A Mining District. The "Miners' Row " of inferior class is often a dreary and featureless place, with houses, dismal in themselves, arranged in monotonous lines or in squares. The open spaces are encumbered with washhouses, privies, etc., often out of repair, and in wet weather get churned up into a morass of semi-liquid mud, with little in the way of solidly constructed road or footpath - a fact which adds greatly to the burdens of the overwrought housewife.
The houses vary greatly in construction, but a large number are of two types. The older is either a " single-end" or "but-and-ben," according as it has one or two rooms. It has only one door, and the solid back wall is pierced only by the smallest of windows, if by any, so that through ventilation does not exist.
Many of the older houses show the faults of their class - leaky roofs, damp walls, and uneven and broken floors - the last a source of particularly bitter complaint. In addition there are faults not found outside mining communities, the chief being broken plaster and fissures in the walls, where "subsidence" has been serious; while in the worst houses in the West of Scotland the only place for the storage of coals is below the bed. The impossibility of domestic cleanliness and order where this is the case needs no enforcement.
If the workers in a house are on different shifts, the task of the housewife is complicated by irregular meals and sleeping-hours. If the pit is a wet one, the miners' soaking clothes must be left at night by the kitchen fire; and as the kitchen is a sleeping apartment even where there are one or two other rooms, the steam and gas which are given off as the pit clothes dry are highly injurious to the children, who may be in one of the two large beds near by. In the absence of baths at the pithead or in any save the newest houses, the miner on his return must take his bath in the scullery (if there is one), or in the inevitable publicity of the kitchen. With this accumulation of difficulties to contend with, the standard of cleanliness and neatness attained in many houses (though by no means in all) is a matter for genuine surprise and admiration. In the numerous cases, however, in which water has not been introduced into the houses, but must be fetched from a standpipe at the end of the row, a high standard of cleanliness cannot be looked for.
The dreary and unkempt surroundings of many rows have been already referred to, but a word must be said as to the nature of the outhouses which fill the intervals between the rows. Occasionally there is a properly constructed common washhouse, but in the older villages more often only such makeshift and ramshackle washhouses and coal-sheds as the miners have run up for themselves. But the chief of these unsightly structures are the privies. In the West of Scotland this often is a "privy-midden," which has only in comparatively recent times been expelled from the cities and still unhappily retains its place in the mining villages. It is a large erection, open on one side, where ashes and all other household refuse are thrown in, and closed (though often not adequately closed) on the side which serves as latrine. It is the only sanitary convenience in many rows; and it is so impossible to keep clean, so foul-smelling, and so littered with filth of all sorts, that no decent woman can use it, while if children do so, it is at grave risk to their health of body and mind. Another case, one degree less bad, is that of the range of separate privies - one for each three or four houses in the row. Here things may be better if they are well kept, but the difficulty of keeping them well is enormous; and often locks are forced, and doors may even be wrenched off.
The houses vary greatly in construction, but a large number are of two types. The older is either a " single-end" or "but-and-ben," according as it has one or two rooms. It has only one door, and the solid back wall is pierced only by the smallest of windows, if by any, so that through ventilation does not exist.
Many of the older houses show the faults of their class - leaky roofs, damp walls, and uneven and broken floors - the last a source of particularly bitter complaint. In addition there are faults not found outside mining communities, the chief being broken plaster and fissures in the walls, where "subsidence" has been serious; while in the worst houses in the West of Scotland the only place for the storage of coals is below the bed. The impossibility of domestic cleanliness and order where this is the case needs no enforcement.
If the workers in a house are on different shifts, the task of the housewife is complicated by irregular meals and sleeping-hours. If the pit is a wet one, the miners' soaking clothes must be left at night by the kitchen fire; and as the kitchen is a sleeping apartment even where there are one or two other rooms, the steam and gas which are given off as the pit clothes dry are highly injurious to the children, who may be in one of the two large beds near by. In the absence of baths at the pithead or in any save the newest houses, the miner on his return must take his bath in the scullery (if there is one), or in the inevitable publicity of the kitchen. With this accumulation of difficulties to contend with, the standard of cleanliness and neatness attained in many houses (though by no means in all) is a matter for genuine surprise and admiration. In the numerous cases, however, in which water has not been introduced into the houses, but must be fetched from a standpipe at the end of the row, a high standard of cleanliness cannot be looked for.
The dreary and unkempt surroundings of many rows have been already referred to, but a word must be said as to the nature of the outhouses which fill the intervals between the rows. Occasionally there is a properly constructed common washhouse, but in the older villages more often only such makeshift and ramshackle washhouses and coal-sheds as the miners have run up for themselves. But the chief of these unsightly structures are the privies. In the West of Scotland this often is a "privy-midden," which has only in comparatively recent times been expelled from the cities and still unhappily retains its place in the mining villages. It is a large erection, open on one side, where ashes and all other household refuse are thrown in, and closed (though often not adequately closed) on the side which serves as latrine. It is the only sanitary convenience in many rows; and it is so impossible to keep clean, so foul-smelling, and so littered with filth of all sorts, that no decent woman can use it, while if children do so, it is at grave risk to their health of body and mind. Another case, one degree less bad, is that of the range of separate privies - one for each three or four houses in the row. Here things may be better if they are well kept, but the difficulty of keeping them well is enormous; and often locks are forced, and doors may even be wrenched off.