Wiffsmiff23 AWPF
Well i got to meet Sebastian Boyesen today , how happy am i to inspire such an Artist ~ The book will be published around June 25th before the ceremony at the Sixbells memorial park
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00szzhv/Angel_of_the_Valleys/
While i was at The Miner today was talking to a local who's Husbands father and his brother died in the disaster
Sorry for the poor quality low resolution uploads as you may have gathered this is my first commission for a book on the mining disaster.
This image is copyrighted to David Smith; Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws. Please contact me at daismiff39@hotmail.com for express permission to use any of my photographs.
Tragedy at Six Bells
By David John Withers, Brynmawr
My father worked in the colliery all his life and I sort of followed him into the pit. I went to work in Six Bells Colliery at 17 years of age.
When I first went on the 0.18 coal face as a collier's helper I was introduced to my 'batty' Reggie Poe who showed me the tools we were using and two chalk marks 15 yards apart on the coal face. This was our working place, 15 yards long by 4-foot-6 deep by 5 feet high. I thought 'bloody hell' - it seemed a huge amount of coal to shift.
Although the other coal faces in our district were more modern with hydraulic roof supports, we were still using the older friction posts and linked bars. I've still got the scars where one of the bars came down on me!
We had quite a few problems with gas on the 0.18 coal face and the dust was killing. At times the conveyor would start up and you couldn't see each other until the dust settled down.
As boys we often refused to go onto the face because of the amounts of dust there - being youngsters we stuck together even when the officials threatened to send us home. It wasn't much of a threat as I was only earning about £6 odd!
I had been working about two years when the explosion happened. I was working on the 0.18 face at Six Bells on the 'turning shift' and arrived at the colliery on the bus to see the place in turmoil and heard that an explosion had happened. As the explosion had occurred at our place of work, we offered to go down and help as we knew the place, but the Rescue Brigade had it under control and wouldn't let us go down.
It's hard to say my feelings about it all. We knew there was gas there and they said a spark had set it off. I had mostly enjoyed the colliery up to then. I remember four of the men who died - I used to give them snuff with powdered bark mixed in as a joke - there was a good spirit amongst the men at the pit.
Once the explosion had happened it put me off. I finished and I put my notice in soon after. I was too young to lose my life in the colliery. If I had been working the day shift that week it would have been me. The explosion opened my eyes to the dangers and I went into the construction industry instead - I was always good with my hands. The pit made me grow up.
The deaths of 45 men killed 50 years ago in a colliery explosion have been remembered with a service at the site.
A gas explosion ripped through the Six Bells colliery near Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent at 10.45am on 28 June 1960.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, led a service of remembrance at the site.
He also unveiled a memorial to the tragedy, a 20m high sculpture of a miner by Sebastian Boyesen.
Well i got to meet Sebastian Boyesen today , how happy am i to inspire such an Artist ~ The book will be published around June 25th before the ceremony at the Sixbells memorial park
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00szzhv/Angel_of_the_Valleys/
While i was at The Miner today was talking to a local who's Husbands father and his brother died in the disaster
Sorry for the poor quality low resolution uploads as you may have gathered this is my first commission for a book on the mining disaster.
This image is copyrighted to David Smith; Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws. Please contact me at daismiff39@hotmail.com for express permission to use any of my photographs.
Tragedy at Six Bells
By David John Withers, Brynmawr
My father worked in the colliery all his life and I sort of followed him into the pit. I went to work in Six Bells Colliery at 17 years of age.
When I first went on the 0.18 coal face as a collier's helper I was introduced to my 'batty' Reggie Poe who showed me the tools we were using and two chalk marks 15 yards apart on the coal face. This was our working place, 15 yards long by 4-foot-6 deep by 5 feet high. I thought 'bloody hell' - it seemed a huge amount of coal to shift.
Although the other coal faces in our district were more modern with hydraulic roof supports, we were still using the older friction posts and linked bars. I've still got the scars where one of the bars came down on me!
We had quite a few problems with gas on the 0.18 coal face and the dust was killing. At times the conveyor would start up and you couldn't see each other until the dust settled down.
As boys we often refused to go onto the face because of the amounts of dust there - being youngsters we stuck together even when the officials threatened to send us home. It wasn't much of a threat as I was only earning about £6 odd!
I had been working about two years when the explosion happened. I was working on the 0.18 face at Six Bells on the 'turning shift' and arrived at the colliery on the bus to see the place in turmoil and heard that an explosion had happened. As the explosion had occurred at our place of work, we offered to go down and help as we knew the place, but the Rescue Brigade had it under control and wouldn't let us go down.
It's hard to say my feelings about it all. We knew there was gas there and they said a spark had set it off. I had mostly enjoyed the colliery up to then. I remember four of the men who died - I used to give them snuff with powdered bark mixed in as a joke - there was a good spirit amongst the men at the pit.
Once the explosion had happened it put me off. I finished and I put my notice in soon after. I was too young to lose my life in the colliery. If I had been working the day shift that week it would have been me. The explosion opened my eyes to the dangers and I went into the construction industry instead - I was always good with my hands. The pit made me grow up.
The deaths of 45 men killed 50 years ago in a colliery explosion have been remembered with a service at the site.
A gas explosion ripped through the Six Bells colliery near Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent at 10.45am on 28 June 1960.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, led a service of remembrance at the site.
He also unveiled a memorial to the tragedy, a 20m high sculpture of a miner by Sebastian Boyesen.