Mining Regions in England
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Pit brow lasses in Lancashire
© NCMME copy photograph
© NCMME copy photograph
When women were prohibited from working underground at coal mines, in the 1840s, some areas continued to allow women to work on the surface. The Lancashire coalfield was one region where women worked as pit brow lasses at the shaft top and on the screens.
This heavy surface work, which involved moving coal tubs around the surface, and screening the coal for dirt, was not always seen as appropriate work for women by outsiders. The Lancashire pit brow women had to fight to retain their jobs, even challenging new laws which would have banned them from the pit surface. The last female pit brow worker retired from the Cumbrian coalfield in 1974.
This heavy surface work, which involved moving coal tubs around the surface, and screening the coal for dirt, was not always seen as appropriate work for women by outsiders. The Lancashire pit brow women had to fight to retain their jobs, even challenging new laws which would have banned them from the pit surface. The last female pit brow worker retired from the Cumbrian coalfield in 1974.