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Margaret Hedley

The success of the Durham Coalfield and its important role in the Industrial Revolution is attributed to men of influence who owned the land and the pits, and men who worked in the coal-mining industry during the Victorian period. There has been very little written about the importance of the home life that supported the miners - their wives who, through heroic efforts, did their best to provide attractive, healthy, happy home for their husbands, often in appalling social conditions. To provide a welcoming atmosphere at home demanded tremendous resources and commitment from the miners' wives. Despite their many hardships these women selflessly put everyone in the family before themselves. They operated on less rest, less food at times of necessity and under the huge physical burden of work and the emotional burden of worry concerning the safety of their family. Women of the Durham Coalfield in the 19th Century: Hannah's Story addresses the lack of information about the role of women in the Durham Coalfield, engagingly explored through one woman's experience.

The History Press

Women of the Durham Coalfield

Women of the Durham Coalfield in the 19th Century: Hannah's Story

Life in the early twentieth-century coalmining communities changed very little for the women who dedicated their lives to their miner husbands. The women's working days were much longer than the miners, who typically worked an 8-hour shift. Their living conditions were poor and lack of investment by the coal owners greatly challenged their homemaking skills as they faced life without many basics, such as clean water and sewerage systems. Health services were slow to develop and women's health was only just beginning to be of some importance to the medical profession.
Coal-miner wives in the twentieth century also had to cope with demands put upon their families by the First World War, which highlighted the importance of solidarity, a feature of mining communities that had proved itself to be at the heart of colliery village life.
This follow-up book to the popular Women of the Durham Coalfield in the 19th Century continues with the story of Hannah's daughter as she negotiates homemaking in the most challenging of conditions.

Women of the Durham Coalfield in the 20th Century: Hannah's Daughter

'As this book shows, the women of the Durham coalfield played an equal role in shaping daily life and trajectories of history in the region, just as women today are building their own futures in communities around the world.' - Hillary Rodham Clinton
The Second World War took its toll on every part of society. The appeal for women to work outside the home in the ammunition factories supporting the war effort was taken up by many women throughout the colliery villages. They worked for eight hours a day at the factory, taking up their caregiving and home-making roles when they returned home. Their days continued to be long and strenuous.
After the war, the government introduced a series of initiatives intended to improve the lives of the nation. A reformed education system was implemented in 1944, nationalisation in 1947 and a national health service in 1948. At last things were looking up for coal-mining families.
At the edge of this bright new horizon, little did Hannah's female descendants realise that they would come to represent the last generation of women of the Durham coalfield.