Taking coalminers to Newcastle My granddad James Povey was a coalminer, just like his dad, granddad, great granddad and great great granddad. He worked in the mines of Northumberland as a Hewer. A hewer is the person who cuts the coal, removing it from the coalface. The Povey family started off in Wolverhampton but the mines there started closing down in 1860. This resulted in them having to move to where the coalmines were still thriving and that meant north. Joseph Povey was born in 1808 in Wolverhampton and is my great great great granddad. He was a coalminer and must have done well enough to be able to set himself up as a ‘Butty’ miner. The system used in Wolverhampton to work the mines was called the butty system and meant that a contractor, known as a butty, employed miners to provide coal to the owner or leasee of the mine at a set price. The ‘butty’ used his own horses and tools. After the 1872 Coal Mines Act the ‘Butty’ system disappeared. Joseph’s sons John, Edward and Joseph however, were not to have such a chance and had to move to Northumberland for work leaving their widower father on his own. Sadly Joseph died in the Wolverhampton workhouse in 1870. Joseph’s sons were living in Newcastle by 1869. John never married whilst Edward and Joseph went on to have big families in Blyth, Northumberland. Edward is my great great granddad. He wife Eliza died in 1882 when she was only 35 and Edward went on to raise all nine of their children. He never remarried. He did however have lots of his extended family nearby. The Povey family stayed in Northumberland and continued the mining tradition for two more generations. Quite often when tracing a family history I have found that families continued with an occupation for many generations, coal mining is just one example. It can be fascinating to see just how far back the tradition went.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:50:24 +0000
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