Undermanager

The official next below the colliery manager, in charge of the workings underground and answerable in law for carrying out and enforcing the mining Acts across the part of the mine in his charge.

Historical usage

In the Northumberland and Durham coal trade of the 1840s the man beneath the viewer was the under-viewer: the master wasteman, for one, held the charge of the waste under the viewer or under-viewer. Once the Coal Mines Regulation Acts put a certificated manager at the head of every colliery, the title beneath him settled as under-manager, and by the Coal Mines Act 1911 it carried duties of its own. In 1917 the under-manager of Glenclelland No.2 Pit at Cleland in Lanarkshire was prosecuted beside his manager after a man was thrown from a cage that had no gates: the manager was fined £10 for the missing gates and the under-manager £5, or ten days, for failing to enforce to the best of his power section 40(7) of the Act. The Mines and Quarries Act 1954 made the post compulsory wherever one man managed more than one mine, or wherever an inspector judged a mine's size, condition or system of working to need it, and fixed its qualifications: a first- or second-class certificate of competency and an age of at least twenty-three, against the manager's first-class certificate and twenty-six years. An under-manager was appointed by the owner, and his jurisdiction could be limited to part of the mine so long as every part below ground lay within the jurisdiction of one of them.

How it worked

The manager carried the statutory responsibility for the whole mine; the undermanager ran the underground side of it, often one seam or one shaft, and was next in authority to the manager or deputy manager. Beneath him the colliery overmen took charge of a shift and reported direct to him, and beneath them the deputies took charge of districts. He was the point where the surveyor's office and the face met: a check line surveyed along a face to find bends left by the shearer went to the office, and the official on the district was told through the undermanager what corrective action to take. Larger pits added assistant undermanagers for the back shifts, afternoons and nights, and a junior undermanager might begin on those before moving up.

Why it was used

A deep pit working several seams on three shifts could not be supervised by one man, and the law would not let the manager delegate his responsibility to a foreman with no certificate. The under-manager gave the manager a second certificated official whose duty was, in the words of the 1954 Act, to supervise all operations carried on in his part of the mine and to execute and enforce the Act, its orders and its regulations.

Risks & limitations

The post carried personal liability. An under-manager who let a practice continue that the Act forbade could be fined or imprisoned in his own name, as at Glenclelland in 1917, and the examinations for the certificate, set by the Mining Qualifications Board in the later years, stood between an overman and the post however long he had served underground.

Regional variation

Under-viewer was the North East title in the days of the viewer. Underground the undermanager was simply one of the gaffers, with the manager, overman and deputy. In the Scottish prosecutions of the 1911 Act the spelling is under-manager, as in the statutes; the coalfields of the Midlands ran the words together. After UK Coal took over the deep mines the position was retitled Production Manager.

Related terminology

Coal Mines Act 1911, Deputy, HM Chief Inspector of Mines, Overman, Viewer

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 35 linked records — the term page is not an index.

• Alexandra Colliery — Merseyside (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…1894 William Arnold held the certificate with William Pendlebury as under-manager. Alexandra was one of the eight pits left inside the old Sutton…”
• Bellside Colliery — North Lanarkshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…a coal-cutting machineman against his machine. In April 1924 the under-manager, Alec Baird, crawling along the coal face when a charge of gelignite…”
• Bilsthorpe Colliery — Nottinghamshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…a new coal seam, killing Bill McCulloch, 26, Peter Alcock, 50, and under-manager David Shelton, 31; a 1994 report by HM Inspectorate of Mines…”
• Blairmuckhill Colliery — North Lanarkshire (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…workforce of about 320; an explosion of gas in March 1915 killed the under-manager and a contractor who had walked into an uninspected section with…”
• Clifton Colliery, Great Clifton — Cumbria (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…and the fan had stood for twelve hours, and the agent, manager and under-manager pleaded guilty at Workington in October to the breach of the Coal…”

Disasters associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 60 linked records, most direct relationship first.

• Aber Colliery explosion, 1888 (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the investigation: “…the verdict equivalent to manslaughter against the manager and undermanager, but the case was dismissed by the magistrates. The agent, manager…”
• Albion Colliery explosion, 1906 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…a rush of air and telephoned that there had been a heavy fall. The undermanager, following the overman Henry Hill, smelt afterdamp and found two men…”
• Bamfurlong Colliery fire, 1892 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…John Ashcroft, the usual 16-year-old engine tenter, was ill, and the under-manager Foster let Rowley take his place; Peter Winstanley lit the torch at…”
• Big Pit fire (1913) (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…Pit. Arthur Tucker (26, manager of Kay's slope), Joseph Jenkins (43, under-manager of Big Pit) and William Bond (30, fireman) died trying to rescue the…”
• Bilsthorpe Colliery Roof Collapse (1993) (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…feet underground as they drove a tunnel toward a new coal seam; an under-manager was posthumously awarded the George Medal for warning his colleagues.”

Sources

1. (primary) Glossary of Mining and Geordie Words — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Mines and Quarries Act 1954, section 4: Qualifications of mine managers — legislation.gov.uk
3. (primary) Mines and Quarries Act 1954, section 6: Under-managers — legislation.gov.uk
4. (primary) Mining Terms (S): glossary of the Northumberland and Durham coal trade, 1849 — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Glenclelland No.2 Pit, Cleland, 5 February 1917: colliery cage without gates, manager and under-manager fined — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (secondary) Pit Terminology — Healey Hero

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026