Monday, January 27, 2025

Dress of a Collier 1880s

Jonathon Presto in Five years of Colliery life (1884) described the dress of the miner. My living history instincts tells me this is what you need to recreate a miner from the 1880s. From killed in a coal pit 2
Dress
A miner's hat resembles in shape, a pudding basin exactly; that is to say it has no protecting brim; the brim being turned down all round just a little to strengthen it. A hat with a brim could not be borne, as the head as the head is continually coming into contact with the roof, so that it could not be kept on the head. It is made of especially thick material to protect the head in case of stones falling from the roof and the like. A flannel shirt must be worn (no shirt is worn while working), as the temperature in the mind that in any other kind of shirt one is not sufficiently protected from the sudden transitionof cold experienced in coming from the mind into the cold air above ground. A pair of canvas trousers, made especially for coalminers, with only two buttons by which to secure them around the waist. The canvas being light, it is possible to wear trousers while working, but trousers of thicker, warm material, could not be worn by boys, who have to move about quickly, on account of the great heat. As to boots, waistcoat and coat, you can choose for yourself. Leather must be seen in the knees of the trousers to protect the skin while crawling about in the mines, and a leather socket must be attached to the hat in which the candlestick is carried with a burning candle in it to give light by which to work.