Dataller

A miner paid a fixed rate per day or per shift for general underground work — building and repairing roadways, moving material, and similar tasks — rather than being paid by the ton of coal cut, as a collier working at the face was.

Historical usage

The term derives from 'day-taler', day plus an old word for reckoning or counting, and appears across British coalfields under several close variants, including daitler and daytaleman. Datallers formed a distinct tier of the underground workforce alongside face colliers (paid by output) and byeworkers, and their day-wage status meant a more predictable, if generally lower, income than a collier's could be on a good day at the face. Two datallers, John Ball and James Durkin, were among the six men killed in Bickershaw Colliery's 1942 explosion, doing exactly this kind of general underground work when the disaster struck.

How it worked

A dataller was simply engaged and paid on a day-rate basis, distinct from the tonnage or piece-rate contracts that governed a face collier's pay, and from the fixed-price contract arrangements under which byeworkers were sometimes engaged for specific jobs.

Why it was used

Much of a colliery's underground work — roadway repair, general haulage, clearing falls, moving supplies — could not sensibly be measured or paid by output the way coal-getting could, so day-wage employment let collieries staff this essential support work on a predictable basis.

Disasters associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis, with the nature of the relationship stated — not every disaster where this term might plausibly apply.

• Bickershaw Colliery explosion, 1942 (contextual relationship)
  Two of the six men killed, John Ball and James Durkin, are named in this record specifically as datallers, general day-wage underground workers rather than face colliers.

Sources

1. (secondary) Glossary of coal mining terminology — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (D) — North Staffordshire Mining Group

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026