Wales: Visiting the South Wales Miners’ Museum

Imagine the time period: It was the ’80s. We were collectively experiencing Purple Rain, we were wearing neon off-the-shoulder sweatshirts thanks to Wham!, and the miners’ strike was changing the face of that industry across England and Wales.

Visit Wales sent Jenography and family to Wales to see what we could do and learn. We went to the Afan Valley, which is a beautiful area that’s a very easy drive from London — straight down the M4, across the bridge at the River Severn and just past Cardiff.

Learning about the mining in the UK

The big impact of mining in the UK as well as the fallout from the strike has been in the news lately. So naturally on our visit to South Wales and the Afan Valley, the South Wales Miners’ Museum was on our list. Judging from the discussion in the car, the children were sorely in need of a bit of mining history.

Judging from the discussion in the car, the children were sorely in need of a bit of mining history

Dad: “We’ll learn more about the miners’ strike.”

Kids: “What’s that?”

Mum (turning round to look at them in the backseat): “The miners’ strike? In the ’80s? It was all over the news when Margaret Thatcher died? 20th anniversary this year?”

Boy (scoring a few points): “Margaret Thatcher died last year.”

Girl (not wanting to be left out): “We studied that.”

Dad: “And the miners’ strike?”

Kids: “….”

To rescue our children from cultural and political cluelessness, we finished mountain biking early enough to hit the museum, which is tucked into a corner of the Afan Valley Visitor Centre. It’s unassuming from the outside, but inside you’re immediately plunged into the subterranean world of mining. One section is built like a mine shaft, with exhibits that demonstrate how the company kept tabs on the men who were down the mines, how the coal was transported and raised and the daily running of the mine.

I’d read about life in the mines, but here we all got a sense of the danger, cramped quarters, enormous racket from the tools and machinery, and difficult conditions. Children pushed big carts of coal, men crawled through tunnels barely wide enough for their shoulders to chip at seams.

 

Elwynn, a local volunteer who was manning the front desk, took us on a guided tour. He’d spent a few years working as a miner, like his father and grandfather, and had lots of opinions about the changes in mining and the continuing effects on the community of the collapse of the industry.

Some facts that stuck with me:

• The South Wales Miners Museum was the first mining museum in Wales.
• The horses that worked in the mines spent their entire lives underground.
• Pit mines go down, drift mines go sideways into mountains.

The museum provided a very good, concise picture of how mining went from labour-intensive to machine-oriented industry as well as the work and social pressures. You can begin to realise what it meant for these men to go down the mines every day, and what it meant for the families that waited for them aboveground. Take the kids here if you can, so they get a sense of “working in a coalmine” really means.

The details

There’s a charge for the museum, which is a registered charity. All the proceeds go toward running the museum.

Adults £3
Senior Citizens & Children £2
Children under 5 Free

Open Monday – Sunday, 10am – 4pm

Ample parking for £1. Audio guides are available free of charge in both Welsh and English.

Don’t miss activities

– Dressing up with a jumpsuit, helmet, cap lamp and (heavy) battery or traditional smock and lace cap.

– The outdoor exhibits, which include a Blacksmith Shop, Lamp Room and an Engine House

– Chatting with the volunteers at the museum

 

For planning your trip, check out the Visit Wales website: www.visitwales.com/