ABSTRACT
The changes in the coal industry during the industrial revolution were having increasing effects upon the lives of the miners. There is little evidence to show the extent of the influence of Chartism upon the Derbyshire miners although it is improbable that it was great. In the southern part of the county, however, where the miners came into contact with the frame-work knitters, it is possible that some of them attended Chartist meetings. John Catchpole, one of the early leaders of the Derbyshire miners, became secretary of the Chesterfield Municipal and Parliamentary Electoral Association but he appears to have been extremely inefficient. Suitable educational facilities would doubtless have helped the Derbyshire miners in their efforts to organize a trade union. For the minority who sought to foster trade unionism the struggle was therefore to be long and at times bitter until, in 1880, the Derbyshire Miners Association was finally established.
