Page 5 - Ninnau Jan-Feb 2021

Reflections from Wales: The Inheritance of the Colliery

By Elfin Williams, The Collier
Carmarthenshire

The floods that occurred in By Elfin Williams
the valleys of Wales in early
2020 brought back, with sharp
clarity, memories of the inheri- Early dawn and the hooter sounds,
tance that the valleys still pay Summoning all colliers of hamlets and towns,
for the heaps of slag waste and
coal tips dumped ton by ton Come to your work, leave your warm bed,
during the life-span of the col- It’s time to slave, for your butter and bread.
lieries, and of colliery life from
the 1920s to the late 1980s.
Last February, on today’s Hard work it is, each day of your life,
grassy hillsides and landscaped To pay for the needs of your children and wife,
peaks, we saw landslips of slur- Little they have, though little they seek,
ry and small coal waste slipping
down the slopes of the old val- Praying each day for their safety to keep.
ley mountains into flooded
rivers that still run alongside the Now down in that pit, death is at hand,
villages and towns of terraced
houses below. Bringing chaos For nature of man, fights nature of land,
and fears as this took place in ing industry, to after the nation- ers, cobblers and hardware And as in all battles, someone must pay,
Tylerstown, Rhondda Fach, it al strikes and pit closures of the stores often being located not
looked so reminiscent of 1970s and 1980s (which far from the colliery. The min- With coal for tomorrow, perhaps Dad’s life the
Aberfan in 1966, when there brought austerity, unemploy- ers’ homes developed into the next day.
had been the tragedy never to be ment, poverty, bitter resentment terraced villages and towns of
forgotten by the communities and recrimination to the govern- the valleys—with factories and
throughout Wales and in the ment of the time) there were industrial estates servicing the This fear is lived with from father to son,
country as a whole – the spoil- just two deep-mines left to stores and communities in terms Each in his turn, the work getting done,
tip collapse and tragic death of reflect the entire industry. of their day to day require-
116 children and 28 adults. To appreciate why the com- ments. As they expanded, they Their pain and their pleasure equally shared,
An investigation and an munity cohesion of the people became more reliant on the The village being bonded, in being thought of and
enquiry into the safety today of of the valleys was so tangible, growth of the colliers’ pay- cared.
these grass-camouflaged hill- genuine and real, one only had packets and colliery output,
sides were immediately being to live in that environment to with the corresponding increase,
demanded of the Local recognise the central feature of expansion and development of Look at these mountains, of dust and small coal,
Authority and of the Welsh influence and impact that the slag-heaps and coal-waste hills. Where man has made tunnels, just like a mole,
Parliament. The suggestion was colliery had on the personal When the coal industry was
that, although many of the origi- daily lives of all who lived in its nationalised in 1947 there were But now they are silent, still and so cold,
nal slag heaps were lowered in vicinity and local community. more than 250 collieries, now Casting their shadows, over each threshold.
height, no one knows exactly The shift changes and working there are none—the last one at
how stable they are or what patterns of the colliery often, Aberpergwm closing in 2011.
streams lie beneath the waste. and to quite a degree, deter- Many Local Authorities The danger of mining has mostly gone by,
When such tips become saturat- mined the timetable and indeed throughout each region incorpo- But the men of the valley still suffer and die,
ed the soil is filtered through the the routes of many of the local rated into their future strategic
slag heaps and can create a public transport buses. They planning housing, retail, busi- From dust in the lung, that cripples a man,
flowing slurry and lead to insta- travelled up and down the val- ness, industrial and leisure uses To a landslide that kills many, as at Aberfan.
bility which can bring down the ley roads to link in with the start for the land areas of the former
entire hillside. and finish times of the col- collieries. As you travel through well as a small business park. ity and other issues. The events
It is a most interesting jour- lieries’ shifts—such that, for any of the valleys you will see Plans by Rhondda Cynon Taff of early 2020 have certainly
ney to visit the valleys of decades, much of the transport the results and the on-going Council have had ongoing pro- brought back that responsibility
South Wales – or indeed any infrastructure of the whole of work of these strategic plans, posed development at a number to the forefront of attention.
former coalfield area in Wales – South Wales related directly to e.g., the colliery land at of colliery sites for in excess of In June a £2.5M project to
and to compare the landscape of the requirements of the coal Abercynon/ Navigation is today 5000 dwellings, small retail and remove 60,000 tons of waste in
today to that prior to the end of industry. a business park with facilities business units, Primary schools, the Tylerstown region began. A
the coal-mining era. From the The pay-packet of the collier for Park and Ride for several visitor centres, community total of around £82.5M has been
height of the mining industry in strongly influenced the products hundred cars. Penrhiwceiber woodlands, parks and sports estimated to be required to deal
the 1920s, when over 270,000 stocked and sold at the local colliery is today a local park grounds. with all the repair work needed
men were working in the min- stores, with greengrocers, bak- with football and rugby fields as Some of the colliery sites in the Rhondda Cynon Taff
have themselves become council area alone.
museums, such as Big Pit There is little doubt that the

.

h
The SSt. David’s Welsh SSociety National Coal Museum in landscaping and other improve-
e
h
Blaenavon, Torvaen, where you
ment measures have greatly
of Gf Grereater r Kansas Cs City can visit perhaps the very coal enhanced the living environ-
seam at which your great-great-
ment of those people within the
brings you grandfather may have slaved for former coalfield areas of Wales,
but it is surprising how quickly
his pittance of pay. Here you
can view the underground with events of today can bring back
a guide and see what life was its history to life. The loss of the
like for those that worked at the collieries and wider mining
coal face, visit the pit-head industry was said by many to
baths and historical colliery have destroyed the Welsh min-
buildings and see the pit-head ing communities and left noth-
winding gear, the rail tracks and ing but poverty and unemploy-
coal wagons of the day. ment. To an extent there is truth
With many initiatives, both in that sentiment. Welsh
medium and long-term, address- Government reviews and analy-
ing what to do with the colliery ses of the requirements of the
sites, some attention has had to former coalfield areas have
also be given to the coal tips identified many such examples.
and slag heaps – reducing Regeneration, modern infra-
heights, flattening and grass- structure and new housing
seeding as well as tree planting. developments which are recom-
What, at one time, were eye- mended to be associated with
sores of slag heaps, many are new transport links, are increas-
T The Spirit Liveves OnOn - today landscaped hills and dales ingly drawing outlying valley

with main roads and dual car-
locations into regional Welsh
riageways dissecting a number and U.K. governmental initia-
The S Story o of f the Welshlsh S Spiririt of former coalfield areas. What tives. There is a continued

ry
the 2020 floods did was to bring requirement for many years to

in SSong into focus again questions come to re-invigorate and

regarding what risks they still
replace some of the assets, as
featuring pose to the people, homes and well as to deal with the liabili-
livelihoods of those who live ties of the colliery activities of
Robert Gibby Brand as story teller within their shadows – however the former mining communities
much they have been land- and today there is also the
And members of the scaped and “prettified”. recognition and demand that
St. Mary’s Episcopal Choir and Cor Cymry In 2018 The Coal Authority they must become not merely
with harp, flute, and bagpipe was awarded a 5 year contract attractive landscapes to drive
by National Resources Wales to
through, but also vibrant,
undertake tip inspections at engaging, prosperous and safe
May 15, 2021, 4:00 p.m. over 290 sites – to check stabil- places to work, play and live.
Asbury United Methodist Church Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

5400 W 75th Street, Prairie Village, KS 66208

Tickets available at Givelively.com Happy New Year
January-February 2021 NINNAU Page 5