A hewer originally meant a worker who cut things, and is most commonly used to refer to a coal miner who cut the coal wall in a coal mine.

A wood hewer is a woodsman who cut large beams/baulks of timber with an axe or adze in different shapes.

Of all the hewers’ jobs — rock hewers, wood hewers and coal hewers, it is learnt that a coal hewer’s job is the most risky because while cutting the coal face, large pieces may fall down or even the roof might cave in and bury the hewer who may not have a chance to escape.

There are great rock-hewn structures that were hand hewn in hard rocks by skilled rock hewers some hundreds of years ago.

In the past tunnels or secrete passages through rock hills and huge boulders were dug or cut by skilled hewers who knew where to start and how to go into the rock hewing phase by phase.