Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of the project was to study the labour supply, effort, and decisions of the workers employed at the Garesfield Bute pit in County Durham.
Main Topics:

The Victorian Household Panel Study has been compiled from four sources: the wages book and plans of Garesfield Bute pit at High Spen in County Durham, England; the Ordnance Survey map of 1895; and the 1891 Census Enumerators' Books. It contains detailed information about the households, work places and assignments, output and pay of the hewers, putters and supervisory underground workers in the pit for the period June 1890 to January 1893. For hewers, an important feature of work and society was the system of marrowing, under which they chose their own work mates, and shared earnings with them. The Panel Study permits reconstruction of the history of marrow pairings during the period June 1890 to January 1893.

Data on work places and assignments, output and pay form an unbalanced panel of observations of the behaviour of those workers who were present in the pit from time to time. Household information is drawn from the 1891 Census Enumerators' Books, and is there fore a snapshot of household structure at a single point in time.

Release 1a consists of as accurate a transcription of the Garesfield Bute wages book, without any attempt at linkage or other interpretation. Release 1b includes codes linking workers across pays, and codes linking the wages book to the other three sources. Release 2 consists of datasets derived from the previous Release 1a and Release 1b. It includes an extra variable recording travel-to-work distance.