Joe Prady was the bait digger on the little shore
Tokens were used to identify the tubs filled by the hewers / arc wall fillers and that which had been "put" by the putters. The number on the token referred to the person involved and as for the hewers / fillers the tubs were weighed over the weighbridge to determine the ammount they had filled. There was a weighman employed by the colliery and a checkweighman employed by the men for the pupose of verifying the weights were correct.
The putters were paid by the number of tubs they put. The hewers token was secured on the inside of the tub and came out through a hole to be visable, the putters token was attached to the handle of the tub. The men had to collect their tokens from the token cabin at the start of their shift. Putters were usually lads from about 18 to 21 and the usual progression was to be on putting prior to becoming a hewer / filler at 21 +
|