The Snow I Really Want - Big Freeze 1963 - South Wales Echo

So I LOVE snow! I hate being cold, but I love snow. Where is the logic in that eh? Well most of my favorite childhood memories are of going out, 3 pairs of socks on my hands because we didn't have gloves, and trekking miles through the snow with my father and the dog.

The last month or so we have been teased with a few falling snowflakes and none have stuck to the ground, much to my huge disappointment.  However in South Wales, back in 1963, we had this!

Holy Snowballs Batman! 

They are digging through 10 feet of snow ... now THATS what im talkin' about!  This Souvenir newspaper of the South Wales Echo was produced to contain stories and information about 'The Big Freeze'.  This included Mr. B. Waite of Rhoose who abandoned his car in Porthkerry only to have to dig it out days later from under six feet of drifting snow, "and it started first time!" the article proudly states.  Milk was in danger of rationing because farms got cut off and people were not putting their milk bottles back out for collection.  The Army and RSPCA had to trek on foot in North Monmouthshire with food for wild ponies who had, "been on a cardboard diet" and a slab of ice fell down a mine shaft in the Maesteg Valley injuring three miners and damaging the cage bringing work to a standstill.

Things have changed.  Now the slightest mention of a snowflake and people are fighting in supermarkets over the 20 pints of milk and 15 loaves of bread that they think they need, I'd be amazed to see a modern car that would start after being left in a snow drift, the mines have all but closed down, and charities like the Welsh Pony Rescue and Rehoming Charity are left to help feed the ponies even in mild weather.  The paper ends with, "...the only happy people around were the travel agents as they dealt with a telephone blizzard of inquiries from people searching for the sun"... I guess some things do stay the same.  I however, would be happy to fly out for some real snow.  I'm so busy at the moment the chance would be a fine thing.

If you are interested to learn about Welsh Pony Rescue and Rehoming Charitable Trust who I mentioned briefly here please visit their Facebook Page . I see first hand what brilliant work they do. So come on snow! I want to build an igloo!

Finding Things in the Darkness

Are you afraid of the dark?

Straining eyes, desperately peering into the grainy, greyscale of shapes. Opening your eyelids wide trying to let in the scarce rays of light from the moon to navigate, slowly, cautiously. Charcoal coloured masses merging into unknown hazes of slate grey. Is it a rock, a step? You feel the way with your feet or hands, something moves … you cant make it out, your heart beats faster...

Anyone who has been outside on a cloudy night with the low moon light knows this scenario, but imagine a dark so encompassing, so deep and empty, that you don't know whether you are still alive or if it is just your consciousness floating around in the infinite blackness. Not one pinpoint of light, not one shade of grey. It surrounds and devours you. Just an empty void of nothing and the thoughts inside you head. I have experienced this ominous black hole only one time in my life, and it was deep down in the belly of a coal mine.

I usually write about items that I come across on my travels that I have to research or items that I find interesting. On this occasion I had two beautiful miners or safety lamps which I wanted to find some more information about. The same lamps that the brave miners all over the world used not only to guide them in this pit of blackness, but to protect them from gas explosions. I currently live in South Wales, an area of tight knit mining communities and a hive of mining activity during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. During a period of 80 years, from 1850 to 1930, there were nearly 40 gas explosions here, in two counties alone. This caused the tragic deaths of 3119 men and boys.

Lighting the way.

Many people associate the initial invention of the miners safety lamp with Sir Humphrey Davy in 1815 but the fact is, that there were many lamp manufacturers, including including George Stephenson and Dr. William Clanny, whos safety lamp designs appeared almost simultaneously along side Davys. So which lamps had I found and which period were they from?

Although I am an Archaeologist, this period of modern Industrial history is not my forte so I had to look for more specialist advice when identifying the lamps that were in my possession. I sent an email off to Gary Chedgy of minerslamp.co.uk and received a very prompt and helpful reply, informing me that I had a bonneted lamp from the 1920's period and a much earlier lamp, a Clanny, from around 1880. If you're looking for a lamp in particular to purchase this site is the place to go.

The design of this early Clanny lamp follows a similar design principle to the other lamps of the era, a naked flame (sometimes behind glass as in this case), placed within a metal gauze funnel surround. This provided a very small amount of light, only 0.1 – 0.8 of a naked flame candle but most importantly provided some warning of an explosive gas risk. If a dangerous mix of methane and air was encountered down in the mine, (which would be anything approaching 5% methane), the ignition from the naked flame and subsequent explosion would be contained within the gauze mash and prevented its spread to the galleries. Miners lamps based on this principle are still used today in all UK mines to check for these potentially deadly gases, commonly known as 'Firedamp'. They have saved countless miners lives since their invention to this day and as an interesting side note, modern versions of these lamps also carry the Olympic flame.

The finished Clanny

I spent a long time indeed cleaning up my Clanny lamp, about 6 hours in total! It is a beautiful thing, especially considering the lifeline that it provided to so many people in such appalling working conditions. It is a piece of living history that saved many lives and for one man, his only guide, light and protector, a mile under the earth.

If you are interested in purchasing the lamp please get in touch. It is £290 plus shipping

More Information

For anyone who wants to learn more about mining history and experience a mine (with a few zip wires and a bit of abseiling thrown in) and the blackness I described at the beginning of this article, I recommend Go Below in North Wales. www.go-below.co.uk  Below is an image of me down the actual mine with the benefit of a head torch.

There are also The Big Pit and The Rhondda Heritage Park but I am yet to visit these exhibitions so I cant vouch for them in any way (aside from the good quality of the sandwiches at the Rhondda Heritage Park coffee shop lol)

Information on mining lamps used in the writing of this article www.mining-memorabilia.co.uk

If you are interested in collecting lamps and meeting like minded people I recommend The Miners Lamp Collectors Society www.thebigmeet.org (They also have a facebook page)