The Pit Brow Lasses
The Cotton Queens learned about and researched the work of women who worked
alongside miners both below and above ground during the 19 th century and beyond.
We studied images and case studies of women and children who experienced
extremely tough working conditions and high fatality rates underground. Following
the Coal Mines Act of 1842, women, girls and boys under the age of ten were
prohibited from working underground. According to Davies (2006:22), women and
girls ‘bitterly resented their livelihoods being taken away from them…’ and were
forced to work above ground on the ‘pit brow’.
The emergence of the ‘pit brow lasses’ became a source of interest for the
Cambridge academic A.J.Munby, who wrote about them in his diaries and arranged
for photographs of them to be taken both in their working clothes and in their
‘Sunday best’. His observations of the women is reminiscent of the Worktown’ Mass
Observation archive’, the first Mass Observation study to take place in Britain.
Davies notes that the last pit brow woman finished her working life in Whitehaven in
1972 (2006:105)
Reference
Davies, Alan (2006). The Pit Brow Women of the Wigan Coalfield. Stroud: Tempus
Our guest speaker Alan Davies, local historian, presents to the group the history of The Pit Brow Women of the Lancs Coalfield
The Cotton Queens visited the Bolton Museum and Library to look at photographs of Pitt Brow Lassies and learn about the collection from Matthew Watson.
The Pit Brow Lasses
The Cotton Queens learned about and researched the work of women who worked
alongside miners both below and above ground during the 19 th century and beyond.
We studied images and case studies of women and children who experienced
extremely tough working conditions and high fatality rates underground. Following
the Coal Mines Act of 1842, women, girls and boys under the age of ten were
prohibited from working underground. According to Davies (2006:22), women and
girls ‘bitterly resented their livelihoods being taken away from them…’ and were
forced to work above ground on the ‘pit brow’.
The emergence of the ‘pit brow lasses’ became a source of interest for the
Cambridge academic A.J.Munby, who wrote about them in his diaries and arranged
for photographs of them to be taken both in their working clothes and in their
‘Sunday best’. His observations of the women is reminiscent of the Worktown’ Mass
Observation archive’, the first Mass Observation study to take place in Britain.
Davies notes that the last pit brow woman finished her working life in Whitehaven in
1972 (2006:105)
Reference
Davies, Alan (2006). The Pit Brow Women of the Wigan Coalfield. Stroud: Tempus
On the 30th April 2022 The Cotton Queens visited Manchester Art gallery to look at the representation of women and attended a talk by Dr Andy Hardman from Manchester University.
