10 August 1842: The Mines Act was passed by the British parliament, forbidding women and children to work underground. (continued)

THE COLLIER LASS; Words collected in a printed broadside by Frank Kidson
Tune compiled from two traditional tunes by Mike Harding www.vwml.org/record/FK/11/107/2 Roud Number: V7863 Traditional

My name’s Polly Parker, I’m come o’er from Worsley
My father and mother work in a coal mine
My family’s large, we’ve got seven children
And so I am forced to work down the coal mine

By the greatest of dangers each day we’re surrounded,
I hang in the air by a rope and a chain.
The mine may fall in; I may be killed or be wounded
May perish by firedamp or the fire of a train.

From Coal mining with folk arts and poetry Produced by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), June 2014
Written by Jayne Ambrose (NCMME), Sue Bousfield and Bryony Griffith Edited by: Frances Watt

THE TRAPPER BOY’S DREAM https://lobmusiclibrary.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/the-colliers-rant-and-other-miners-ballads/

It shouldn’t be any surprise to learn there’s a large section in Lloyd’s book concerning songs about pit accidents and disasters. Mining today still has its dangers, but nothing compared to the perils of working in a Victorian-era mine. In his notes to this song, Lloyd gives the following information:

The explosion at the West Moor Colliery, Killingsworth, [in 1845] occurred between two shifts. The gas was ignited by the candle of a little boy who was allowed to proceed before the men. There had been a fatal explosion at West Moor in January of the previous year, but nothing had been done to improve safety.

His description of a ‘little boy’ makes me wonder whether the mine owner ignored the recently enacted Mines and Collieries Act. Here’s a couple of verses.

‘I thought that at my post I sat, upon my duty bent,
When suddenly there came a sound as if the mine was rent:
And then the earth rocked to and fro, and I strove for help to call
For o’er my head a mass of coal hung ready to fall.

‘It swayed and tottered, still it hung, as held by secret power,
and as I gazed such horrid faces round me seemed to lower.
Grim demons looked with scowling eye, and nearer then they came.
They smote and dashed me to the earth and turned my heart to flame.’

No recording to be found of this.

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Various recordings of The Collier Lass on Youtbe    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Collier+Lass+swong

Link to post above by henryp about: The Mines Act of 10 August 1842 & THE TESTIMONY OF PATIENCE KERSHAW