Female family members

It is noticeable that the men are missing from many pictures taken of families from the mining housing estates. It was common practice for numerous generations to live in one household. Miners tended to work between 50 to 60 hours in a five and a half day week in the 1950s, which meant that there wasn't much time for the whole family to spend with one another. As the life expectancy in the mining profession was lower, there were often widowed households in the mining housing estates.