Remembering King Coal

Penrhos Junction, 1920. Gwyn Briwnant Jones. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales

Robert's Facebook photograph today (from his blogpost) of steam engines pulling wagons full of coal reminds me of my stay with Auntie Flo in Moorland Road Cardiff. At the end of the long garden was the railway line leading to the docks and the steelworks. As a schoolboy I used to stand waving to the drivers and firemen. They always waved back.

Nearby at Gabalfa were the huge marshalling yards for coal trains.

My experience of the ‘black gold’ that made Cardiff famous as the world’s largest coal exporter included several trips underground, the first, also as a school boy with Uncle George, my reporting mentor.

Uncle Walter bought wooden pit props from around the world.

Many years later I organised a visit underground for councillors from Ludwigsburg, Caerphilly’s twin town. At the Windsor colliery in the Aber Valley we had to crawl to the coal face where one German visitor had a heart attack. He recovered.

Another memorable trip was with the the Queen at an Aberbargoed pit where I was one of two reporters chosen by ballet to go underground with her. 

She even stopped to talk to the pit ponies.