White finger, black lung, deaf as a post working in almost total darkness over 2200 feet underground. People today have no idea what these men endured for a pittance Hero's every one of them.
also not forgetting gas/water bursting through , roof falls, if not for these men the industrial revolution and the wealth it brought to many would never have happened, in the end the men were treated appallingly, I know I was one, god bless them all
I am the proud granddaughter and great granddaughter of South Wales coal miners. My great grandfather died of black lung leaving my grandfather to earn for his mother and seven siblings - he went down pit at the age of 14.
Quite deceptive how the camera lighting hides the fact that the men are working at the face in almost total darkness. The lamps give off only a modest glow as anyone that has used one will tell you.
I grew up near Penallta pit, and can remember the winding gear turning, listening to the miners bragging of their output and the like. It was a sad day when it shut and the brass band marched through Ystrad Mynach. I watched them sat on the wall of The Beech Tree pub with some friends. Tredomen Engineering works shut not long after. The end of an era.
I've been living in Australia for over 50 years now bht grew up in Hengoed near Ystrad Mynach and drank in the Beech Tree pub. We used to see the miners getting on the buses black as coal with only their teeth and eyes were white . They were hard workers ut very proud men whom I have the greatest respect for !
My grandfather went down the pit 2 days after his 14th birthday in 1917. He survived 51 years working at various pits in the llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys. Many Pits closed in the sixties but with British Rail going to Diesel and electric closures were inevitable. Thatcher was out to wreck the miners union no matter the cost. I always thought it was payback for the strikes of the early seventies and with the oil taxes from the north sea money was no object.
My grandfather has worked down more of the Rhondda pits and now suffering with white finger and dust. The government took his blue badge off him for dust and white finger which doesn't go away. If you asked a Welsh miner and a miner from pencillviania in the usa to look at the same bit of coal they would both know it off by heart as there's a seem thats runs under the Rhondda valleys in South Wales UK which goes from the Rhondda down under the Atlantic ocean and comes back up in pencillviania in the USA. Its called the dark artary if I remember rightly
I was at the Big Pit mining museum in South Wales that allows you enter an actual mine of this generation of technology. Used to the modern long wall mining where miners work in protective cage / viser that moves forward with the face I was shocked how miners worked in front of supported area the miner guiding us said "yes you had to be very careful"!
@@jeffreyloftus3617 Less of a death trap when they were closed. Just prior to closure, many £millions had been invested into building new, much more efficient collieries, whilst power stations were being converted to oil burning. The controversy at the time, wasn’t just the closure of pits, it included devastation of engineering companies, including other satellite suppliers to the collieries. Whole communities were built on the coal industry, sports grounds, welfare clubs, schools and colleges, including places of worship.
No gloves no helmets no safety gear. My dad lost part of his hand. And dies of black Lung. I can’t believe we lived through these times. It wasn’t living it was existing. Thank his they all closed.
Ros H im an american of with welsh decent one of my great grandfathers got crushed by an ore crusher and another was trapped in a collapse whilst another family member on my grandmothers side got trapped between a log and a railcar in virginia city
My grandfather was absolutely determined that his boys should not go down the mine and made sure they had an education. Sadly the great depression meant that they couldn't stay in school as long as he would've liked but they never had to go down the pit despite their poverty in those difficult years.
Just imagine how upset people would be if on Remembrance Sunday ,they send the Police to intimidate and beat up Old Soldiers and yet the miners were treated disgracefully in 1984 and made fun of by the media
@@alunhughes2632 English cities were built on the back of Welsh labour. Billions of pounds abstracted from Wales and used to make England self-sufficient and wealthy. Meanwhile we were not even given a railway that connects north and south Wales. There's a reason all our major roads and railways run west to east, and that's the abstraction of coal wealth for the benefit of England, orchestrated by the UK government
@@CaelanDafydd I am an old coal miner, and a life long socialist from the South Wales coalfield. Yes, we have always been exploited by successive London based governments. We have been given little in return for the wealth taken from our rich national resources. The people of the valleys of S Wales have suffered untold hardships over the years of exploitation by London.
@@alunhughes2632 It's sad to hear. I currently work in Cwm Cynon and work with older folks, many of whom are former miners, or were affected by mining in some form. It's a very interesting history, but it is certainly sad that this exploitation is rarely acknowledged in modern discourse. Most of what you see a hear from London media is "we subsidise Wales", when actually Welsh labour paid for their infrastructure
@@CaelanDafydd I am in my 70s now and unfortunately not in the best of health. My grandfather, on my fathers side, came from Nefyn, north Wales, and worked his way south to find work in the collieries around Mountain Ash, where he met my grandmother. They moved to the Rhondda/Pontypridd, him working in the Standard Colliery, Ynyshir, where they settled and had eight boys, all future coal miners and six girls. My father met my mother in the Pontypridd/Beddau area where they settled and had myself and my two sisters. He worked in the Cwm Colliery, Beddau with me to follow years later., the last miner in our family. My mothers father came from the west, but found work in the local farms learning butchery, so stayed in the farming industry. I think that my history is rather typical of many south Wales people of the time.
How times have moved on with coal mining in Australia mostly huge open cut mines in remote areas. The people who work in them aren't particularly academically gifted but are very hard workers but they live in the city areas and they fly in and fly out. They can earn a huge salary and many do being at the mine for three weeks and then having a week off at home. Other mines are still underground and it's safety before profit. We still have many coal fired power stations.
If a film crew where not down there those pit props would not be so white and the miners would not have been so polite.Unfotunately the miners,like engineering got well and truly shafted by the Tories in the 70s and 80s.
it tickles me that back in them days everything was painted ready for the cameras we used to have stop coaling for a couple shifts to get the place ready for the vips an cameras a royal pita it was
+Edward Brady - hi Edward, if you wish to use British Movietone outside of TH-cam, please don't hestiate to get in touch with our licencing team - www.aparchive.com/ContactUs - best wishes - Jenny @ Movietone
That is more like Chinese . Iechyd da in Modern Welsh, I myself can speak the Ancient Tongue as well , it has changed very litle apart from the Stupid Wenglish, old Cymric ( Brythonic Celtic ) Iachyd Da, Bretons was Echid Da Cornish Iachyd Dda Cumbria Iechau da Caledonian ( Pictish) Iachyn Dda. Yakki da is Pidgin !
White finger, black lung, deaf as a post working in almost total darkness over 2200 feet underground. People today have no idea what these men endured for a pittance Hero's every one of them.
I know crazy right? My grandad recently past and im facinated now about how they used to work like this
And some people say White privilege.
also not forgetting gas/water bursting through , roof falls, if not for these men the industrial revolution and the wealth it brought to many would never have happened, in the end the men were treated appallingly, I know I was one, god bless them all
@@andrewh5457 Like f;ck it was
@@Bob-nu3xe People like Thacher in the 80s
I started work in the pits as an apprentice electrician at age 15 in 1957.
I am the proud granddaughter and great granddaughter of South Wales coal miners. My great grandfather died of black lung leaving my grandfather to earn for his mother and seven siblings - he went down pit at the age of 14.
And look how they were f;cking treated specially in the 80s
@@seansands424I take it you mean Thatcher.?
A life of servitude.Thanks for sharing...
Quite deceptive how the camera lighting hides the fact that the men are working at the face in almost total darkness. The lamps give off only a modest glow as anyone that has used one will tell you.
I grew up near Penallta pit, and can remember the winding gear turning, listening to the miners bragging of their output and the like.
It was a sad day when it shut and the brass band marched through Ystrad Mynach.
I watched them sat on the wall of The Beech Tree pub with some friends.
Tredomen Engineering works shut not long after.
The end of an era.
I've been living in Australia for over 50 years now bht grew up in Hengoed near Ystrad Mynach and drank in the Beech Tree pub. We used to see the miners getting on the buses black as coal with only their teeth and eyes were white . They were hard workers ut very proud men whom I have the greatest respect for !
Working ⚒ Down the Pit Was a Hell of a Job! ⛏
My Grandad was a Coal Miner it was a Tough Job Down the Pit! ⛏️⚒️👷♂️
Is coal mining still in process or working in coal mining has stopped nowadays
My grandfather went down the pit 2 days after his 14th birthday in 1917. He survived 51 years working at various pits in the llynfi, Garw and Ogmore valleys. Many Pits closed in the sixties but with British Rail going to Diesel and electric closures were inevitable. Thatcher was out to wreck the miners union no matter the cost. I always thought it was payback for the strikes of the early seventies and with the oil taxes from the north sea money was no object.
My grandfather has worked down more of the Rhondda pits and now suffering with white finger and dust. The government took his blue badge off him for dust and white finger which doesn't go away. If you asked a Welsh miner and a miner from pencillviania in the usa to look at the same bit of coal they would both know it off by heart as there's a seem thats runs under the Rhondda valleys in South Wales UK which goes from the Rhondda down under the Atlantic ocean and comes back up in pencillviania in the USA. Its called the dark artary if I remember rightly
I used to deliver steel for props to penallta in about 1988..
I was at the Big Pit mining museum in South Wales that allows you enter an actual mine of this generation of technology. Used to the modern long wall mining where miners work in protective cage / viser that moves forward with the face I was shocked how miners worked in front of supported area the miner guiding us said "yes you had to be very careful"!
Thatcher forgot about these boys
She did many bad things during her time but closing the death traps was not one of them
@@jeffreyloftus3617 Less of a death trap when they were closed.
Just prior to closure, many £millions had been invested into building new, much more efficient collieries, whilst power stations were being converted to oil burning.
The controversy at the time, wasn’t just the closure of pits, it included devastation of engineering companies, including other satellite suppliers to the collieries.
Whole communities were built on the coal industry, sports grounds, welfare clubs, schools and colleges, including places of worship.
So did Wilson I'm afraid.
Margaret Thatcher didn't Care about the Working Classes!
Worked there underground between 1989 and 1991
Fantastic to see, hand filling, tubs into the tippler, then sorting on the screens, then washing in the Peggy tub
my dad worked here among other pits around the valleys when I was a kid.
❤️ Wales 🏴
the opening whistle is like a death knell :(
Penallta was the first pit I went down after my interview at Ystrad Fawr 1968.
My grandfather worked in penallta around that time. You may have worked with him
me and my father and grandfather worked in penallta in the 15 19 and 21 headings albert evans glyn evans mavric anthony evans from nelson
No gloves no helmets no safety gear. My dad lost part of his hand. And dies of black
Lung. I can’t believe we lived through these times. It wasn’t living it was existing. Thank his they all closed.
Ros H im an american of with welsh decent one of my great grandfathers got crushed by an ore crusher and another was trapped in a collapse whilst another family member on my grandmothers side got trapped between a log and a railcar in virginia city
have a few ancestors that had civil war service on both sides of the war
I had 14 years underground, I also lost part of my hand when a heading machine fell on it, respect to your dad.
@@robertsroberts1688 No matter which country the working class gets shafted al the time
My grandfather was absolutely determined that his boys should not go down the mine and made sure they had an education. Sadly the great depression meant that they couldn't stay in school as long as he would've liked but they never had to go down the pit despite their poverty in those difficult years.
Just imagine how upset people would be if on Remembrance Sunday ,they send the Police to intimidate and beat up Old Soldiers and yet the miners were treated disgracefully in 1984 and made fun of by the media
Thatcher abandoned and Forgot about These Lad's!!! ⛏ ⚒🌹✊
So did WILSON.
Very impressive! Hard work, it's true! But, everyone was paid and maintained their family.
Not if the coal company had anything to say about it lol livable wages were fought for
Man brute work! England was built on the backs of these Men!
England ? this is south Wales.
@@alunhughes2632 English cities were built on the back of Welsh labour. Billions of pounds abstracted from Wales and used to make England self-sufficient and wealthy. Meanwhile we were not even given a railway that connects north and south Wales. There's a reason all our major roads and railways run west to east, and that's the abstraction of coal wealth for the benefit of England, orchestrated by the UK government
@@CaelanDafydd I am an old coal miner, and a life long socialist from the South Wales coalfield. Yes, we have always been exploited by successive London based governments. We have been given little in return for the wealth taken from our rich national resources. The people of the valleys of S Wales have suffered untold hardships over the years of exploitation by London.
@@alunhughes2632 It's sad to hear. I currently work in Cwm Cynon and work with older folks, many of whom are former miners, or were affected by mining in some form. It's a very interesting history, but it is certainly sad that this exploitation is rarely acknowledged in modern discourse. Most of what you see a hear from London media is "we subsidise Wales", when actually Welsh labour paid for their infrastructure
@@CaelanDafydd I am in my 70s now and unfortunately not in the best of health. My grandfather, on my fathers side, came from Nefyn, north Wales, and worked his way south to find work in the collieries around Mountain Ash, where he met my grandmother. They moved to the Rhondda/Pontypridd, him working in the Standard Colliery, Ynyshir, where they settled and had eight boys, all future coal miners and six girls. My father met my mother in the Pontypridd/Beddau area where they settled and had myself and my two sisters. He worked in the Cwm Colliery, Beddau with me to follow years later., the last miner in our family. My mothers father came from the west, but found work in the local farms learning butchery, so stayed in the farming industry. I think that my history is rather typical of many south Wales people of the time.
Dirty dark and dangerous is what my oor old dad always sed. Just an ever reseeding page in the history books now
Cool John
As with the other comments about 'gear', you see some of these guys wearing ties.
In the 70s, I worked underground, and one old guy wore a waist coat and dickibow.
My great great granddad died of coal on his lungs working the coal mines in Wales
Yes my Grandad worked down the Pit it was a Hell of a Job! ⛏
I live in nearby Hengoed. Everyone round here (except me) calls it Penolter.
Grrr!!
Gonna continue my family’s history in a coal mine aswell
How times have moved on with coal mining in Australia mostly huge open cut mines in remote areas. The people who work in them aren't particularly academically gifted but are very hard workers but they live in the city areas and they fly in and fly out. They can earn a huge salary and many do being at the mine for three weeks and then having a week off at home. Other mines are still underground and it's safety before profit. We still have many coal fired power stations.
When men was men and boots was shoes and coats was jackets.
Definitely,not like today bloody WOKE.
No helmets. Cornish miners had these since the 19th century. Wonder why they did have them x
If a film crew where not down there those pit props would not be so white and the miners would not have been so polite.Unfotunately the miners,like engineering got well and truly shafted by the Tories in the 70s and 80s.
Shafted by the real capitalists of the working class.. the Union man
And shafted by Wilson before.
Remember it still hurts
@@andrewh5457 And by Hitler Thacher
@@seansands424 And by Scargill.
Dwe it's hard
This same technique is still used in India... New mines having the same technology.
it tickles me that back in them days everything was painted ready for the cameras we used to have stop coaling for a couple shifts to get the place ready for the vips an cameras a royal pita it was
remember it well
Thank god these places were shut down
We just moved hazardous jobs overseas, who are you kidding?
This is fantastic but unuseable from here as the clouting great AP logo is an unecessary distraction.
+Edward Brady - hi Edward, if you wish to use British Movietone outside of TH-cam, please don't hestiate to get in touch with our licencing team - www.aparchive.com/ContactUs - best wishes - Jenny @ Movietone
Thats great thank you
Music sure sucked back then.....🙄
Music sure sucked now
Don't press read more!
*Read More*
Yakki da
Iechyd dda😂
That is more like Chinese . Iechyd da in Modern Welsh, I myself can speak the Ancient Tongue as well , it has changed very litle apart from the Stupid Wenglish, old Cymric ( Brythonic Celtic ) Iachyd Da, Bretons was Echid Da Cornish Iachyd Dda Cumbria Iechau da Caledonian ( Pictish) Iachyn Dda. Yakki da is Pidgin !
No k in Welsh, boys bach.