Barnsley Chronicle December 5, 1908

Grievance at Houghton Main Colliery

Darfield has been the centre of controversy this past week, owing to a grievance which is arisen at the Houghton Main Colliery between the Masters and the men.

It appears that last Friday morning about 30 men remained on the pit bank after the “buzzer” had blown 6 o’clock, and the management refused to let these men go down the pit; so they had to return home.

When the men who were leaving the pit they were met by the 30 who had been refused admission, and it was it was decided to hold a pit gate meeting.

At this meeting the men agreed to assemble at the Colliery on Monday morning at 545 before starting to take out their lamps, this being 45 minutes behind the usual time. The result was that only about 200 got admission to the pit, and as this was an insufficient number to work the pit, the management decide to send them back. The same kind of thing happened again on Tuesday, only about 50 men then gaining admission, and these being sent back.

It was thereupon decided to hold a meeting at the clubhouse, Darfield, the same evening.

The miners turned up in such large numbers that the clubhouse was back, and about 200 remain outside. Accordingly, the meeting was held in the open air. It was decided that the men should return to work on Wednesday morning under the ordinary conditions, and that a deputation should meet the management, to see if they could come to some agreement, and should report to another meeting on Wednesday evening.

The clubhouse was again overcrowded, about 150 been unable to gain admission. The meeting, which lasted an hour and ½, was presided over by Mr

H Smith, president of the Yorkshire Miners Association, and Mr TW Illsley, president of the Houghton branch, were also present. They reported that the agreement that they had come to is that one draw of men should be allowed to descend after 6 AM, and that if anything to the contrary happened proceedings will be taken against the Company.

The Colliery has an output of about 2500 tonnes per day, and employs about 2000 hands.