Mungo Mackay and the Green Table

Contains recollections of miners who worked under Mungo Mackay of the Lothian Coal Company, which span conditions of labour, wages and working hours, safety, housing, health and sickness, poverty, diet, mining trade unionism, religion, strikes and the sense of community of the mining villages.

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Mungo Mackay and the Green Table flourished not in the middle ages, but in the first half of the 20th century. Mackay, as agent and general manager of the Lothian Coal Company, ran a veritable reign of terror from the 1890s until his retirement and death on the eve of World War II. His domination was not confined to the miners at their work, for most of the Lothian Coal Company's miners and their families lived in the Company's tied houses at Newtongrange and Rosewell, and the threat of eviction was ever present. Seated at his famous Green Table, Mackay wielded a power so extensive and enduring that even today there is a saying among some of the older residents at Newtongrange: "Mungo's no' deid yet". This book is part of the "Flashbacks" oral history series. What it meant to live and work under the regime of Mungo Mackay is told in first-hand recollections by the miners themselves. Their memories span conditions of labour, wages and working hours, safety, housing, health and sickness, poverty, diet, mining trade unionism, religion, strikes, sports and the isolation but strong sense of community of the mining villages.