Joseph Skipsey

Joseph Skipsey
Skipsey as a young man
Born	1832 Tynemouth
Died	1903 Gateshead
Occupation	miner, poet, custodian
Nationality	UK
Education	self-educated
Genre	poetry
Notable works	The Hartley Calamity
Spouse	Sarah Skipsey

Joseph Skipsey (1832 – 1903) was a Northumberland born poet and songwriter in the middle and late 19th century. His best known work is arguably "The Hartley Calamity" about the Hartley Colliery Disaster, a devastating mining accident in Hartley, Northumberland, England in 1862 in which 204 lives were lost.

He was known as "The Pitman Poet".

Joseph Skipsey was born in Percy Village (generally known after the name of the colliery Percy Main), in the Parish of Tynemouth on 17 March 1832. His father Cuthbert, an overman at Percy Main Colliery, and mother, Isabella, had many children, of whom Joseph was the eighth.

Joseph Skipsey faced an early tragedy when his father, Cuthbert, was shot dead on 8 July 1832 in the wake of a long and bitter miners' strike. On the Sunday evening, an "affray" occurred between a group of miners and special constables. Cuthbert Skipsey, an overman and someone who the pitmen would look up to, stepped forward in an attempt to defuse the situation. One of the specials, George Weddell, pushed him away and shot him with his pistol. Weddell was arrested, tried, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to six months hard labour.

Like many children of that era, Joseph Skipsey started work in the local pit. He started at the age of seven as a trapper, teaching himself to read and write using pieces of discarded newspaper, adverts etc. progressing to some of the classical British authors and then to write his own stories, poems and later songs.

In 1852 he walked to London in his search for work and found employment there on the railways. It was here that he met his future bride-to-be. They returned North and he found a job at Choppington, and then Pembroke Colliery, near Sunderland.

Joseph Skipsey married Sarah Ann (née Fendley - born ca1829) from Watlington, Norfolk in December 1868 and she bore him five sons (including Joseph b1869 and Cuthbert b1872) and three daughters (including Elizabeth Ann b1860 and who was living at Harraton at the time of her father’s death). The three named children were the only ones to outlive their father.