.

Close family ties are very clear in this study of mining life. To make life a little bearable in the home, large families tried to get their workers on the same shift. This is pitifully evident in part of a poem written at the time of the 1862 Hartly Colliery disaster that claimed the lives of 204 men and boys:-


A little further down the row
To Mrs. Oliver's I did go,
Three on the bed, one on the floor,
Two on the table near the door.