A message from the Radcliffe Miners 1844
 

Some rotten things in our town's development too.

How brave!
 

This is a wonderful find! Firstly, it must surely have cost them more than they could afford to print this, and secondly their cleverness in putting across a strong message to the public about their working conditions is admirable.

Never thought something like this existed. This explains why families moved all over the place for work. My granny was at Radcliffe and South Broomhill but also at Kirkheaton and Spittal. I wonder how they travelled around

At the core of the bitterness in the Radcliffe article is the import of the strike breakers - the 'blacklegs'. The 1844 Northumberland and Durham miners' strike is when the 'Blackleg Miner' song is first heard.
'Blackleg' is the name given to the strikebreakers imported by the mine owners from the Cornish tin mines who wore black moleskin trousers. They would be paid more and be given better conditions than the Northumberland miners they were replacing.

AND the Northumberland men would often find themselves and their family kicked out of their pit house and living in a tent somewhere!

Just to add icing on the cake the blacklegs were just not up to the job of coal hewing, being quite ineffective compared to the Northumberland miners. So the mine owners got less production for a higher wage bill. Their goal was of course to crush the indigenous labour, keep them in their place, so a worthwhile investment to them.

The early Radcliffe miners had a horrendous life. The first houses were back-to-back terraces, so most homes had connecting walls on either side and also to the rear. They were one storey high and had only one room and an attic. Ventilation was poor as it was impossible to create a through draft. It's difficult to imagine how large families organised themselves in such cramped conditions and privacy was minimal. It appears that there were no toilet facilities whatsoever in the village, nor any means of waste disposal; there weren't even any netties (earth closets) or middens. I can only assume that each household made its own arrangements in this respect. Water for drinking and washing was probably obtained from the burn. To augment the supply during the summer months additional water was transported to the village by cart from a pump at Amble harbour and sold for a halfpenny per can. With such limited amounts of water it must have been difficult for the village women to keep themselves and their families clean, and impossible to wash the dirty pit clothes effectively. Of course, disease was widespread.

Apparently the pitmen had popular opinion with them but this was not shown in the local newspapers which were very much under the thumb of the coal owners.
Newspapers like the Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser gave a better description of what was happening and also ridiculed the articles that appeared in the local press.

Evicted families set up home on the Green Lonnen, the route to Hope House Farm, (opposite Hauxley road ends).