On our last day of vacation to Wales we knew we had a 4-6 hour drive ahead of us and of course it was raining cats and dogs so the hike behind the waterfalls was out so we got in the car and headed home. About 30 minutes before the Wales/England border we came across the sign for The Big Pit. A member of our Bishobric is from Wales and had told us about this place so on the spur of the moment we decided to stop. I'm really glad we did, it was really interesting.
The Big Pit is a National Coal Museum. It was a working Coal Mine until 1980. You can actually take the tour and go through all the mine with a minor who explains everything. You can go down 300 feet to see what life was really like. To go down in the mine you have to be a certain height, which both of my kids qualified for, but you have to carry an 11lb battery light pack the entire way. No way for Ellika and Owen was not interested. Brian would have loved to go down, but the que (line) was really long and he knew it would be hard for me and the kids to wait for him. Luckily, there is an above ground simulation that gives you a pretty good idea of what it is like. Our kids would never have made it on the real tour, they were both scared of the one we were in. It was dark and there were loud noises, but seriously, very interesting.
A view of the mine from the top where the bathhouse was located. So before there were unions and rights for minors, the minors would work down in the mines all day and then go home completely covered in coal and have to bath at home in a tin bathtub, often outside. Once the Union's were formed and people began fighting for rights, these bathhouses were created. Here the worker's get to work in their own clothes, get their mining clothes out of their "clean" locker, go down in the mine and work all day and when they come out they put their clothes in the "dirty" locker, where it would be cleaned by hot air constantly blowing on it. I can only imagine how much better that made life for the wife!!!
It was really interesting to read about the lives of minors and the history of mining. There were really informative exhibitions that we walked around and saw. Apparently, I didn't take too many pictures, but we did really like this spur of the moment stop on our way home.
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