The 1866-67 lock out
In the 1860's and 70's children as young as eleven were working in the Hucknall pits as 'colliery lads'. Until the 1842 Mines and Collieries Act made the practice illegal, women and children under the age of ten had been employed underground in coal mines.
During early years at Hucknall No.1 the miners were worked twelve hours a day plus winding
times, the longest in the county, as the H.C.C. seemingly tried to gain a quick return on its
investment. Inevitably discontent grew amongst the workforce and many turned to the newly formed local miners trade union, the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Miners Association (D&NMA), to fight their cause. Ellis's paternalistic view of industrial relations was not compatible with trade unionism and he was bitterly opposed to the D&NMA organising in Hucknall.
Before the D&NMA was formed in 1863 there had been little trade union activity in the Nottinghamshire coalfields. Many of the early leaders of the D&NMA were Methodists who ran the union as if it were a religious crusade, and by 1866 it was sufficiently influential to apply real pressure on the mine owners to improve working conditions.
On the 1st July 1866 William Brown, then head of the D&NMA, visited Hucknall for the first time. Brown was a charismatic Methodist preacher and rallied the local miners with hymn singing and rousing speeches at an open air meeting, which began in the afteroon and continued into the night.
The unrest at Hucknall came to a head at the beginning of September 1866 when Ellis locked
out all union members. The dispute continued for 6 months but gradually lost its momentum as many of those locked out found alternative employment and the pit continued to operate using non-union
miners. The stand off was finally ended by not by negotiation, but by a serious underground fire at No. 1.
Fire at No.1 Colliery
At this time it is likely Hucknall No.1 was ventilated by placing a furnace at the bottom of a shaft
to create a draft drawing stale air out and fresh air in. The shaft would be supported by
a timber frame and an ever present danger was that it be set alight accidentally by the furnace.
The resulting fire would rapidly consume the oxygen in the mine suffocating those underground.
In the spring of 1867 a waggon caught fire in a ventilation shaft and by the time it was discovered, or the danger fully appreciated, it was out of control. The only option available was to flood the mine with water from a nearby brook but the damage caused was severe. Fortunately no-one was killed or injured. For a year afterwards hardly any coal was produced from the Hucknall pits. The mine was abandoned for some time afterwards as the H.C.C. saw their greater priority at this time was to bring No. 2 colliery into production. No.1 was eventually re-opened but the old workings were never mined again.
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