Bradford Colliery, Bradford, Manchester

Notice concerning a Pay Dispute

The following is a public notice published by the Coal Miners of Bradford and Oldham concerning their demand for an increase in pay and that to further their demand there would be a meeting of Coal Miners on Kersal Moor.

The year in which this notice was published is unknown but it is likely to have been sometime during the last quarter of the 19th century.

Kersal Moor still exists and it is a recreation ground in a triangle of land formed by Bury New Road and Hilton Lane at Pendlebury. From the choice of location for this meeting it may be that this pay dispute involved other coal mines in the Lancashire coal field besides those of Bradford and Oldham. To travel there from Bradford and Oldham would have involved a considerable walk.

To the Public 
To the Gentlemen of Oldham, Manchester and its
Vicinity, and others.
 
WE, the COALMINERS of Oldham and Bradford,
near Manchester, think it our duty to solicit you, to take
into consideration the toils and dangers that we undergo;
it is well-known to the greatest part of you, that when
you come to the side of a Coal Pit, for you to look down, that
sight will make many of you tremble; but was you to
go down to the bottom of the Pit, and there to see the dan-
gers that the Colliers are exposed to, you would never think
their wages too much, was they to get a Pound per day,
that to work in those doleful and dangerous places - was
we to lay down all the dangers we are in, with the carry-
ing on of our Work, it would be more than this paper
would hold - it is well known that in different places
that we are exposed to all kinds of damps; and not only
this, but look at it in its proper view, we are in danger of
our lives every moment, and all this we endure for the
good of the country at large - GENTLEMEN, without us,
no kind of business can go on; and we think it very hard
that we must be confined to the bowels of the Earth from
9 to 10, and from that to 11 and 12 hours or more to
the day, for 10 to 12, and from that to 14 Shillings per
Week. GENTLEMEN, do you think that this is sufficient
for men to have, that toils as Miners do. Therefore, we
think it our duty to inform the PUBLIC, that there
will be a MEETING of COALMINERS, on the 17th.
of August, on KERSAL-MOOR.
Innes, Printer; Manchester.