Edward (Neddy) Rymer was a coal miner who worked at pits in Durham, Yorkshire, North Wales, Nottingham and Lancashire. He was a union activist and blacklisted from many coal mines and coalfields as a result of this. The following extract is from the above publication and it should be remembered that it is the account of someone who was there at the time these things were happening. It is not a story, not made up, but an eye-witness account of life in the 1860’s
William Crawford called a conference at Spennymoor at which I attended from Thornley, but no one could give me credentials, there being no lodge established. Still I represented Thornley, for I knew the union must and would be established if help could be found. I was allowed to sit in the conference and speak on questions before the delegates. The result was I had to return and report to everybody what had taken place and to do my best to form a branch of the miners union in Thornley.
Robert Archer, Isaiah Ginks, Frank Lucas, Tom O’Neal, John and Robert Winter, my brother William and others agreed to meet and form a branch, and obtaining a corn-crake, I went round the colliery rows announcing the first meeting. On the Saturday following, we enrolled hundreds of members and began the campaign. Joseph Sheldon of Blyth was sent to our first open-air meeting, at which I was elected Chairman. Sheldon made a stirring speech and infused the spirit of unionism amongst us, urging the Thornley men to send missionaries to other collieries to organise branches. Lucas was elected Chairman, Archer secretary, Ginks delegate and my brother and myself missionaries. We set to work at nights, and travelled to Wingate, Trimdon, Shotton, Haswell, Castle Eden, Cassop, Merrington Hill, Kelloe, Coxhoe and Shincliffe. Never did men toil and suffer more than we did during our first three months of missionary labour for the Durham Miners’ Union. With my corn-crake I had to tramp through dirty lanes and streets, and run the gauntlet of howling mobs of children and bear the scoffs of officials and flunkeys’ and it was often with great difficulty that I could procure refreshment or even get a chairman to preside over the gatherings. In some colliery villages we would get no meeting room and had to stand on an old wall or ashpit. Sometimes but not often, someone would venture to take the chair, or say a few words respecting mining matters.
On many a night we reached our homes in Thornley at a time when we should have been in bed, and it must be remembered that, in addition to this kind of work, we had to labour in the mines every day. We received 1s.6d per meeting for missionary work. Hewing coal at Thornley Colliery was very unremunerated labour. The seam in which I worked was low in price and had a bad roof. The only light we had was that given by the dreary old Davy, the top part of which we had to clean ourselves at home—a practice which I always condemned. No matter how hard I worked, I could not keep out of debt or live comfortably. It is a fact that hundreds of miners’ wives in those days dreaded Pay Friday shopping more than all the other troubles in life.
I took up a fighting attitude in the press under the signature of “A man knocking about” and attacked every type of tyranny and plunder under which the pitmen of Durham suffered. I also found it necessary to denounce the unsanitary state of Thornley with its wretched and filthy supply of water.
In performing my corn-crake service for the union, I laid the foundation of my own troubles for years after-wards. I was consequently driven from Thornley when the bond was read in 1864. Mr Wilson the manager had left and Mr Thomas Bell, the new manager did not approve of the union or its supporters and refused to bind me at Thornley and ordered me to leave the village.
William Crawford called a conference at Spennymoor at which I attended from Thornley, but no one could give me credentials, there being no lodge established. Still I represented Thornley, for I knew the union must and would be established if help could be found. I was allowed to sit in the conference and speak on questions before the delegates. The result was I had to return and report to everybody what had taken place and to do my best to form a branch of the miners union in Thornley.
Robert Archer, Isaiah Ginks, Frank Lucas, Tom O’Neal, John and Robert Winter, my brother William and others agreed to meet and form a branch, and obtaining a corn-crake, I went round the colliery rows announcing the first meeting. On the Saturday following, we enrolled hundreds of members and began the campaign. Joseph Sheldon of Blyth was sent to our first open-air meeting, at which I was elected Chairman. Sheldon made a stirring speech and infused the spirit of unionism amongst us, urging the Thornley men to send missionaries to other collieries to organise branches. Lucas was elected Chairman, Archer secretary, Ginks delegate and my brother and myself missionaries. We set to work at nights, and travelled to Wingate, Trimdon, Shotton, Haswell, Castle Eden, Cassop, Merrington Hill, Kelloe, Coxhoe and Shincliffe. Never did men toil and suffer more than we did during our first three months of missionary labour for the Durham Miners’ Union. With my corn-crake I had to tramp through dirty lanes and streets, and run the gauntlet of howling mobs of children and bear the scoffs of officials and flunkeys’ and it was often with great difficulty that I could procure refreshment or even get a chairman to preside over the gatherings. In some colliery villages we would get no meeting room and had to stand on an old wall or ashpit. Sometimes but not often, someone would venture to take the chair, or say a few words respecting mining matters.
On many a night we reached our homes in Thornley at a time when we should have been in bed, and it must be remembered that, in addition to this kind of work, we had to labour in the mines every day. We received 1s.6d per meeting for missionary work. Hewing coal at Thornley Colliery was very unremunerated labour. The seam in which I worked was low in price and had a bad roof. The only light we had was that given by the dreary old Davy, the top part of which we had to clean ourselves at home—a practice which I always condemned. No matter how hard I worked, I could not keep out of debt or live comfortably. It is a fact that hundreds of miners’ wives in those days dreaded Pay Friday shopping more than all the other troubles in life.
I took up a fighting attitude in the press under the signature of “A man knocking about” and attacked every type of tyranny and plunder under which the pitmen of Durham suffered. I also found it necessary to denounce the unsanitary state of Thornley with its wretched and filthy supply of water.
In performing my corn-crake service for the union, I laid the foundation of my own troubles for years after-wards. I was consequently driven from Thornley when the bond was read in 1864. Mr Wilson the manager had left and Mr Thomas Bell, the new manager did not approve of the union or its supporters and refused to bind me at Thornley and ordered me to leave the village.