'Down the Mine' (1937) by George Orwell

‘Down the Mine’ is an essay by George Orwell, originally published as the second chapter of his 1937 book 'The Road to Wigan Pier' but later reprinted as a separate essay. In ‘Down the Mine’, Orwell describes his experience of going down an English coal mine to see the conditions of coal miners in the 1930s.

Orwell describes the experience of miners working in a typical coal mine in 1930s England. He describes mine-workers as ‘splendid’ men (they are always men) who are usually small, because the tunnels down the mine are so small that taller men would find it difficult (if not impossible) to work there.

These men are physically fit from their labour, having worked down the mine since they were children in most cases. They have bodies of ‘iron’, like statues (at the end of the essay he refers to their ‘muscles of steel’).