Miners' lockers, Blaenavon

Over the year end holiday our planned family walk involving a Welsh mountain was abandoned due to persistent rain, and instead we headed for Big Pit at Blaenavon, a museum based around one of the last operating coal mines in Wales. We went underground, but since no items involving a battery were allowed down there no photographs were possible! However, there were some of the disused above ground buildings to look at and I got a couple of reasonable shots. This one shows part of the building containing rows of miners' lockers for the couple of hundred men who worked the pit. At the centre is a photograph of the lockers in use.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Blacksmiths' shop

The photograph above shows the blacksmiths' shop at the Big Pit, Blaenavon. I put the apostrophe after the "s" rather than before it because I imagine this was the workshop of several people rather than just one. When I was young small towns always had blacksmiths, usually working alone, though sometimes with a partner or assistant. A large coal mine (this one closed in 1980) must have had metalwork a-plenty for this shop as four forges testifies.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Abandoned coal trucks

Part of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site is the Big Pit National Coal Museum. This was a working coal mine from 1880 until 1980. In 1983 it opened as a a place that the public can visit in order to experience the industry that was pivotal to the industrial revolution and part of the life of all who lived in South Wales. The pit was closely connected to the Blaenavon iron works which is also open to the public. Visitors to Big Pit can go down the mine, explore the ancillary buildings of the site and see exciting audio visual displays. And they can also see some of the detritus associated with mining that was, presumably, left where it was when the pit closed; such as these mine trucks and bogeys.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100