LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

One of four vintage chrysotile asbestos samples in a boxed set once offered as a souvenir by the former Asbestos Corporation Limited of Quebec, Canada. The four sample containers demonstrate different grades of asbestos fiber: "CRUDE", "SHINGLE", SPINNING", & "SHORTS".

"Shorts" asbestos fiber is reported as milled fiber and generally categorized within "Group 6", but mostly "Group 7" of the Quebec Asbestos Grading System. "Shorts"-grade asbestos fiber, as its description may indicate, was shorter length fiber, which passed through several refinement stages during fiber milling and recovery process.

Over time, in effort to maximize profit and minimize product loss by asbestos producers, shorter-length grades of asbestos fibers found their way into an increasing number of uses, including, but not limited to: asphalt floor tile, vinyl flooring, some papers and cements, refractory cements, mud-type insulations, adhesives, caulks/putties, asphalt road pavings, automobile undercoatings, bituminous coatings, roofing mastics, friction products, gaskets, plastics, paints, liquid sealants, resins, spackles, patching compounds, inert fillers, etc.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

LLWYNYPIA COLLIERY, LLWYNYPIA, RHONDDA.

Any recollection of this colliery and its workforce is inseparable from the name of Archibald Hood, a Scotsman who bestrode mid-Rhondda and elsewhere as a colossus of the mining world, and beyond that distinction too. A brief summary of this man’s career –where to do justice, a volume is needed – is that in 1860, when he arrived in Wales from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, he was merely thirty-seven, but in a brief twenty-five of those years in Scotland, he achieved more than most men of that time would achieve in a lifetime, becoming a qualified mining engineer and coal-owner, genuinely highly-respected in both spheres by his mining peers and workforce. His interest and concern in the latter extended beyond their daily duties, with the provision of good accommodation complete with gardens for food production, and also encouraging their purchase of domestic needs from co-operative initiatives. But, as illustrious as he was in Scotland, he would, over the next forty-two years in Wales, carve a second career that would overtake his first.

Hood’s first Welsh mining involvement was at Tylcha Fach Level in Coed Ely, which exploited the thin bituminous Ty Du seam of less than a yard thickness. The colliery was owned by the Ely Valley Coal Company, and its office and winding-engine house are still in existence, modified into three residences, sitting above Tylcha Fach Estate, an elevated, relatively-new housing development which sits on the valley-side opposite the former Coedely Colliery. He had arrived there in 1860, commissioned by Messrs. Campbell and Mitchell-Innes to determine if a proposed investment in small mines in the area would be profitable, but in an interim period and inexplicably not seeking Hood’s advice, Campbell and Mitchell-Innes were persuaded, unwisely, to buy the level. Although Hood later joined them there, his thoughts were focussed on deep mining at Llwynypia, and when the Ely Valley Coal Company was liquidated, he, Campbell and Mitchell-Inness formed the new Glamorgan Coal Company and began shaft sinkings at Llwynypia Colliery. Eventually, under Hood’s leadership two more deep mines were established at Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch.

Evidence of the beginning of Llwynypia Colliery, dated February 27th,1861, is shown on page four (pages 1-3 missing) of Glamorgan Coal Company’s Cash Book, which over the following twenty-eight days showed directors’ cash injections of £3,600, including £300 by Archibald Hood. It provides early-years evidence that though Hood was undoubtedly the driving force at Llwynypia, his periodical purchase of company shares was always much less than his fellow directors! A search for this colliery through officially-recognised sources will be unsuccessful if ‘Glamorgan’ or ‘Scotch’ is used as a search-word, for the correct name is ‘Llwynypia’, which broadly translates as ‘Magpies Grove’. However, for good reason, ‘Glamorgan’ and ‘Scotch’ soon became every-day alternatives, and they are unquestioned and accepted to this day – but why did they originate? Imagine, you are a Scot, beginning work as a miner in a very sparsely populated area, where the native language is predominantly Welsh, a tongue completely foreign to you. Inevitably, at some time, you will be asked your place of residence or employment: do you invite ridicule, by attempting to pronounce ‘Llwynypia’, or do you use your wits, replying with the easily-pronounced ‘Scotch’, a reference to the colliery’s predominantly Scottish workforce imported by Archibald Hood – or the equally easy ‘Glamorgan’, the name of the company owning the colliery?

To accommodate his workforce, Hood found it necessary to build, and eventually, 271 homes were constructed in fifteen terraces adjacent to, and overlooking the colliery, of which 256 are still in occupied existence, together with several impressive managers’ residences built in the proximity of the colliery. More dwellings were built near his Penrhiwfer and Gilfach Goch mines, and to this day, in all three villages, there remain references to the Glamorgan Coal Company, Hood’s nationality, and Scottish landmarks. Sherwood (several), Gilmour, Anderson, Thistle, St. Andrew, Ayton, Campbell, Argyll, Grange, Holyrood, Rosedale, Bruce (Penrhiwfer), Scotch and Dundonnell (both at Gilfach Goch), all are overtly Scottish-influenced place-names, but there were acknowledgements to Wales, with Cambrian, Glamorgan, Llewelyn, Glandwr, Llwynypia, Glyncornel, Iscoed, etc. Missing from all these is a landmark dubbed ‘Hood’ by Hood himself, and perhaps this remarkable, extraordinary man knew there was no need for self-acclaim, for in his modest way he probably realized that his achievements in South Wales would render that self-perpetuation superfluous.

There were six vertical shafts and two levels at Llwynypia. On the Llwynypia side of the River Rhondda Fawr were shafts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nos 1, and 2 shafts were sunk to exploit the shallow Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams but were eventually deepened to exploit the steam coals in the deeper seams; No. 3 shaft worked the shallow seams too, but, whilst reportedly sunk to also exploit the lower seams, it closed in 1908. The coal in the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams was bituminous, used as a domestic fuel and also as the basic element in coke production, fuelling the 281 ovens at Llwynypia and Gilfach Goch collieries, where an impressive 1,400 tons was produced weekly. Additionally important, at the floor of these seams was fireclay, a mineral consisting of the roots of dead plants, extracted along with the coal, the decayed vegetation above the plant-roots, both having undergone change, metamorphosis, through heat and deep burial over millions of years. This clay was a valuable by-product, an essential constituent of the 10,000 or so bricks made daily by women in the colliery’s above-ground brick-making plant.

The three shafts (1, 2 and 3) were sunk in a line, parallel to and near the Taff Vale Railway, their extremes contained within an incredible 35.33 yards. No. 4 shaft did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to accommodate water pumped from the whole of the colliery’s workings, and its former location is today bordered by a fast-food outlet adjacent to Llwynypia Road. When the colliery ceased production in 1945, the yard remained in use as a rescue-station and central workshop, and the shaft remained open at the No. 3 Rhondda seam, 108 yards level, for water-pumping only until 1966, when total colliery closure took place. The writer recalls, during the mid-1960s, many times travelling to his ventilation duties there, in a very small, single-deck cage, the only one that could be accommodated in this extremely narrow shaft. No. 5 shaft, on the Trealaw side of the river, did not conduct minerals, it was sunk purely to conduct the whole of the colliery’s stale air to the surface, but at times through the colliery’s life this function was fulfilled by other shafts, including No. 6, when No. 5 closed. No. 6 shaft, close to the Collier’s Arms at Ynyscynon Road, was sunk to exploit the deep, steam coals.

In descending order, the seams worked at Llwynypia Colliery were: No. 1 Rhondda (only at an inconsequential, almost mountaintop level, see below); No. 2 Rhondda; No. 3 Rhondda; Pentre; Two Feet Nine Inches; Lower Six Feet; Upper Nine Feet (Red Vein): Lower Nine Feet and Bute; Bute; Five Feet; Lower Five Feet. The Lower Five Feet was the deepest-worked seam and was found at 517 yards in the 525 yards deep No. 1 shaft. The two levels were established on the Trealaw side of the river, with the highly-productive Sherwood Level, whose entrance was adjacent to No. 5 shaft, shallowly traversing under Ynyscynon Nursery as it commenced its 950 yard journey into Rhondda Fach, extracting the No. 2 Rhondda seam. It was opened in 1905, in anticipation of the closure of No. 3 shaft, thereby maintaining the essential supply of bituminous coal and fireclay for the production of coke and bricks, but it closed in 1923 when those reserves were exhausted. That year also saw the closure of Llwynypia Colliery Mountain Level, situated high on the Trealaw mountainside; it was a largely-exploratory, short-lived venture into the No. 1 Rhondda seam for its much-sought bituminous coal and fireclay, but one which was of limited presence due to glacial action and erosion by the elements. Reliable and complete manpower and production figures for Llwynypia are not available, but the colliery was certainly prolific in both, with 4,200 employees in 1902, and 700,000 tons output in 1923 being quoted, although the latter figure, is much lower than the widely-held figure of one million tons per annum.

Archibald Hood was that rarity, a truly-respected coal-owner. He was canny and conservative but also a humanitarian, and at Llwynypia, as in Scotland, he sought to beneficially influence the lives of his workmen and their families. Whereas D. A Thomas, Chairman of Cambrian Collieries Ltd, injected nothing into the Clydach Valley communities, Hood’s hand was everywhere in Llwynypia, manifested by the provision of schools, St. Andrews Church, a Miners Institute, complete with library and billiards tables — a swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket, football and rugby fields, and even the winter-time provision of a large, outdoor ice-skating area! He encouraged his workforce to grow food by providing large garden areas at the fronts of their dwellings, simultaneously seeking to divert the male occupants from alcohol, an imperative, given the volatile temperaments of the Welsh, Scots, and the Irish that later inhabited the community! He was known for his attention to detail, often involved in matters which his minions might have been expected to supervise – the writer’s grandmother lost an arm at Llwynypia when sixteen in 1893, amputated when caught in brick-making machinery, and Hood, then seventy, personally attended the matter, obtaining a job for the one-armed girl at the Tonypandy ironmongery of John Cox – Hood, probably not needing to remind Cox of Glamorgan Coal Company’s patronage!

When he died, aged 79, in 1902, a fund was established to erect a statue, the first in Rhondda, and this likeness, with an arm horizontal, pointing to his colliery, stands to this day, overlooking Llwynypia Road. Such was the respect of his workmen that the fund was heavily over-subscribed, with the surplus being used to provide a gas-lit statue and animal drinking-trough, now modified and situated near Tonypandy Library, removed from its original site at Tonypandy Square. Six years after his death, Llwynypia Colliery was taken under the control of D. A. Thomas’s Cambrian Collieries Ltd, of whom Leonard Llewelyn was General Manager. Today, it is known that Llewelyn was a liar, impostor and opportunist, but when he and Llwynypia Colliery became newspaper headlines in the Tonypandy Coal Strike and the associated rioting of 1910-11, he excelled in concealing and distorting the truth, by manipulating Establishment-based newspapers, the only information source of those times. To expose Llewelyn, one needed mining experience and a source of publication, both possessed by, and available to the writer, but not so in the latter-essential to miners in the 1910-11 period. So, critically, the untruths in those newspapers passed unchallenged, and became immediate history, creating false perceptions of events that deceived many historians and others to the present day. Llewelyn’s lies would not have sat well with Hood, and one wonders, when at the peak of his powers, would he have vetoed the Cambrian purchase of Llwynypia? Had it been possible to configure that time-span, he might have prevented the immense suffering that occurred in mid-Rhondda in 1910-11.

On Monday, Aug. 13, 2018 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a preservation surface of hot oil and gravel to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway near Artist Point gate and Mount Baker Ski Area. Crews are putting this preservation surface over the road following pavement repair earlier this year. Crews will come back in a couple of weeks to add a sealant coat to this new surface. People riding bicycles should consider alternate rides through Sunday, Aug. 19 due to loose gravel through this area.

If you’re ever in the area, the Atlas Coal Mine is well worth a visit. It is gradually being restored, and every year there is another part newly open. It is a wonderful museum of what life was like a century ago.

Here you can see the tipple where coal was graded and sorted, along with some of the administrative buildings on the right. The mine shaft is up the hill behind the tipple; you can see the covered conveyor leading up to it.

Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.

The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and "mining the black" brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.

This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 27 hand-held images with Hugin, tone-mapped with enfuse, and cleaned up in Aperture.

Image size 11950 × 4300 pixels (62 MB).

Location: Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site, East Coulee, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

See where this picture was taken. [?]

Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad 2-10-2 Class M-2-A 6148 at the Seventh Street Roundhouse in Denver, Colorado on November 17, 1939, photograph by J. Schick, print by Gordon C. Bassett, Chuck Zeiler collection. Number 6148 was built by Baldwin in 1919 (c/n 51640) and sold for scrap in February 1954. The extended smokebox and yellow square painted on the rear of the tender's coal bunker indicate L & B Front End, which translates to Lignite and Bituminous Coal used as the fuel.

On Wednesday, Sept. 5 and Thursday, Sept. 6 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a final sealant layer to this stretch of highway to SR 542/Mount Baker Highway between Silver Fir Campground and the Artist Point Gate. Crews had already done pavement repair, crack sealing and applied a preservation surface of oil and gravel to this area. Next up - striping!

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

“Maine was sent to Havana Harbor to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban War of Independence. She exploded and sank on the evening of 15 February 1898, killing 268 sailors, or three-quarters of her crew. In 1898, a U.S. Navy board of inquiry ruled that the ship had been sunk by an external explosion from a mine. However, some U.S. Navy officers disagreed with the board, suggesting that the ship's magazines had been ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker.

The coal used in Maine was bituminous, which is known for releasing firedamp, a mixture of gases composed primarily of flammable methane that is prone to spontaneous explosions. An investigation by Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1974 agreed with the coal fire hypothesis, penning a 1976 monograph that argued for this conclusion. The cause of her sinking remains a subject of debate.”

On Tuesday, Aug. 28 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a final sealant layer to this stretch of highway between Marblemount and Newhalem on SR 20. Crews had already done pavement repair, crack sealing and applied a preservation surface of oil and gravel to this area. Next up - striping!

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

J. P. Pulliam Generating Station was an electrical power station powered by sub-bituminous coal, which could also be substituted by natural gas. It was located in Green Bay, Wisconsin in Brown County. The plant was named after the former Wisconsin Public Service Corporation president John Page Pulliam (–June 15, 1951). The plant units were connected to the power grid via 138 kV and 69 kV transmission lines. The remaining coal units on site were decommissioned in 2018 leaving only the natural gas fired P31 unit active at the site.

Fforio/Explore : Cwm Coke Works

Cwm Coke Works

1958 - 2002

"In the 1970s, the cokeworks employed 1,500 men and produced some 515,000 tonnes of coke each year. It continued to do so until 1986, when coal was privatised."

llantwitfardrecommunitycouncil.org

"Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made from coal. It is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Coke made from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made. The form known as petroleum coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes."

Wiki

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

View of damaged, spray-applied asbestos insulation on the thick metal hull aboard a 200-ft. sea vessel, whereby the ship's hull and much of its internal pipe system was coated with this textured, hard, bituminous coating (shown painted beige). Over time, portions of the insulation have become delaminated and require repair in dry-dock.

Navigation Colliery (bottom highlight) owned at this time by Nixon, Taylor& Co. & Fforest Level (top right highlight)

Navigation (the Navi.) was commenced by John Nixon 1855 - first coal raised 1860 from the Nine Feet seam - ceased production 1940

This mine possessed only one shaft at this time, 18ft. dia. which, originally, was split into two segments by a 3" timber brattice - one being the downcast and one the upcast. This shaft was served by two winding houses, one on each side of the shaft as shown (marked "Engine House") to enable two seams - Four Feet at 365 yds. and Nine Feet at 425 yds. - to be worked off their separate landings whilst the other shaft segment was used for ventilation. Under this arrangement there were no back-stays to the wooden head-gear (the head-frame was stabilised with cables) The mine was connected below ground to Deep Duffryn colliery as a second way out. The later Cwm Cynon pit was also connected to the "Navi"

This shaft was ventilated at this time, 1875, mechanically by Nixon's Ventilator sited at Deep Duffryn. ( There is some confusion as to the location of the original fan as both mines were often known collectively as "Navigation" but a detailed report in 1891 puts it at Deep Duffryn)

In 1879 a 42' dia. Waddle fan was installed at the top of the split shaft making the Navi independent of Deep Duffryn for ventilation.

The winders had spiral drums, ranging from 10ft to 20ft diameter - both winding engines were originally used to power steamboats but were adapted by Nixon for winding.

January 1851 - a 10 year old boy, William Evans, was killed by a fall of coal.

A photo of the unusual headgear arrangement www.flickr.com/photos/57459087@N05/5291397893/

Fforest Level - Upper - was opened 1857 and taken over by Nixon c1870 - a report in June 1884 stated that the "take" would soon be worked out - worked No.3 Rhondda seam - BGS, in their 3rd. Ed. Memoirs, re-classified this seam to have been the No.1 Rhondda.

August 1871 - due to industrial unrest large numbers of miners from Staffordshire were brought in to replace striking miners, causing "much local excitement"

November 1873 - a report states " In Mountain Ash the Masters are attempting to secure the leases of many cottages so as to better control the workers in the event of strikes"

February 1875 - a shaft sinker by the name of Lane was killed at his home when dynamite he had placed in the fireside oven, to dry, exploded.

Tuesday 18th. November 1884 - David Davies, 58 yrs. old, left his work place early to attend a funeral and was struck by drams in the main roadway and was killed instantly.

Friday 17th. December 1885 - 1503 tons raised in a shift making this mine the largest output for a single day for the Aberdare valley.

January 1888 - a sample of coal was analysed "and found to be a bituminous coking coal of the finest quality"

In 1894 a second Waddle fan, 40' dia., of the improved type was installed to augment ventilation - this fan was later to be moved to Cwm Cynon pit.

By 1898 there were some twenty-one boilers in use, ten being of the Lancashire type and the remainder of the Cornish type with associated chimney stacks - one being 145ft. high and another 110ft. high.

At that time, 1898, the headgear was still made of wood "but in need of replacement due to heavy repair" Output at this time was 1,550 tons per day still using the single split shaft as originally constructed.

May 1898 - during a five month long strike troops from Devon were deployed to Aberdare, Mountain Ash and Merthyr to quell riots by miners.

June 1899 - John Nixon died aged 84 years. A north countryman and son of a yeoman farmer, he had been instrumental in promoting Welsh steam coal in France in 1840's by sending a load of coal from the Graig colliery, owned by Mrs. Thomas, for free to Nantes where the French found it was superior to Newcastle coals. He also was the first owner in South Wales to introduce the "longwall" pillar & heading system to superceed the pillar & stall method. He was also credited for inventing the "Billy Fairplay" screening machine for measuring amounts of small coal - but this was not correct.

The Werfa colliery was his first mining venture in the Cynon valley.

February 1929 - this mine was restarted after a stoppage of two years.

A general view of the colliery www.flickr.com/photos/41797376@N02/3855141781/in/faves-th...

To enlarge, double click photo & choose from "View all Sizes"

To Google location maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie...

Matthew 2:22-23 (NLT)

But when he [Joseph] learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:

Late afternoon.

LIGHTING NOTES:

Day is drawing on & the sun is beginning to descend into the west, which is behind the viewer. Warm reds & oranges are contrasted with cooler greens & blues in the fore & mid grounds. Whilst the sun’s orange glow is contrasted with cooler grey-brown hues on the hills & mount Tabor.

The figures & pathway are highlighted in a yellow white glow coming from the sun.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:

Joseph leading their donkey. Mary is holding on to the cradle in which the infant Jesus has travelled from Egypt to Nazareth.

There are sheep on the hillsides.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Notice that the infant Jesus is holding his mother Mary’s hand as they come to the end of their long trek from Egypt. Notice also that the donkey is “digging his heels in” a bit... perhaps he doesn’t like the steep descent down the rocky track?! Joseph is at the donkey’s head, reassuring & guiding.

I’ve used the same clothing & luggage for the travellers that I established in the previous picture.

Orientation:

Nazareth is about 17.5 miles ( 28 km) from the Mediterranean sea at its closest.

It is about 15 miles ( 24 km) north east from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Tiberias or Lake Kinneret.)

The summit of Mount Tabor is only just over 5 miles ( 8 km) east from Nazareth.

The valley or plain of Meggido (part of the plain of Esdraelon, the great battle-field of Palestine) is just over 10.5 miles ( 17 km) in a south westerly direction from Nazareth.

Jerusalem is about 65 miles ( 105 km) almost due south of Nazareth.

To the south of the hills/mountains that surround the valley that Nazareth nestles inside is the valley of Jezreel, with the Carmel mountain range to the west & south west.

For further information regarding Nazareth see the Bible Cartoons Encyclopedia. [Add link]

Geography:

My research suggests there is some uncertainty about the exact location of the biblical village of Nazareth.

It seems to have been situated on the most southern of the ranges of lower Galilee, among the hills which are referred to as the south ridges of Lebanon, just before they sink down into the plain of Esdraelon (about 10 miles away (16 km)). A rocky gorge descends southward to a plain between two craggy hills.

Nazareth was situated on the southeast slope of a hollow pear shaped basin, which descends gradually from the elevated plateau 1500 feet above sea level and opens out through a steep winding way (the stem of the pear) into the plain of Esdraelon, 1000 feet lower. (source: Bible history.com)

In my picture you can see that the village/town of Nazareth is nestled in a rocky bowl, with hills all around. Joseph is Mary, Jesus & their trusty donkey down quite a steep rocky pathway, which leads into Nazareth.

In the background, behind the hills you can see Mount Tabor.

Geology:

According to geological maps Nazareth is situated on the Mount Scopus Group (Chalk, marl) ranges in thickness from 0–1,640 feet (0–500 metres), it averages about 984 ft (300 metres) thick.

It predominantly consists of biomicritic, bituminous, poorly-bedded, white foraminiferal chalk, which forms a characteristic landscape of soft hills. Hard calcareous chalks, biorudites and detrital sandy limestones usually occur at the base, and soft white marly chalks and shales terminate the sequence. Flint is abundant, and occurs as massive brecciated brown cliffs or thin continuous or nodular layers. (source: www.answersingenesis.org/articles/arj/v3/n1/geology-of-is...)

Points of note:

1) Hills of this chalk material form a “characteristic landscape of soft hills” rather than steep-sided cliff edged hills. This is why I have drawn rounded low hills in my cartoon.

2) “Flint is abundant”; this highly resistant, hard rock could be used as building material for homes & other houses. The buildings in my picture are made of flint nodules (lumps).

Some notes about Nazareth (aka Naz´areth, Naz´a-reth)

Nazareth is also known as En Nasira, Japhia, Mash-had, en-Nasirah, Nazerat, Nazareth of Galilee, Nazareth in Galilee, Yafti en Nasra (source: BiblePlaces.com)

In the time of Jesus Nazareth was probably a village or very small town. James F. Strange, an American archaeologist, notes: “Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient Jewish sources earlier than the third century AD. This likely reflects its lack of prominence both in Galilee and in Judaea.”[34] Strange originally calculated the population of Nazareth at the time of Christ to be "roughly 1,600 to 2,000 people" but, in a subsequent publication, revised this figure down to “a maximum of about 480.” (source: E. Meyers & J. Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, & Early Christianity Nashville: Abingdon, 1981; Article “Nazareth” in the Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992.)

‘Nazareth is situated on the most southern of the ranges of lower Galilee, about ten miles from the plain of Esdraelon. “You cannot see from Nazareth the surrounding country, for Nazareth lies in a basin; but the moment you climb to the edge of this basin . . . what a view you have. Esdraelon lies before you, with its twenty battlefields—the scenes of Barak’s and of Gideon’s victories, of Saul’s and Josiah’s defeats. There is Naboth’s vineyard and the place of Jehu’s revenge upon Jezebel; there Shunem and the house of Elisha; there Carmel and the place of Elijah’s sacrifice. To the East the valley of Jordan, with the long range of Gilead; to the West the radiance of the Great Sea (The Mediterranean). . . . You can see thirty miles in three directions” (Smith, Hist. Geog., p. 432). Across the plain of Esdraelon emerged from the Samaritan hill the road from Jerusalem and Egypt.

Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament. It was the home of Joseph and Mary (Luke 2:39); there the angel announced to Mary the birth of the Messiah (Luke 1:26-28), and there Joseph brought Mary and Jesus after the sojourn in Egypt (Matthew 2:19-23); there Jesus grew up to manhood (Luke 4:16) and taught in the synagogue (Matthew 13:54; Luke 4:16). His long and intimate association with this village made Him known as “Jesus of Nazareth” (Luke 18:37; John 1:45; etc.).

The disrepute in which Nazareth stood (John 1:46) has generally been attributed to the Galileans’ lack of culture and rude dialect; but Nathanael, who asked, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” was himself a Galilean. It would seem probable that “good” must be taken in an ethical sense and that the people of Nazareth had a bad name among their neighbours for irreligion or some laxity of morals.’

(Source: The New Unger's Bible Dictionary.)

Is it the valley of Jazreel, or the plain of Esdraelon?!

The Valley of Jezreel is often identified as comprising only the eastern end of the Plain of Esdraelon, the valley between between Mount Gilboa and the Hill of Moreh and Mount Tabor (see Mount Tabor). However, Jezreel is often used generally to refer to the entire flat and fertile plain stretching southeast from the coast north of Mount Carmel to the Jordan River at Beth-shan. This area is the boundary between Samaria to the south and Galilee to the north. (source: www.crivoice.org/phototour/pjezreel.html)

Why not visit my website & see all the cartoons there? www.biblecartoons.co.uk

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

Example of a weathered roof mastic compound applied at curb flashing; in this case, the ACM mastic is depicted by the grey-colored paste-like material along the bottom edge of a brick partition wall.

The grey color is actually the result of countless, tiny exposed asbestos fibers at the surface of the formerly black-colored mastic. Contact with the weathered mastic, such as rubbing across its surface, releases visible asbestos fibers.

On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.

Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.

Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.

Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.

Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.

For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...

This is the tipple at the Atlas Coal Mine.

From the official web site:

Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.

The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and “mining the black” brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.

This 360° High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 66 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, processed in Color Efex, and finally touched up in Aperture.

Original size: 20000 × 10000 (200.0 MP; 1.03 GB).

Location: East Coulee, Alberta, Canada

Image from an archived slide film, showing examples of more modern materials asbestos is used as an ingredient: floor tile; roofing mastics; gaskets & packings; rolled roofing felts.

On Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018 WSDOT contractor crews from Granite Construction added a layer of bituminous surface treatment (hot oil and gravel) to the surface of SR 11/Chuckanut Drive near Bow, Washington in Skagit County. This preservation project includes nine stretches of seven highways in four counties this year and is being done to help preserve the road and prevent the need for emergency repairs between funded paving projects.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

A thickly-applied, black-colored fibrous adhesive used to assist adhesion of metal edging along countertop facings. In this example, the material has become rather brittle and susceptible to damage if subjected to excessive forces, such as often conducted during indiscriminate renovation or demolition activities.

This is the tipple at the Atlas Coal Mine.

From the official web site:

Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.

The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and “mining the black” brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.

This 360° High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 66 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, processed in Color Efex, and finally touched up in Aperture.

Original size: 20000 × 10000 (200.0 MP; 1.03 GB).

Location: East Coulee, Alberta, Canada

Sadly there was no red welly in order to make a full tongue-twister.

View of spray-applied, textured asbestos insulation thoroughly coated over a large steam valve and other background surfaces aboard a 200-ft. sea vessel. The ship's hull and much of its internal pipe system was coated with this hard, bituminous coating (shown painted beige).

Crews worked on SR 9 for three days from July 23 through July 25, 2018 applying a oil and gravel surface - bituminous surface treatment - to a 10 mile stretch between the south end of Big Lake and Sedro-Woolley. Following application of the gravel, equipment rolled the area with large rubber tires and sweeping happened overnight to pick up loose material.

With a plentiful and gracious heads up from my inside source, I was alerted to this coming through on the H-TEAAMY 1-18A. As stated to me “a “weird looking color schemed engine” departing Teague third in consist at 16:00 which would put it through Flynn at approximately 17:15.

Now, it’s been blisteringly hot and dry here for the last 2½ months, so no railfanning for me. Of course this comes through and we’ve got a major thunderstorm line bearing down from the west. Trust me, we need the rain desperately, but the timing?

What was going to get here first: the locomotive or the storm line? Well, the locomotive made it by about 5 minutes before the rain. No sooner does the EOT pass me does the first line of downpours hit.

I was fortunate enough to catch the logo.

Cerrajón

carbón para el mundo

Progreso para Columbia.

Which translates to”

Coal for the world,

Progress for Columbia

Cerrajón Mining located in La Guajira, Columbia is an open pit low sulfur low ash bituminous coal mine.

Photos on the internet show Cerrajón had a fleet of GE B36-7 units and is in the progress of upgrading to ES44ACs.

BNSF

Red River Division

Houston Subdivision

MP168.46 – FM 977gc

Flynn, Texas, USA

18 August 2020 – 17:22 CDT

BNSF H-TEAAMY 1-18A (sb manifest, Teague, TX to PTRA American Yard; Houston, TX)

BNSF 5497 [GE C44-9W]

BNSF 6701 [GE ES44C4]

Cerrajon 1026 [GE ES44AC]

all images: © 2022 ~ Phantastic Pherroequinology / Philip M. Goldstein

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad 4-8-2 Class B-1-A 7008 presumed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on an unknown day in July 1925, photograph by Baldwin Locomotive Works, print by H. L. Broadbelt, Chuck Zeiler collection. Number 7008 was built by Baldwin in July 1925 ( c/n 58482 ) and retired in July 1953. The following is from the book, Steam Locomotives Of The Burlington Route, by Bernard G. Corbin and William F, Kerka:

The first Mountain type engines ( built by Lima ) proved so successful that thirteen similar engines, No. 7008 - 7020 were ordered from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925 and classed B-1-A. They were nearly 1800 lb. heavier than the B-1 engines, but developed the same tractive force. Seven were designed to burn lignite fuel and six to burn bituminous coal. The running gear of the B-1-A engines followed the design of the S-3 Pacifics in that heat-treated alloy steel was used for the piston rods, cross-head pins, crank pins, driving axles, main and side rods, and side rod knuckle pins. The cylinders had 14" diameter piston valves operated by Walschaerts link motion. Feedwater heaters of the Worthington type were used, although engine 7011 was furnished with an Elesco system. Delta B trailing trucks were fitted on the B-1-A 4-8-2 types, and six-wheel trucks of the Commonwealth type were used on the tenders.

NS DU01 crossing over MLK Jr Parkway and under SE 14th Street as it approaches the end of the line at Bituminous Materials. With the clock ticking and the overworked crew nearly dead on hours, the train would cease its work day not far from here, and not long after.

This is the tipple at the Atlas Coal Mine.

From the official web site:

Coal was not hard to discover in the area that is now Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. Seams of coal show up as black stripes in the badlands of the Red Deer River Valley.

The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site preserves the last of the Drumheller mines. The Atlas recalls the time when Coal was King, and “mining the black” brought thousands of people to this lonely valley. The nearby East Coulee School Museum interprets the life of children and families in a bustling mine town.

This 360° High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 66 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, processed in Color Efex, and finally touched up in Aperture.

Original size: 20000 × 10000 (200.0 MP; 1.03 GB).

Location: East Coulee, Alberta, Canada

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

Spray-applied asbestos coating on the interior surface of a metal door-frame showing lumpy texture and black coloration below red paint layer.

This coating appears similar to other spray-applied asbestos coatings found on some metal sink basins and certain vintage basketball backboards.

"International Stop the Tar Sands Day 2011" protest at the Canadian High Commission, London.

A small group of environmental activists staged a vociferous protest this weekend outside the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square against the huge and devastating ecological damage being wrought on the pristine Boreal forests of Alberta in Canada by international oil companies extracting so-called Tar Sands in order to extract bitumen which is then refined - at a huge energy cost - into crude oil.

This protest was a part of "International "Stop the Tar Sands" day, which saw co-ordinated protests happening in 30 countries worldwide. The London action included the laying down of bunches and wreaths of dead flowers to represent the devastated Albertan boreal forest and ancient wilderness. A spirited choir of women entertained us with their rendition of "Sludge, Sludge, Glorious Sludge", and a symbolic environmental activist was tarred and feathered by Big Oil, representing the huge number of migratory and indigenous wildfowl which have been poisoned by the toxic waste in the water ‘tailings’ left behind by the extraction process. It is reported that some local species of wildlife in Alberta are in danger of becoming extinct in the region.

The Canadian Tar Sands ‘Mega-Project’ is slated to be the greatest environmental calamity in the World, eclipsing the destruction of rainforest habitats.

Deep under the boreal forests of Alberta lie 140,000 square kilometres of bituminous sand. Exploration continues all over Canada to find more, but already it is estimated that Canada has enough proven oil reserves to put it in second place behind Saudi Arabia in the oil producer's league table, and already the USA is Canada’s best customer. However... to get at the tar sands Canada is ripping up vast areas of this pristine forest, laying it to waste and leaving behind an immense toxic wasteland. Furthermore the extraction process is much, much more energy intensive to extract and requires very intensive refining, all of which produces, it is estimated, 3 to 5 times the usual amount of greenhouse gasses, consuming as it does a vast amount of natural gas and locally-sourced fresh water.

The right-wing Canadian government led by the pugnacious Stephen Harper has thrown open the doors to the massive - and destructive - exploitation of huge expanses of Canadian wilderness in the rush to put Canada into the global league tables of oil exporting countries, but environmentalists, ecologists and indigenous First Nation peoples are warning that the price of this extraction is having a terrible effect on local wildlife and on human health. Though not scientifically proven beyond any doubt, it has been reported that there has been an alarming increase in unusual cancers and birth-defects amongst local populations affected by the huge volumes of pollution released into the environment by the extraction and refining processes that, apart from requiring up to 200 gallons of fresh water to produce a single 40 gallon drum of bitumen extracted from the sand, leaves behind waste water is so toxic that it cannot be allowed back into the local eco-system, so it is stored in many huge 'tailing ponds' carved out of the local landscape.

Apart from the enormous volume of migratory birds and local wildlife which have already been fatally poisoned on these tailing ponds - and will continue to die in huge numbers for as long as tar extraction continues in Canada - it was always inevitable that the toxic tailings would seep into the local water table and eco-system. Overflows and breaches are happening with alarming regularity, seeing rivers, streams and the water table - on which everyone in those regions depends on - poisoned with sulphur compounds and heavy metals.

There has been, as previously mentioned, an increase in non-typical cancers and birth deformities which local populations blame on this highly polluting heavy industry. This is aside from the many very serious explosions and tragic industrial accidents at refining and extraction sites. This oil comes at a heavy price, so it seems.

It may come as no surprise that oil company internal investigations regularly give the oil companies a clean bill of health, and the Canadian government isn't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, so rigorous independent government environmental impact assessment just isn't happening. The suffering local populations await costly independently commissioned scientific studies, which will be fought against tooth and nail by the legions of very expensive corporate attorneys employed by the oil companies who are allegedly accused of bullying, bribery and corruption and even physical intimidation in the region.

In an area with historically low employment, taking the Oil Companies' 30 pieces of silver is understandable but the problems don't just end there, as the multinationals have drafted in migrant and foreign labour to undercut wage bills, creating friction. The locals were promised jobs when the government and oil companies were flooding the region with propaganda and inducements, but now they have what they wanted they're not willing to pay good wages to the locals who now understandably feel betrayed. These armies of imported workers live weeks at a time in work camps in the remote wilderness, coming into the local towns during rest periods to let off steam. Alcohol and drug-related problems have followed the labour camps, causing havoc in local towns when the blue-collar workers come into town on furlough, and understandably many towns feel completely overwhelmed.

Conflict with the local First Nations is rampant; the oil companies are expanding the scale and pace of Tar Sands development way beyond what was originally promised. The bitumen extraction is under the jurisdiction of treaties that are supposed to ensure the First Nation lands are not taken from them by massive uncontrolled development, but that is exactly what is happening. The oil companies are wielding extraordinary power in the region and nobody from the Canadian government is paying any attention to the destruction of the First Nation peoples’ culture and way of life. Several First Nations are in direct conflict with federal and provincial governments over the cynical traducing of Aboriginal and Treaty rights and legal land title.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has been engaged in an all-out propaganda and lobbying assault on the European Union, trying to make the EU Commissioners accept imported Canadian bitumen extracted from the tar sands as a part of the impending 'Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement' (CETA), which if completed as planned threatens to completely undermine hard fought-for strong climate policies right across Europe, but dedicated campaigners and activists are fighting hard to prevent this and are engaged in a David and Goliath battle to have Canadian bitumen included in the 'Fuel Quality Directive' (FQD) which would effectively see the bitumen banned from Europe on the basis of the ecological damage the extraction is causing and the Carbon Intensity Caps invoked by the extremely high amounts of carbon content released by end product oil made from the Tar Sands.

However, perpetual aggressive lobbying and coercion by the Canadians is weakening the current initial draft of the FQD. The Canadians do not want any reference to be made to tar sands in the FQD – they want it treated the same way as conventional oil, despite its huge carbon intensity. To add further pressure in a diplomatic pincer movement, the Canadian government is hinting that it might pull out of CETA if the EU dares set a separate and higher value for tar sands oil in terms of carbon footprint in the FQD.

There are several informed and concerned European members of Parliament who agree with the environmentalists, and they have recently been responsible for passing a resolution in the European Parliament that the EU should not bow to Canadian and Oil Company pressure, and to reiterate their concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction caused by the Tar Sands extraction, but this may only be a temporary bump in the road for the oil companies and the Canadians, who, having to watch their southern neighbours in the USA straddling the globe and flexing their military muscles in the interests of American business, desperately want the power and influence that always goes hand in glove with oil revenues, licensing fees and the albeit insultingly low rates of corporate taxation they will be levying on the oil companies.

CETA would give the major European multinationals Shell, Total and BP (who had promised ten years ago when they were desperately trying to re-brand themselves as being somehow "Green" that they wouldn't be joining in the rush to Canada), dramatic new powers by legislation which would give them a free hand to trample over the rights of indigenous peoples and undermine crucial social and environmental legislation in Europe and in Canada.

Under the proposed terms of CETA Investment Protections would be enshrined in law which could allow Canadian and European oil companies to force governments before completely unaccountable closed-door Trade Tribunals to settle disputes, including any attempt by the Canadian government to prevent the out-of-control rapacious expansion of the Canadian wilderness. In other words the oil giants would be free to ruin the entire eco-system for their personal profit, and then just walk away from the carnage once the very last drop of economically viable bitumen has been sucked out of the ground. It is this horrific scenario which motivates the campaigners.

UK Protests and direct actions simultaneously took place in London, Plymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, York, Bangor, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester and Bridport in Dorset.

For further reading on the Tar Sands campaigns, visit www.no-tar-sand.org, oilsandstruth.org or stoptarsands.eu

All photos © 2011 Pete Riches

Do not reproduce, alter or reblog my images without my permission.

Cannel City-Amburgy Coal Zone in the Pennsylvanian of Kentucky, USA.

This exposure is part of a relatively new roadcut along new Route 15, north of the town of Jackson, Kentucky, USA. The exposure has Pennsylvanian-aged cyclothemic sedimentary rocks of the Breathitt Group (formerly the Breathitt Formation). Shown above is the Cannel City-Amburgy Coal Zone. The two black-colored horizons are coal beds. The upper coal bed is cannel coal. The lower is bituminous coal. Cannel coal is a scarce, fossil spore-rich variety of coal - it is hard, has a velvety to satiny luster, little to no stratification, and a conchoidal fracture. Bituminous coal is a common variety of coal - it is relatively soft, sooty, has blocky-weathering, is well stratified and laminated, and has patches of glassy-lustered material (vitrain) in and among dull-lustered material.

The cannel coal horizon was economically significant in the early 20th century, and the unit was extensively mined in eastern Kentucky. Published info. about the locality shown above (see Greb & Eble, 2014) indicates that the cannel coal is 33% ash and 1.6% sulfur. The macerals in the cannel coal include liptinite (~47%), inertinite (~31%), and vitrinite (~22%). Plant microfossils from the cannel coal are principally lycopsid tree spores and calamite sphenophyte spores. The cannel coal horizon itself represents an ancient lake formed in a basement fault-generated depression.

The grayish, cliff-like unit at the top is a channel sandstone. The gray to gray-brown unit between the two coal horizons is shale. The unit at the bottom of the photo is another channel sandstone.

Stratigraphy: Cannel City-Amburgy Coal Zone, upper Pikeville Formation, Breathitt Group, lower Atokan Series (Duckmantian), lower Middle Pennsylvanian

Location: Jackson North outcrop - large roadcut on the eastern side of new Rt. 15, just south of southbound old Rt. 15-new Rt. 15 split, north of Jackson, north-central Breathitt County, eastern Kentucky, USA (37° 34’ 53.95” North, 83° 23’ 07.99” West)

------------------

Reference cited:

Greb & Eble (2014) - Cannel coals of the Cannel City-Amburgy Coal Bed (Pikeville Formation, Middle Pennsylvanian); evidence for possible fault-generated lakes. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 46(6): 604.

On our trip down south, February 24, 2018. We stopped at Shag Point/Matakaea as I had never been there before. Matakaea is the name of the pa (fortified village). We have left Dunedin and going to stay in Timaru for a night before heading back to Christchurch.

Shag Point/Matakaea has a rich history, from early Ngai Tahu settlement to historic coalmining. The area has diverse marine life. It has interesting flora, is great for wildlife viewing, and is geologically fascinating.

Flat rock platforms provide an easy haul-out site for New Zealand fur seals, and cliff-top viewing areas allow you to observe seal behaviour without disturbing their rest.

Whalers discovered the first bituminous coal in New Zealand here in the 1830s. By 1862 the exposed coal seams were found to be commercially viable and were successfully mined until 1972, when flooding eventually closed shafts that extended under the coast. Evidence of coal mining is still obvious throughout the reserve.

Matakaea is jointly managed by DOC and Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. Matakaea has Topuni status. The mana (authority) and rangatiratanga (chieftainship) of Ngai Tahu over the area is recognised publicly by this status. Ngai Tahu takes an active role in managing the natural and cultural values of the area.

For More Info: www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/p...

Cerrillos, New Mexico. Cerrillos, New Mexico, is where Young Guns was filmed in 1987.

Antonio Simoni

(Written by Mildred Beach for the June 11, 1979 edition of The Rustler. All material used was submitted by Emma Montoya and Edith and Corina Simoni.)

Born in 1877, one hundred and two years ago in Italy was a man by the name of Antonio Simoni. Tony had dreams, dreams of a new country and of coal and gold. At the age of 25, he left the little village of Santa Andrea, 65 miles from Rome, and came to the land which had filled his mind for years. In 1904, Tony landed in New York and during the next four years worked his way across the country into the coal fields of Wyoming. Even then he listened and heard much of richer fields in New Mexico.

Tony was a true adventurer. Not a tall man , his lack of height was made up by his strength of body and mind. He had determination and pride, afraid of nothing and willing to accept any challenge.

On 1908, he returned to Italy and to his school sweetheart, Rosina Silvestre. They were married in 1909. Rosina must have loved him very much to leave her family and friends and cross the ocean into an entirely new country! As before, they made their way through Chicago but instead of returning to Wyoming, they settled in Madrid. Tony had heard that the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. was operating some of the highest grade anthracite and bituminous mines in the country. The anthracite was used commercially as far east as Chicago, west to San Francisco, to Alaskan salmon fleets and heaters in the coaches of the Santa Fe Railroad. Nearly all of it was burnable.

Tony's family grew: Emma born in 1910, Johnny in 1911 and Freddy in 1914. It was during this time that Tony met John Mitchell, founder of United Mine Workers and champion of the 40 hour week. Tony began talking unionization. In 1915, the company superintendent gave him 24 hours to leave town.

This changed his life. He moved his family into Cerrillos, the supply and entertainment center of southern Santa Fe County. At that time there were several hotels, seven saloons, dry goods store, markets, two churches, a mill and railroad depot. On a main corner, where at one time Tiffany's Restaurant reigned in its glory, Tony took up saloon keeping. The much talked about bar was shaped like a horseshoe with beautiful hand carving. It was later taken into Old Town in Albuquerque. Tony made new friends, cattlemen and business people. Rosina, still homesick for Italy, felt more at home with Spanish speaking people. Business prospered. Those were good days. However, in 1917 Tony sold his business. Prohibition developed. And once more he moved his family across the street from his saloon to the high ceilinged frame building owned by Mr. Callender. In 1918, Tony bought the property for $3,000. To this grocery and meat market, he added feed, shovels, "Blue Jeans", and miner's lanterns. These were the ones used in the days of the "Gay Nineties" when the White Ash Mine exploded, killing 23 miners. Underneath the road from Madrid to Cerrillos, was an old abandoned coal mine called the "White Ash". For 40 years, the ground sizzled and steamed. On a cold winter night, it was an eerie sight.

Meanwhile, Tony's family grew: Charley was born in 1918, Edith in 1922, and Corina in 1928. He periodically bought buildings on both sides of the original store. At the back was a winery where he made some of the best tasting red wines for years. Grapes were shipped from California. He had to have a special stamp from Denver to make wine, but was not allowed to sell it.

Many were hard hit by the Depression. Jobs were hard to find. In the 20's, Tony lost several hundred dollars in a a bank failure. He lost his trust in banks. He went from one challenge to another. But his true love never left him: coal mining. He worked around the Omero Mine for 40 years. In 1940, Tony took out his citizenship papers. In 1941, he bought the Omero Mine from the New York owner. His boys all went to work in the mine.

Every year the Simoni family went to Albuquerque for supplies. In September, 1936, they went as usual. On the way home they had a wreck. The car ahead made a turn without warning. Rosina was injured. Just before Christmas she died without having that long awaited trip back to Italy. Rosina was a beautiful lady whose life in her adopted country was devoted completely to her husband and children.

World War II came and at the Omero Mine, Johnny was the last of the Simoni boys to go into the service in the Air Corps. Johnny returned. Freddy was captured, survived the Bataan Death March only to die later in a prison camp. Charley was killed in action in the Philippines.

At the mine, Tony worked harder than ever. He dug a well, hit water and built a reservoir. He always said "More will happen in Cerrillos" and the rumors of gas discoveries were always around. Tony semi-retired but still loved his garden and chickens. In 1948, he leased the mine. He had his first stroke in 1954 and a fatal one in 1956.

Tony had many friends. During the Depression he always helped those in need and during the war, shared his stamps, so difficult to obtain. He was an integral part of Cerrillos, remembered by many. As we close the door of the past, the trip back to 1877 leaves a vivid and lingering feeling of admiration for that spunky little Italian who dared to live the life he chose by making his dreams come true.