Keps

The supports at a shaft landing that a cage rests on while its tubs are changed — a pair of pivoted arms or catches swung in under the cage to take its weight off the winding rope, and swung clear again before it is wound away.

Historical usage

Keps belong to the era of tub winding, when every wind meant exchanging a full tub for an empty one at the landing. A cage left hanging on its rope rises and falls as the rope stretches and recovers, which makes running tubs on and off it awkward and dangerous; resting it on the keps gave the banksman at the surface, and the onsetter below, a solid floor to work from. As skip winding and mine cars replaced tubs the need went with them, and one pit glossary now defines keps simply as a 'device for resting cage at pit bank, now not used'. Keps also served, imperfectly, as a last line of defence in an overwind. At Garth Merthyr Colliery in June 1897 the banksman was holding the fangs by hand when the ascending cage was wound past the landing into the cross beams; seeing it strike, he left his post for fear of falling material, and because the fangs were not arranged to fall of their own accord they were not in position to catch the cage when the rope pulled out of its socket. Nine men and boys died, and the jury's single recommendation was that self-acting keps or fangs should be used. Fife records of shaft accidents include a Durham case in which a winding cage tipped after the keps failed and eight were killed.

How it worked

A pair of arms, catches or props at the landing, pivoted so that they can be swung in beneath the cage or withdrawn clear of it. The engineman brings the cage up slightly above its landing position, the keps are put in, and the cage is lowered the last few inches until it sits on them and the rope goes slack; the tubs are then run off and on across a solid, unmoving floor. Before the cage can be wound away the keps must be drawn back, and it is that sequence — in, lower, change, raise, out — which a self-acting arrangement automates, so that the catches fall into place under a cage without anyone having to hold or set them.

Why it was used

A cage hanging on a long rope is a spring. Resting it on solid iron while tubs are changed removes the bounce, speeds the changeover and keeps men from working on a moving floor at the mouth of a shaft.

Risks & limitations

Hand-worked keps depend on somebody being there to work them, and on his staying there. The Garth Merthyr inquest turned on exactly that: the banksman was holding the fangs, and when the cage came up into the headgear he understandably got out of the way. The Inspector thought the fangs would have held the cage in any case, but the jury did not agree and asked for self-acting ones. Keps that do engage can still fail under the shock of an overwind, and an ascending cage caught by keps rather than by a detaching hook is being stopped by a device never designed for that load.

Regional variation

Called keeps, catches or cage props in the North Staffordshire glossary, and catchers in Lancashire — where the same word also covers the detaching hook. Fangs is the word used at Garth Merthyr in south Wales, interchangeably with keps in the same account. The words keeps and catches are recorded for the same fitting but are not carried as aliases here, being ordinary English besides.

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.

• Donisthorpe Colliery — Leicestershire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s workings: “…pneumatic brakes replaced them to meet safety requirements and the keps were disconnected after two close winding accidents. The old steam…”
• South Skelton Mine — North Yorkshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s workings: “…overwinder fitted with a King's slow banker and automatic Beien cage keps. Underground the main haulage was an endless rope a mile long driven…”

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.

• Garth Merthyr Colliery overwinding, 1897 (contextual relationship)
  Named 6 times in this record, first in the contributing factors: “…distance fixed by arbitration in 1895. The banksman was holding the fangs by hand; when the cage struck the gate he left his post for fear of…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Garth Merthyr Colliery Shaft Accident - Maesteg - 1897 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (C) — Apedale Heritage Centre / North Staffordshire Mining Group
3. (secondary) Pit Terminology - Glossary — Sutton-in-Ashfield (pit terminology glossary)
4. (secondary) Shaft Safety — fifepits.co.uk

Record created: 24 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026