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