If I remember rightly, the section of the Report of the Children's
Employment Commission dealing with the Bristol and Somerset pits (published
in 1842) shows a drawing of a miner wearing a helmet with candle attached.
John Cornwell's recent book on the Bristol pits has several photographs of
miners at Coalpit Heath wearing similar helmets with peg and ball oil lamps
attached c1905 (although flat caps and bowlers are also in evidence).
In his autobiography, "City Pit", Fred Moss mentions wearing a helmet made
from a cut-down bowler hat (with a home-made oil lamp that used to be a
Brasso tin) in around 1920. I seem to remember that bowler hats were
originally designed as protective headgear for gamekeepers to protect then
in fights with poachers (or is that just a legend?), so perhaps it's natural
that miners should be wearing them in the pit.
Fred Moss also mentions that safety lamps were unpopular as, to leave both
hands free, they had to be carried with the handle between the teeth,
resulting in chipped teeth and a burnt chest.
Keith Ramsey
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