Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 April 2007 18:49:40
It did not take long for the Dark Queen to respond. Yesterday morning she forced her minion to call us and announce that she was going to visit us to try to reclaim the sole (intentional spelling) of the one removed from her clutches so recently.
Thankfully we were able to stave off her visit by summoning the power of Troublesome Trucks, as they were visiting yesterday. Unfortunately the Dark Queen is now coming on Saturday. However we have the power to repulse any attacks as there is sport on TV Saturday so we can use it to drive her off if she tries to drag FW back into her clutches.
Yesterday we took the Troublesome Trucks to Blaenavon (see JLT's sites for pics of Blaenavon). We didn't go down the pit but took them on the train instead. They have a small railway there that mainly employs industrial engines and diesels over their short length of track. They have just been advised that the Welsh Assembly have passed an Act allowing them to extend the track 1.5 miles to the old Blaenavon High Level station.
For those who've never been to Blaenavon then I don't really know how to describe it. It is an historic place that was one of the main sites of the Industrial Revolution. There are the old ironworks there, the Big Pit, otherwise known as The National Coal Museum of Wales and the railway.
On the surrounding hills you can still see the "spoil heaps". These are where the coal waste was dumped after excavation. Almost every hill top in the Welsh vallies had them. There was one about 30 yards behind my maternal grandparents house that was about 50 foot high. These were mostly removed and the remains grassed over after the demise of the coal industry in the 1980's but some, mainly from mines like Blaenavon that lasted a few years more, still remain.
Blaenavon is on the edge of the Brecon Beacons and is a cold and desolate place, being so high up. It is surrounded by heathland, with its sheep and horses, but is not a beautiful place. Drop just over the mountainside behind and you have superb views of the southern part of the beacons. It is really odd that you can have such beautiful scenery within a mile of industrial wasteland.
Blaenavon is now a World Heritage Site. This was supposed to put the area on the map and turn it into a tourist spot. There was a brief revival in the town as it was turned into a Book Town, a place devoted to the sale of second hand books - a new Hay on Wye. This lasted about 2 years and slowly the shops have gone and the revival has slumped. People still visit, mainly for the Big Pit, but seldom stay for long.
This is South Wales in microcosm. The closure of the mines killed off the communities. There was no alternative work to be had and people either moved away or are forced to travel the 20+ miles to Newport and Cardiff for work. What jobs there are are not that well paid, especially compared to the mines, and quite a few of these are now be outsourced to Eastern Europe and Asia.
p.s. We are really looking to the visit of the Dark Queen and her minion ;-)