National Coal Board : Scottish Division : Colliery Welfare, booklet, 1954
A booklet subtitled "salient features of the Scottish building programme" and that describes some of the works the NCB were undertaking in the Scottish Division with regards to pithead baths, canteens and medical centres. The booklet was issued to commemorate the opening of the new pithead baths and canteen at the Lady Victoria and Lingerwood Collieries in Midlothian that took place on 11 June 1954 with the honours undertaken by the NCB Chairman Sir Hubert Houldsworth.
When the coal industry in the UK was nationalised as part of the post-WW2 Labour Government's programme the new Board faced massive problems. An urgent need to increase output and productivity was allied to the need to improve working conditions and safety int he UK industry. This was against a backdrop of wartime austerity and decades of problems in an industry that was generally fragmented and latterly under-invested. In Scotland , as in the other regional divisions, the NCB set to to start to deal with some of the issues found. One area they were active in, building on the pre-war foundations of the Miners Welfare Commission's work was that of 'colliery welfare' as described in this book. Alongside reconstructing existing collieries that had life in them and developing new 'super pits', as well as smaller more immidiate wins in drift mines, this meant that the NCB's architects were faced with a mammoth task.
The work was important as it enabled improvements in miners working lives, and those of their families who for generations had had to deal with the issues of dirty men and clothing returning to sub-standard homes.
I have a personal fascination in this subject as my working career oddly involved the Lady Vic in two ways. First as a local bus conductor when the colliery was still working in the late 70s and then returning to the site as Librarian and then Curator of the Scottish Mining Museum that was formed to help preserve the Victorian masterpiece this colliery is, set alongside the importnat 'company village' of Newtongrange constructed by the original developers the Lothian Coal Company. Sadly much of the works seen here have been demolished - even at the Lady Vic an early victim was the pithead baths and canteen blocks, at the time seen as a step to far for conservation and perhaps, this aspect of colliery life and architecture was not fully appreciated.
National Coal Board : Scottish Division : Colliery Welfare, booklet, 1954
A booklet subtitled "salient features of the Scottish building programme" and that describes some of the works the NCB were undertaking in the Scottish Division with regards to pithead baths, canteens and medical centres. The booklet was issued to commemorate the opening of the new pithead baths and canteen at the Lady Victoria and Lingerwood Collieries in Midlothian that took place on 11 June 1954 with the honours undertaken by the NCB Chairman Sir Hubert Houldsworth.
When the coal industry in the UK was nationalised as part of the post-WW2 Labour Government's programme the new Board faced massive problems. An urgent need to increase output and productivity was allied to the need to improve working conditions and safety int he UK industry. This was against a backdrop of wartime austerity and decades of problems in an industry that was generally fragmented and latterly under-invested. In Scotland , as in the other regional divisions, the NCB set to to start to deal with some of the issues found. One area they were active in, building on the pre-war foundations of the Miners Welfare Commission's work was that of 'colliery welfare' as described in this book. Alongside reconstructing existing collieries that had life in them and developing new 'super pits', as well as smaller more immidiate wins in drift mines, this meant that the NCB's architects were faced with a mammoth task.
The work was important as it enabled improvements in miners working lives, and those of their families who for generations had had to deal with the issues of dirty men and clothing returning to sub-standard homes.
I have a personal fascination in this subject as my working career oddly involved the Lady Vic in two ways. First as a local bus conductor when the colliery was still working in the late 70s and then returning to the site as Librarian and then Curator of the Scottish Mining Museum that was formed to help preserve the Victorian masterpiece this colliery is, set alongside the importnat 'company village' of Newtongrange constructed by the original developers the Lothian Coal Company. Sadly much of the works seen here have been demolished - even at the Lady Vic an early victim was the pithead baths and canteen blocks, at the time seen as a step to far for conservation and perhaps, this aspect of colliery life and architecture was not fully appreciated.