Carlisle Patriot 19 July 1844 19 July 1844 The Pitmen

19 July 1844 The Pitmen

About two hundred colliers from North Wales, with their wives and families, arrived, per steamer, at Port Carlisle, on the afternoon of Tuesday last, en rout for Newcastle. They were brought to this city by the two Canal passage boats, and a special train having arrived at the Canal terminus of the railway, carried them through Newcastle the same evening.        A mob of persons from the lower parts of Caldewgate collected at the canal, and hooted the Welchmen on their arrival, and a number of stones were thrown when the train started, but we have not heard that any mischief was done.        They arrived at Newcastle on Tuesday evening, and on the following morning they proceeded to the collieries at Seghill and Hastings Hartley. The old pitmen obstinately adhere to their wrong headed course and the families of many of them are encamped in fields and bye-ways.        The funds appear to be nearly exhausted, for groups of men are daily singing through the principal towns; their dress and appearance belies many of the complaints they have brought against the coal owners. What makes the evil more grievous in a moral point of view is, that the women have become beggars and the children, paupers.

 

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