Kings of the underground: the last coal miners of Wales
Portraits of Welsh miners and their relatives are on display in Kings of the Underground at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea. More than 40 colliers’ faces were captured using photogrammetry, which converts 2D images into 3D images, at community centres across the South Wales Coalfield
-
Eleanor Lee, 77, wife of a miner from Glyncorrwg, Afan Valley
’The kids were out playing and they could see a lot of men coming over the mountain with a stretcher. One of the boys had got killed in the pit. They just carried him back across the mountain to his home. And that was it.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Jeffrey Bevan, 74, Glycorrwg Washery
’The 1984 strike lasted for so long. South Wales had the most anti-establishment miners and we didn’t go back till last. No way could you feed the family and pay your debts.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
John Evans, 70, Lady Windsor and Deep Duffryn Colliery
’Not many miners lived to 70. My grandfather and my father died from coal dust. I’d see him (my granddad) getting out of breath a lot. And then, later in life, he ended up on oxygen. I think he retired at 60 and he died before he was 61. My father, he had dust, too. By the age of 57, he was dead as well.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Jenifer Thomas, 69, wife of a miner from Glyncorrwg, Afan Valley
‘I remember, as a child, the hooters going. It meant there was an accident. They’d be outside the houses waiting to hear who it was. I still find that very haunting. I’m truly glad my children didn’t have to go down there.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
-
Ceri Thompson, 68, Cwm Colliery and curator at Big Pit National Coal Museum
’I don’t think I disliked anybody I worked with. You couldn’t dislike somebody when your life depended on them. You used to have a big deployment board with everybody’s name on it. You’d have all sorts of names – Polish, Yugoslavians and Lithuanians, Italians – all sorts of people working together.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Gerald Jenkins, 84, collier at Rhondda
’I remember the first fortnight all my hands were bleeding for days. The coal was so sharp and you were only a young boy. You wasn’t used to hard work. I was going to finish on the second day. I was afraid of the dark. Because once you put your light out, you couldn’t see your hand in front of it. And you were liable to be killed every day. Because of the conditions you worked in.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Marlene Hill, 84, wife of Rhondda miner Raymond Hill
‘It wasn’t the done thing for a miner’s wife to be working. So, a week before we got married, I gave up my job. Everybody’s front door was open. You could walk in and out of everybody’s house. Everybody knew everybody.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Gareth Ford, 63, collier at Merthyr Vale
’The last stay-down strike in Britain was in Lewis Merthyr. We went underground on the Monday and came up on the Friday. One of the boys cracked and had to be taken out. It was hard. No blankets. No sleeping bags. You just slept in a manhole.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
-
Ivor England, 84, lodge secretary at Maerdy Colliery
’My father became a miner. My uncles became miners. So it is, the tradition of coal mining. All males in my family were coal miners. You also were working with men who you respected, who felt the same as you, the sons and the grandsons of miners and proud of it. Always been proud of the fact that these are hardworking people.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Mike Day, 74, electrician at Afan Colliery and St John’s Colliery
’We went to hang cables up in the heading. They fired. The blast came. We were blown up – peppered with coal dust, cut face and everything … I thought it was the end of the world for me.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Peter Esposito, 86, haulage operator at South Pit Colliery, Glyngorrwg
’I was 17 years old when there was an explosion in the Panza district. We could see a light coming towards us and there was a fellow still smoking. His clothes were smouldering and his skin was hanging off … Dr Hart came down and he was injecting the men with morphine.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Ron Andrews, 72, Coedely Colliery
’I got to the point where I considered myself to be what felt like Olympic athlete-fit. I was one of maybe 30 colliers on a face that would shift a minimum of 20 tonnes per day, every day. There were men who were doing 40 tons a day. They were that good and they were that strong.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
-
Nick Tamlin, 61, Caerau Colliery and mines rescue at Gleision in 2011
‘Four team captains went down to recover the men that had drowned at Gleision. It was a case of recovery more than a rescue. When we went in I knew that if there was another in-rush of water there would be no way out (for us).’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Sylveen Pember, 68, wife of shaftman Richard Pember
’My husband’s job was inspecting the shaft. I didn’t realise how dangerous it was. I don’t think a lot of people realised how dangerous it was to work down the mines. The community spirit that was in Maerdy in the miner strike was unbelievable. And to see the women – the women were pushing the men on. I think it made a lot of people, a lot of women, stronger.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Lee Williams, 44, Aberpergwm Colliery, Wales’ last remaining underground mine
‘When I tell people what my occupation is, they tend to say: “There are no coal mines about any more. They’re all in the past.” I show them some photos … and see their faces drop in shock.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
Thomas Williams, 20, apprentice electrician at Aberpergwm Colliery
‘This is the last colliery, so I’m quite fortunate to be able to follow in my ancestors’ footsteps. I enjoy being underground. I enjoy the banter with the boys down there. You can’t beat it. It’s completely different from working on the surface.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
-
-
Robert Owen, 65, miners supervisor at Aberpergwm Colliery
‘I tried to work outside in the fresh air but I couldn’t settle. People have short memories on coal and coal miners. I don’t think any of us would be here if it wasn’t for the coal miners of years ago, regarding the second world war and the industrial revolution and all that.’Photograph: Richard P Jones/Vision Fountain
