Buttyman

A subcontractor who took on a stretch of colliery working from the mine owner for an agreed price per ton, then hired, paid and equipped his own gang of miners to work it, keeping the difference as his own profit.

Historical usage

The system was already established by the early 19th century and remained widespread across British coalfields into the 1920s and 1930s. It began to break down after the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1872 restricted subcontracting, and was gradually replaced in most districts by a 'share-out' system, in which piecework earnings were divided equally among a working group rather than skimmed by a middleman.

How it worked

The buttyman contracted directly with the colliery owner or manager to deliver coal (or, in Shropshire and similar ironstone districts, ironstone too) from an allotted stretch of seam at an agreed rate per ton. He then employed and paid his own men -- usually by the day rather than by output -- and supplied, at his own expense, the horses and tools their work required, keeping the difference between what the owner paid him and what he spent on his men and equipment as his own profit.

Why it was used

For the mine owner, subcontracting the day-to-day running of a working place transferred the risk and management burden of recruiting, paying and disciplining a working gang onto someone else, while still fixing costs at a known rate per ton produced.

Risks & limitations

The system was open to serious abuse: buttymen or chartermasters were often the organisers of 'tommy' or 'lobby' shops, where miners were paid partly in tokens redeemable only for goods at the buttyman's own shop, frequently of poor quality and sold at inflated prices -- a truck-system abuse layered on top of the subcontracting itself.

Regional variation

In Shropshire and the Black Country, particularly in the coal and ironstone pits of the Coalbrookdale coalfield, the same role and system was known instead as a chartermaster; the underlying arrangement -- contracting to work a stall or stretch of seam and paying one's own men -- was identical to the buttyman system used elsewhere.

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Lloyds Mines Ironbridge — Shropshire (well documented example)
  Added manually: the mine's own text uses the plural 'chartermasters', which link_terms.py's singular-only matching cannot catch against the singular alias 'Chartermaster' -- a known, documented limitation of the automated sweep, not a case of no genuine connection existing.

Sources

1. (secondary) Glossary of coal mining terminology — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) The Butty System (Staffordshire Past Track) — Staffordshire Past Track
3. (secondary) Voices in the Coalshed: Butty System — National Coal Mining Museum for England

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 31 August 2026