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Hi Folks!.Canny Lass,ye knaa me,not a nitpicker,only for correctness,for the education of the uneducated!!...but miner's coaal was never FREE!!..NOR WERE THE "FREE" houses they lived in!!..They were part of a miner's wage in lieu..and speaking personally,Linton Colliery gave the Miners coal which otherwise would be tipped on the pit heap..more stone bands than coal,also full of "Brass"[!!]..Iron Pyrites..which used to spit out onto the clippy mat and us if we sat too close!!..So!!Putters!!..the pic in my gallery on here,of my Father aged 14 yrs old,with his pony,in 1929,is when he was coal putting to his Marra,the older fella who was a Hewer.My Father putted the tubs out to a landing,where the other putters did the same thing..when there was a set of six tubs or more..the Drivers used to drive the set of tubs to the shaft bottom to be taken to bank.Every pit had it's own terms,but putters was generally the term used either for hand putting,or Pony putting.Hope that clarifies the subject.Never heard the term Cartman anywhere in any of the pits I worked at..[5 in total].

Thanks HPW! I read a wonderful book some years ago called the The White Slaves of Britain which described vividly the social conditions of 19th century Britain. Some of these "white slaves" were women and children working in Britain's coal mines. The woman would be shackled to a 'cart' (sometimes called a corv) in exactly the way you describe. with a chain from a belt around her waist. She was then called a 'hurrier'. It's the one and only time I've ever seen that word and I've never been able to find its origins. With no child-minding facilities, and needing money, she would have her children, as young as 4 years old, employed in the mine as well - the cheapest of labour. They would push the cart from behind to assist her and they were called 'thrusters' or 'putters'. These people worked in tunnels only 60 cm high. Thank heavens as things got better the tunnels were high enough to stand up in and eventually enough to get a small horse into.

Hi Canny Lass,we are now talking about conditions under the National Coal Board which was invested [is that the right word?!]..in 1947,in which Widows were allowed to live in their family home.Remember my Mother was evicted by the coal owners thugs ["Bailiffs"...THUGS]...BECAUSE MY fATHER WAS IN hOSPITAL DYING..AND NOT WORKING DOWN THE PIT WHERE THE OWNERS THOUGHT HE SHOULD BE..THEY HAD NO CONSCIENCE..NO CONCERN ABOUT THE WORKERS AT ALL..BUT IF A PONY WAS INJURED OR KILLED..THERE WAS AN INQUIREY AND THE PONY HANDLER WOULD LOSE HIS JOB AND POOSSIBLY BE JAILED ON TRUMPED UP NEGLIGENCE CHARGES....sorry about caps lock being on..glaucoma now..difficult trying to type and watch the screen..didn't realise it was on!!..I live at West Terrace in Stakeford for thirty years..the first 14 yrs were under NCB ownership,and I paid rent weekly from my pay.Down the street there were several Miner's Widows living with families in those houses.But NOT in the days before 1947!!...The pony's were "hung" onto the tubs or trams with either tracing chains from their collar each side and onto the tub handles,or Limbers..["Limma's"]..Shafts either side attached to a steel yoke and coupled to the tub middle "CockHole"..[I explained a few years ago about that term!...not indecent!!"]..with a Sheckle and Sheckle pin.So they PULLED the tubs along behind them.

My great grandfather worked underground 1861 when he was 9 years old at the Bella pit. his mom would carry him home.

Thanks HPW! I knew I could rely on you to come up with the answer! Am I right in understanding that "putting" the tubs could involve either 'pushing' by hand or 'pulling' by horses? I'm asking from a purely linguistic interest in the development of the word 'putting'. I'm wondering if putters might have replaced cartmen doing basically the same work. Tommy the cartman at Netherton was about the same age as my father (born 1900) so he would have been working before 1920. I think my father started working in the pits at 13½. I must admit that I'd never thought about the coal allowance as being in lieu of wages but it leads me to another question. My father died when I was a teenager but my mother and her children lived on in the colliery house and she received a coal allowance. My older brothers were miners but already married and living elsewhere, though not in miners accommodation. The one brother still at home wasn't a miner. Was this a common thing - a kind of widow's allowance - that coal miner's widows continued to be provided with coal and housing? I don't know if my mother had to pay rent or not.