This project employed computer-aided longitudinal analysis of work records from a nineteenth-century coal mining community. It examined how household labour supplies and exogenous demand for coal were mediated through the work environment. It sought to amend existing views of the historic family economy by assessing the participation rates of individuals through detailed evidence of their day-to-day interactions with the workplace. In particular, it examined the effects of the household life cycle, the occupations of children and the non-mining occupations of females. The effects of technical, organisational and seasonal changes in the workplace and their effects upon the age structure of the mining labour force were also investigated.