History has demonstrated that mining has been going on nearly since man first existed on earth. Mining is not limited to coal, silver, gold and other valuable minerals, but those are most commonly associated with the thought of mining today and in the recent past. Mining can be associated with most everything man does that produces a living by gathering something of value to them, either from within the earth or on the earth.
Morfa Colliery mining disaster 1890
Gleaning and mining could be used interchangeably as both represent processes whereby people are able to extract something from the ground or on top of the ground or even from the sea, that they place value on. For example some fishermen have used the term mining to describe what they do at sea. They are mining the sea for fish, which to them are valuable. They take the fish they catch and sell all that they do not need to sustain their families and themselves. Underground mining has been determined to be one of the most dangerous jobs there are.
In 1890 at Morfa Colliery near Port Talbot, a sweet rose-like perfume was noted. The perfume was said to be coming from invisible ‘death flowers.’ On March 10th, half the miners on the morning shift stayed at home. Later that day, there was an explosion at the colliery and 87 miners were buried alive and subsequently perished in the disaster.
A robin, pigeon and a dove were seen flying around the pit head and that foretold of disaster. They were called ‘corpse birds’ and were said to have been seen before the explosion at Senghenydd Colliery in Glamorgan in 1913 when 400 miners died. Coal’s primary use in England was to heat homes. It was also used in manufacturing steel and other products requiring extreme heat in the process. Everyone was dependant on coal as it was the primary source of power, and energy in that day.
Many precautions against bad luck were taken. If a ‘squinting’ woman was met on the way to work, the miner would go back home again. The women-folk also tried to banish any bad luck. When lots were being drawn for a position at the coalface, the miner’s wife would hang the fire-tongs from the mantle-piece and put the family cat in the unlit oven!
Another interesting folklore associated with mining, were little men or spirits referred to as Tommyknockers, mischievous spirits associated with mining in Welsh, Cornish, and Devon folklore, they were known also in the U.S. as Tommyknockers. In the past, superstitions were rife in all the coal mining communities and were almost always heeded! Tommyknockers warned the miners of cave-ins etc by making strange creaking noises. The miners were found of pastry type vegetable/meat pies, common in England and often brought them into the mine for their lunch. Because their hands were dirty and no place to wash in the mines they would eat their pies, and throw away the crusty part that was dirty where they held it. That part was supposedly thrown away in the mine to be eaten by the tommyknockers. Of course, in reality, it was the rats that got fat on those leftovers.
When my wife’s ancestral family immigrated to the United States in the 1880’s, as soon as the ship docked, they headed straight for the mining areas. One such place was Colorado where the men knew they could find work in the Silver mines. All their lives they worked underground, their hours were long and in the Winter months when days were short they would never see the sun. It was of little value to complain because that was all they knew.
We are all miners trying to extract from life the things we hold to be of value to us. If the truth were known we all have seen or heard tommyknockers from time to time, something or someone unknown to us whose magic powers have kept us safe another day.
A few years ago almost twenty miners were trapped deep underground in a cave-in and they were there for many days while engineers tried to figure out the safest way to get them out. They knew they were alive in a very limited space with their air supply running out. The cave-in had blocked their route out. By heat imaging they were able to find out exactly where they were. They then drilled a hole directly over the area to pump air into the area the miners were in. They widened the hole so that it would be big enough to get the miner out one at a time. They survived by sure ‘will’ and by singing songs to maintain their spirits.
Today, mining regulations are so stringent that we seldom hear of cave-ins etc. we still do but they are few and far apart. They used to dig the coal or whatever they were mining, out with a pick and shovel. Now mining is mostly all done with hydraulic, heavy duty equipment and miners are mostly, Union Equipment Operators.
The following was written on the flyleaf of an old Bible belonging to a miner.
“God made bees, and bees made honey.
God made man and man made money, Pride made the devil and the devil made sin; So God made a coal-pit to put the devil in.”
We should all appreciate and pray for those men/women who do dangerous jobs that provide some type of service or product necessary for our comfort and/or very existence. However, we are all miners in one respect or another, mining from life a way to make and eek out a living.