Barnet Kenyon - Early Career

Early Career

Kenyon was born at South Anston, South Yorkshire, the son of Henry Kenyon and Ann Hanson. He had no formal education and went to work in a local stone quarry at the age of seven and a half. At 13, he walked to Conisbrough to work in the newly opened Denaby Main pit. At 16, he went to work at Darfield where he was injured by a falling pit prop. From there, he went to Old Oaks, Barnsley when it was reopened after the explosions which had killed 380 men. He moved frequently, working at Ashley Deep Dukinfield, Ince Colliery Wigan and Kiveton Park.From 1876–1906 he worked at the Shireoaks Company’s Southgate Pit from 1880 as check-weighman, a representative elected by coal miners to check the findings of the mine owner's weighman where miners are paid by the weight of coal mined.