Before the advent of time clocks or electronic swipe cards, Pit Checks were used for checking miners in and out of the mine. They were produced in a variety of materials and different designs but typically of brass and embossed with a number and name of the coal mine. They are very collectable items of mining memorabilia today and there are several websites where you can buy them. The picture below gives examples of Pit Checks from Yorkshire mines and elsewhere.
The precise method of use of the pit check system varied between mines / coalfields but a typical example was the lamp check / token. The miner / collier would be issued with a token which he would hand to the (miners) lamp room attendant at the start of each shift in exchange for a safety lamp bearing the same identification number as that on the collier’s personal check. At the end of his shift the collier would retrieve his pit check from a tally board in the lamp room or, alternatively directly from the lamp room attendant, in exchange for the safe return of his lamp (which indicated he was no longer down the mine).
They were in common use in most coalfields by the early 1900s and were mandatory by 1913 so they must have been used at Middleton Colliery / Broom Pit. Has anyone ever seen or have one in their possession?? The History Group would like to see what they were like and the pattern stamped on them. None so far have been found.
Paul Hebden, April 2017
ADDENDUM
This photograph showing a Broom Pit token is in one of the displays assembled by Sheila Bye, archivist at the Middleton Railway – for the 50th anniversary ‘Last Coals to Leeds’ 2018 event to mark the closure of Middleton Broom Pit. Proof they did exist !
Middleton Life 