A  “Pit Laddie”. Published in the Monthly Chroncile 1888, Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, London.

A “cracket” is a low stool for a child. Unlikely for the child to be hewing coal, more than likely sitting in a recess (hole) opening and closing a ventilation door as coal waggons passed by. Candles being expensive they would have probably sat in complete darkness, the noise of the oncoming waggons being the prompt to pull the door open.

A “trapper boy”, a child, often as young as 7 or 8, employed in 19th and early 20th-century coal mines to open and close wooden ventilation doors. This crucial job allowed coal carts to pass through tunnels while preventing air from “short-circuiting,” which would have otherwise stopped fresh air from reaching the miners and allowed a build up of toxic and at times explosive gases.

Pit Laddie

Holywell – History behind the name ?

The village of Halliwell or Holywell, in the parish of Earsdon, derives its name from a once sacred springs Our Lady’s Well, or St Mary’s Well, which is in the immediate vicinity. The medicinal properties of the water of this well were formerly much esteemed. It possesses the singular quality of becoming of a purple or pale colour when galls are infused into it.

Holywell Spring 2025