impudent laughter" - perhaps the Wordsworths' little cavalcade had been derided by Lakeland miners. Other visitors claimed the Leadhills' miners were not inclined to political dialectic, and instead tended their smallholdings and read pious works borrowed from their library. The existence of libraries in both Leadhills and Wanlockhead was said to have "promoted intelligence".
Over and over one finds the most flattering phrases used about the character of the miners in the two villages, and such comments are not confined to those who might have been inclined to take a sentimental view. Although Joseph Fletcher, who visited Leadhills in October 1841 as investigator for the Children's Commission, found that a minority had set a "bad example", he claimed the "moral character (of the others) was decidedly superior to that of manufacturing and mining labourers generally", and he was particularly impressed with the miners' library, and by their efforts to educate their children.
Another commendation came from Sir Archibald Alison, Sheriff of Lanarkshire; a man who saw any whiff of radicalism as a threat to the whole structure of society, and who wrote after the 1836 strike at Leadhills that he had reason to think most of the workmen there were "remarkably orderly and respectable". It may be noted that lead miners at Talargoch in North Wales were described as "sober and quietly disposed" when troops were sent to the mine during a strike there in 1856.
The sort of social management developed by James Stirling became a way of life centred on thrift, sobriety, and the virtues of self-help. These are admirable qualities but were later taken to imply that the Leadhills' miners did not have the spirit to better their lot. The adjective "docile" used in 1784 by the landowner's chaplain, became a term of disparagement. It was said the miners did not stand up for themselves and lacked the "initiative and enterprise" of their fellows in the coal mines.
Wanlockhead, two kilometres from Leadhills, was Scotland's other great leadmining community. Harkness saw the miners there as being less militant than their neighbours, for the first strike was not until 1921. But their lack of overt industrial action need not mean that they were passively submissive. The Sheriff of Dumfries had to send troops to quell a disturbance in 1741; and when a company of Edinburgh merchants took a lease of the mines fifteen years later they were confronted by a " lawless mob" of miners and their wives. But the appointment of an Orcadian, Gilbert Meason, as agent changed the situation. He laid his own strong rule on the paternal foundations put down by the previous Quaker management, and built up a regime which was to become even more autocratic than that at Leadhills.
No amount of strictness could entirely stifle unrest and the Wanlockhead miners anticipated their neighbours by combining in 1833. On that occasion it was to take the funds from their Friendly Society in lieu of subsistence money, and there was sporadic "agitation" in the 1860s and 70s over the inequitable way they were paid for their bargains.
There was nevertheless a remarkable and on-going militancy at Leadhills, and the disparity between the contentiousness of its miners and those at Wanlockhead makes for a further comparison with Talargoch, which was noted for the number of disputes there compared with the other lead mines around about.
* * *
Lowland Scotland has a long history of religious revolt and while its effect on the lead mining communities cannot easily be quantified, neither can its significance be ignored. The Covenanters combined to hold their meetings among the Lowther hills, and made Declarations at Sanquhar and Crawfordjohn. Some miners embraced their creeds and at least one died as a result. Robert Burns castigated the obduracy and hypocrisy of the die hard Calvinists but, while also mindful of the cruelties of the Covenanters, he reminds us
" .. sacred Freedom too was theirs;
If thou'rt slave, indulge thy sneer".
A banner with the motto "Pro Religio et Liberatio" (sic) was said to have been carried by the Covenanters' army, and when the hero in Scott's Old Mortality was encouraged to join it's ranks he did so because he saw it as resisting "tyrannical authority", and in spite of its perceived fanatism. In 1815 the Sheriff Depute of Hamilton complained that the "desire for radical reform (had) originated with them" (the Covenanters). In his study of religion and social history, Callum Brown points out that their flouting of monarchical decree was by extension applied to all unjust rule and, in a review of the period, W.Makey sees the Covenanters as players in a deep rooted social revolution.
In 1843 demands for greater democracy in the administration of the Scottish church led to the Disruption and the formation of the Free Church. At Wanlockhead the minister, Thomas Hastings, led the dissidents to worship on the hillside. At Leadhills a Free Church Association was accused of "combination", and after its members were frustrated in their efforts to meet, they joined their neighbours to worship among the "vales of the mountains".
This ongoing sympathy for radical religion, and its rejection of any superior temporal authority, is particularly evinced among the members of the library at Leadhills. In 1792 it was said they "breathed somewhat of a republican spirit", and fifty years later they were reading works of "controversial theology"; and declaring that none but "the class of miners" were deemed worthy of office.
In the 1840s and 50s selfish disputes over water rights set miner against miner and put many out of work; stifling radical voices with the resulting hardship. In 1860 the Scots Mines Com-pany was wound up and by the time of Gladstone's first Liberal administration, mining at Leadhills was no longer in the hands of merchant partners with their humanitarian attitudes. In their place came financiers and speculators divorced by more than distance from the mines and the lives of the miners. And the pursuit of profit took precedence to an interest in the business and it's long term future.
Later in the century the radical forces at Leadhills stirred again. By then the small holdings, which preceding generations had wrestled from the Lowther moors, had assumed an economic importance but the miners had no titles to their plots for they held the ground as "kindly tenants", an archaic system of tenure. This led to an interest in land reform, and the politics of the Highland crofter and the Irish peasant; and in 1888 the men resolved to identify with the aims of the nascent Scottish Labour Party. They also petitioned for a voice in the direction of the mines and a share of the profits. Something regarded as "extraordinary" at the time.
In 1898 the miners joining the Lanarkshire Union of Mineworkers and, in an attempt to secure a fair wage, its Executive took some of them out on strike. The dispute was not officially ended until 1902, and was the first time that a colliers' union had initiated a strike of lead miners.
In spite of the hardship of the long strike, the spirit of the Leadhills men remained undaunted and a decade later they threw in their lot with the Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers; one of the so called "new Unions", with political aspirations and a socialist leadership. This led to the strike of 1909, which attracted great public sympathy and ended in the remarkable rally.
There were to be other disputes and in 1921 the Wanlockhead miners joined their neighbours when both walked out of their respective works. By then economic forces were squeezing the industry and in 1929 the Leadhills Company was wound up.
The rally in 1910 can be seen as a marker which acknowledged the Leadhills miners' positive reaction to change; and their progression to a collective militancy.
For many of the visitors the rally was probably little more than an excuse for a summer day's outing. For the organizers, the Independent Labour Party, it was an opportunity for a great show of solidarity. The dispute in the little community had captured the interest of the press and the sympathy of the public. Prominent Socialists would address the crowds, and the occasion would enhance the standing of the Party.
The manager for the Leadhills Company, Bawden Skewis, perhaps saw the rally as confirming his worst fears as to the effect of outside influences on his men. It promised support from every trade union, and threatened continuing disruption to the business of the mines.
The miners themselves may well have had mixed feelings that day. Many of them believed that only combination would provide the sort of collective authority needed in their dealings with the mining company, and that Union membership would win the day. For them the rally was a triumph. But it also showed how the strike had conjured up unexpected forces, and others may have felt buffeted by what was happening. Conscious of the intervention of outsiders who preached a crusading militancy, and perhaps wondering if the proud independence of their forefathers was slipping from them. In the end all were to find that a strike is a two edged weapon; the justice they sought would demand a heavy price; things would not be the same again and the "painful process" would continue.
Few, then or after, saw the rally as demonstrating that the lead miners were not a docile labour force. They may not have seen their future as aligned with political change, but they did see it as dependent on the fairness and morality of employers, and as best achieved through collective bargaining.
* * *
What follows is the story of the miners and of the "slow and painful process" which led to the rally and beyond. Much use has been made of the record in the library at Leadhills. In its totality the library best reflects the miners' culture and aspirations for, writing of village libraries in Scotland, Paul Kaufman remarks "in them is preserved a revelation of the inner life of the community". The author is especially grateful for access to the library and its records.
The Wanlockhead miners are not overlooked for their story compliments and mingles with that of their neighbours. The records collected by G.Downs-Rose, founder of the museum at Wanlockhead, have been another important source of reference for which the author is much indebted.
The first part of the book is concerned with the period prior to the strike of 1836; with the technology and business of leadmining, the structures of village life, and the forces which moulded the attitudes of the workforce.
Part two develops the various topics into the later history of the mines. It begins with the active ill-feeling against the managers, J. and W. Borron, and which led to troubles at Wanlockhead and to the Leadhills strike of 1836. These events were followed by the lengthy dispute between the mining companies over water rights, and there were also dissentions among the library membership, and disagreements arising from the Disruption in the Scottish Church. The number of chapters which have been devoted to this period reflect the amount of extant record. The final three chapters are concerned with the restless years from 1861 until the mines closed. No office MSS remain for the later history of the mines, but reports in the newspapers and mining periodicals are alternatives which, if lacking in minutiae, have a wider perspective.
What Harkness referred to as the "painful progress" had much to do with the activities of a succession of managers and with the diversity of social attitudes among the miners themselves; and these topics are considered in as much as the record allows. The various disputes and strikes are seen as central to the story. Not only as evidence of a militant consciousness but also as calamities which can be compared with disasters in the mines. All were traumatic events. All were probably avoidable.
The book is much about the men themselves. But no memories now remain of past experience, and history did not record the names of those who led the early strikes and who probably lost both jobs and homes. At the same time, the apparent lack of any expressed political voice among the miners meant their leaders are not found in labour histories. So this is the story of many men whose names, and voices, are long forgotten.