PREFACE

In the Spring of 1946 the Social Survey was asked by the Directorate of Recruitment of the Ministry of Fuel and Power (now part of the National Coal Board), to carry out an inquiry into the attitudes of parents and boys resident in the coalfields toward mining as a job. Preliminary inquiries were carried out immediately and the results given to the Directorate within a few weeks. Further, more detailed inquiries, with which this report is concerned, were carried out between August and October, 1946 in six coalfields, Fife, Durham, Yorks., Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and South Wales, Parents of boys aged 13-18 years of age were interviewed, and, separately, boys of the same age. Details of the methods used to select parents and boys for interview are given in an appendix, as are copies of the interviewing schedules used. The parents were interviewed in their homes, the mothers separately from the fathers wherever that was possible. The boys were interviewed either at school, or at their place of work.

In the report which follows the first four parts have been devoted to summarising and discussing the tables derived from the inquiry and the last part to a selection of the more important tables, so that reference can be made to them if required.