The time in the mine never stopped
The mine was functioning 24/7 because of the high demand of coal at that time. Furthermore, it would not have been efficient for the mine to turn on/off the machines that were pumping the water in and out of the mine every day.
The working hours in the mine were divided into three different shifts of 8 hours each. All the three different shifts consisted of the same procedures and rules. Throughout this page we will illustrate the working hours during the day shift.
6am – 2pm: the Day shift
2pm – 10pm: the Evening shift
10pm – 6am: the Night shift
In the timeline below, you will see the complete chronological explanation of the daily shift in the Mines. Click on the highlighted text in the timeline to learn more about the daily life of the miners.
Every task was essential
As you can see, the working day of a miner did not only consist of working underground. There were a lot of essential procedures the miners had to follow that you might not know. For reasons of safety and efficiency, the schedule of miners was very strict and everybody had to stick to the rules and procedures. Here we will provide a complete description of how the daily routine of miners was organised before, during (including breaks) and after work. In the dedicated sub-pages you will find more information about what the stages consisted of.
Listen to Nico and another former child miner telling you how they used to spend their days in the mine through the video below to give you a more real description of the day