Wednesday 30th May – Home

For many years we have being saying that we must visit the Welsh national coal mining museum of Big Pit but we never seemed to have time when we were in the area. This time we had planned it better and the stop at Pandy allowed us to visit the museum on the way home. Blaenafon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its industrial landscape, which includes Big Pit.

We arrived early and joined those waiting for the first underground tour at 10:00 conducted by an ex-miner. We were the only English people included in a tour with a French school party from Toulouse. They were very well behaved and really enjoyed the tour. The young teacher worked really hard translating instructions and information from our tour guide especially when you consider all of the technical terms that she had to first understand before she translated them. It was fun hearing both the English and the French and I realised how little French I remembered from my school days!

The tour took us in cages down the shaft to lower levels and we then walked along a series of tunnels to see coal faces and equipment and to hear about the lives of the miners. We were told about mining in the 19^th century when women hauled the tubs of coal and children (boys and girls) worked from the age of 4. The children often started as 'trappers', chained to a ventilation door in total darkness and charged with the duty of opening the door for miners when they passed. The chain allowed them to find their way back to the chairs in the dark but also prevented them from leaving. As the only English speaking man in the party, I volunteered to act as 'trapper' as we walked around the mine, ensuring that every door was properly closed after we had passed through and I was given a 'payment' of a tiny piece of Welsh steam coal by the guide at the end tour.

After the excellent underground, we spent another couple of hours exploring the above ground exhibits which included a very good audio-visual tour of a simulated mine. Other interesting buildings were the winding house (still in use for the cages) and the bath house that was only installed in 1939, before which the miners returned home filthy. The museum told us much more about the life of miners and their families. It was shocking to find out that the life expectancy of miners' wives were at one time lower that the miners themselves mainly due to the hard work and poverty that they had to endure.

Big Pit is gives an excellent insight into coal mining in the Welsh coalfields, the underground tour is excellent and the museum and exhibits fascinating. It is really worth a visit and, incredibly, it is free. Go and see it soon whilst there are still ex-miner tour guides who can tell you about their lives.

So it was back to Somerset and the end of this sojourn. It will be great to see our family and friends and we are looking forward to the village celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee that include a street party and an ox roast!

Photos: An overview of Big Pit; The powerful motors of the winding house.