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The Colliery Caviling System (3rd August 1977)

 

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Transcription of an interview with a group of Scremerston Coalminers recorded on the 3rd August 1977.

This is a recording of a number of coalminers of Scremerston. They include; Tommy Darling, William Locke, Bob Emery, Jimmy Wakenshaw, Stewart Mowett and Richard Thomson. During the full interview the men talk at length, often all at once, about life in the Scremerston area.

During this extract the men talk about the coalmining system for allotting face work to groups of miners, known as the caviling system.

[Transcription]

And how was it decided whereabouts in the pit you worked?

Oh that was the caviling system, it was like a lottery, they call it cavil, and that was all the names were put into a hat, marrows mind, the marrows

Yes I understand.

And each section was drawn out at a time, the under manager was their with his paper and he drew that up. That happened once a quarter. They were allotted to these sections. You might get a good section one quarter, a bad one the next, only depended on your luck of the draw.

And were the ponies caviled as well?

No No, they stayed in the same section.

They had a long day as well mind, they were there till they died, generally. Although they were watched, looked after eventually, but at first they.

Did they have a pony keeper underground?

There was. The first one I knew was a Mr. Davidson; the second one I knew was a Mr. Middlemass

 

This tape recording comes from the large collection of oral history recordings held by the Northumberland Archive Service. Interviews were conducted by Record Office staff from the early 1970's right through until the mid 1980's. The purpose of the recordings was to capture the essence of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many different subjects were covered, including coalmining, farming, fishing, domestic life, World Wars and entertainment. Over 350 recordings have been collected comprising approximately 700 hours of recollections.