Just had a great email from reader Jim Fletcher, who’s a keen metal detecting enthusiast. His contribution is so wonderful, I have little to add – so it’s over to Jim. What a wonderful, fascinating collection. Please Jim, if you’ve any more stuff like this, please do share. This is just amazing.
Hi Bob
I thought you might be interested to see these mining related items I’ve found while metal detecting around the Brownhills area. Most of these are miner’s association badges dating from before WW1. The Coppice Colliery lamp check and the pit check (possibly from the Cathedral Pit) also date from the same era. I usually find the brass ones but this could be due to the better durability of brass rather than the copper ones which seem to deteriorate much faster.
A stunning, fascinating array of badges.
These aren’t local miners but this picture shows how these badges were worn sewn onto hats and caps
A few relevant links that may be of interest…
http://www.blackcountrybugle.co.uk/News/A-fine-collection-of-old-miners-tallies-2.htm
http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/191593
http://unionbadges.wordpress.com/