Not sure about the coal connection.
When emigration from Swaledale and Wensleydale really got going in the early
19thc, most lead miners went to America (Wisconsin and Utah, lead mining), I
think that there was a tendency to follow family so there was quite a bit of
coming and going (they think that they never moved) between America and
England.
Apparently later on there was a greater tendency to go to NZ, Australia and
the Cape Colony. In the latter years (1875>) there was probably a greater
number of non miners going to NZ, etc., especially young unmarried people.
Agriculture had hit the same depression as lead mining, with competition from
abroad, it was cheaper to bring beef from the prairies, (no fertiliser needed
then), and the dales dairy farmers couldn't sell cheese and butter into the
industrial towns, because the Dutch had cornered the market. The Dutch were
producing a uniform, consistent product from which the housewife knew what to
expect, rather than from the multitude of types on the home market. (The global
economy isn't new, its just an excuse to say that times are different.)
Two brothers who left the Wensleydale, Jeremiah and Daniel Horn, had been
lead miners at Keld Heads, then took to slate quarrying. They set off for NZ
about 1860.
I have some snippets from their diary, thanks to the family still in NZ.
The families arrived safely in Auckland, NZ. From there they moved north to
Whangarei and the brothers took up land at the foot of Parahiki Mountain. In
addition to farming and because of their experience in mining they put down
two shafts on the lower slopes of the mountain hoping to find gold but instead
found a coal seam. It was the first coal found in Whangarei but was
evidently not an exciting find. When gold was discovered in Thames
Regards
Ian Spensley
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