In memory of fellow workers & countrymen.

[Sidewinder]

A friend of mine just posted this on Facebook, and I found it quite poignant.

I know these guys are only earning a living, but, there was no need for such a tragic loss.

A Welshman stood at the golden gate,

his head was bent and low.

He meekly asked the man of fate,

The way that he should go.

'What have you done' St. Peter said 'To gain admission here?'

'I merely mined for coal' he said,

'for many and many a year.'

St. Peter opened wide the gate,

And softly tolled the bell.

'Come and choose your harp' he said

'You've had your share of hell.'

Remembering all lost miners! Sleep tight! x

 

[Bacon]

Put a lump in my throat when i read that.

A good post sidey.

 

[Sidewinder]

Did mine too Bacon a real big one!

That was why I posted.

I am told by Mrs SW that she believes it is an Old Welsh valleys "poem" as it were.

 

[MalcyB]

+1

My dad was a miner and I feel grateful that the only thing that happened to him was a broken back. Worse things could have happened.

 

[M107]

A dangerous proffession indeed & as said before thoughts are with all in the valleys.

My grandfather always said he was lucky to have been spotted by Treochy rfc, it was rugby that saved him from a life down the pits.

 

[steptoe]

I may well be out of place in suggesting such things,

but would it be pertinent to have this placed as a sticky for a week,

then removed back to a normal posting.?

 

[Evans Electric]

A dangerous proffession indeed & as said before thoughts are with all in the valleys.My grandfather always said he was lucky to have been spotted by Treochy rfc, it was rugby that saved him from a life down the pits.

Treorchy eh! M107 . I worked at the Dorman Long Steel Works there , years ago . Stayed at the pub in Treherbert. One of the last big working pits was nearby, Meardy I think it was called . There were depressions in the hillside from the General Strike , I think, where miners had scraped for surface coal to keep warm as they were , I think, locked out of the pit. Deu it was hard.

A tough and thankless profession , I was very aware of the vestiges of that mining tradition in the area ,but by it's very nature it can bring terrible tragedy .

 

[Zeespark]

Going back a bit, on My mums side of the family, My grandfather lost both His brother and dad to the pits. It just shows you how much respect you have to have for these things, as the Aberfan and Senghenydd tragedies prove.

AndyGuinness

 

[M107]

Treherbert....thats where my lot originate from Deke.

This is (or was he passed away a few yars ago) my garndfather

Emlyn Jenkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Evans Electric]

Thats great M8, so he played for Wales and England , is that a first. ?

In Treherbert I stayed at The Dun or the Dun Cow .. something like that , and used to go to the Labour Club .

 

[oldtimespark]

I grew up in a town called Abertillery which was a mining town like many others my father worked in many local mines including Cwmtillery and Six Bells.

One day while playing in the street my mother was talking to a neighbour we saw an ambulance go past the top of the street.

A few moments late my father walked around the corner with his arm in a sling he had got out of the ambulance,

so a not to worry my mother if it stopped outside our door.This memory of my father consideration for his family will last forever.

 

[Evans Electric]

Nice one , Oldtimer, we don't hear enough from you .

---------- Post Auto-Merged at 18:31 ---------- Previous post was made at 18:24 ----------

I heard today that vile comments have been made with reference to the deceased miners, made , I believe, in Wales , not sure , or it was the Twittering thing.

I do know ,from WMids local radio that similar things were heard at Saturday's West Bromwich Albion match .

This kind of attitude seems to be on the increase these days, I think that if the Aberfan disaster occurred today there would be these sick comments and jokes doing the rounds . Perhaps its me , I just don't understand it .

Does anyone else hear this stuff or is it something in this area. ?

 

[a2]

There's a cry in the valleys , tears in the West

Mourning the heroes that wear the pit vest

Underground grafters always put in a shift

Below the hillside in the deep dark drift

Their not coming home to their children their wives

... ... The mine once again takes cherished lives

The coalfields of Britain all unite in your mourn

We're all the same breed We're pit village born

May the heroes sleep peacefully, may the community stay strong!

 

[oldtimespark]

Six Bells link 1 - 28th June 1960 - by Gillian Clarke

Six Bells link 2

Perhaps a woman hanging out the wash

paused, hearing something, a sudden hush,

a pulse inside the earth like a blow to the heart,

holding in her arms the wet weight

of her wedding sheets, his shirts. Perhaps

heads lifted from the work of scrubbing steps,

hands stilled from wringing rainbows onto slate,

while below the town, deep in the pit

a rock-fall struck a spark from steel, and fired

the void, punched through the mine a fist

of blazing firedamp. As they died,

perhaps a silence, before sirens cried,

before the people gathered in the street,

before she'd finished hanging out her sheets.