The development of Crook: a glossary |
| Bellman | A person employed as a watchman. |
| Benzol oil | A highly flammable oil which can be used as fuel. |
| Cholera | An intestinal infection, spread by drinking contaminated water. It causes violent diarrhoea and vomiting and, if untreated, causes death. |
| Coal tar | A thick black liquid which can be used for roofing, waterproofing or insulating. It can also be used in the production of dyes, drugs etc. |
| Coke | Coke is made from coal by burning the coal in closed ovens or furnaces. It can then be used as a different type of fuel, which burns a lot hotter than coal. |
| Coke burner | The coke burner is a person involved in the process of turning coal into coke. |
| Coke drawer | The person who removes the coke from the coke ovens. |
| Coke filler | The person who puts the coal into the coke ovens so it can be made into coke. |
| Colliery agent | The person who acted for the coal owner, managing all of the coal owner’s collieries. |
| Colliery Brakesman Assistant | The brakesman attends to the winding engine, which moves the cage up and down the pit shaft, to allow workmen to go down the pit and coal and workmen to come to the surface. |
| Commerce | The buying and selling of goods, particularly on a large scale. |
| Corporal punishment | To be punished by being hit, for example with a ruler or a cane. |
| Deformities | Injuries or other damage done to the body. |
| Deputy overman | The overman is in charge of all the colliery workings. He is responsible for safety down the mine, for where each miner works, and keeps an account of the coal extracted and wages due. |
| Drift marker | Drifts are cut into the coal to explore the seams – to find out what coal is like. Drifts are sometimes driven into stone to access new seams of coal, or because the coal seam changes direction. |
| Enclosure maps | Maps which were drawn up when land was enclosed by Act of Parliament. The maps are very detailed, and you can find out who owned the land and what it was used for. You can also find roads and rights of way. |
| Fireclay | A clay used for making bricks. |
| Furnace man | Someone who looks after the furnace to make the coke. He may also be responsible for a furnace, or large fire, placed underground, near a shaft in a colliery, to assist ventilation. |
| Hawker | Someone who travels around buying and selling things, for example pots and pans, clothes pegs or scrap metal. |
| Hewer | The man who cuts the coal out of the coal face underground. A hewer has to be strong and fit, especially when he had to cut the coal out with a pick axe. |
| Household | A family unit living in a house. Sometimes on the census you will find more than one household in a single house – people sometimes had to share accommodation. |
| Immigration | To enter and settle in another region or country different to the one in which you were born. |
| Industrialisation | The development of industry on a large-scale. |
| Journeyman | A skilled worker, who has completed his apprenticeship, but who still works for another craftsman, rather than working for himself. |
| Migrant | A person who moves to another town, region or country in search of work, a better way of life etc. |
| Migration | The movement of people from one place to another. |
| Milliner | Someone who makes hats |
| Moravians | A Protestant church, originally founded in Saxony in 1722 by emigrants from Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. |
| Non-conformist | Someone or something (like an institution) which does not follow the established church, in this case the Church of England. |
| Onsetter | The person who puts the full tubs in and takes the empty tubs out of the cage at the shaft bottom in the pit. |
| Pawnbroker | If you are short of money, you can pawn something to the pawnbroker. This means the pawnbroker gives you money, for example, for a ring, for a few days or a couple of weeks. At the end of the few days, you pay him back and get the ring back. If you cannot afford to repay him, then the pawnbroker keeps the ring and can sell it. |
| Rollerway man/Rolleyway man | The roller way or rolley way is the horse road underground in a colliery. The rollerway/roller-way man looks after the road and makes sure the coal tubs can move back and forwards as quickly as possible. |
| Sanitation | A whole series of measures designed to safeguard public health. It can include sewage, provision of water, drainage etc. |
| Sulphate of ammonia | A by-product of coke production, sulphate of ammonia is rich in nitrogen and sulphur and is often used as a fertiliser. |
| Tithe maps | Tithe was a payment to the rector of the parish church of a tenth of your produce, for example hay, corn, eggs, etc. In the 19th century this was changed to a money payment. Tithe maps and schedules were drawn up of each parish to show who owned/occupied the land, what the land was used for, and how much tithe each person had to pay. |
| Trapper | The trapper was a little boy who had to open and close a trap door underground, to let the tubs of coal through. Traps were part of the coal mine’s ventilation system. |
