FIRST PERSON: Ex-miner and Big Pit mechanic Paul Meredith

“I am from an Abertillery family, and still live there. I lived with my dad and mum, George and Joyce and my brother and sister, Stephen and Karen.

I went to Gelli Crug School and metal work was my best subject. I made a poker out of different types of metals with brass and bronze in bands and I was thought it was good so I brought it home and my mum used to use it to poke the fire. My worse subject was carpentry even though my father was a carpenter joiner and my grandfather had been, too. But my father never encouraged me as he said he never had a day off as he would always be doing jobs for family. My woodworking bird box was a disaster. I was proud of it, but the teacher called me over and opened it up and there were all nails sticking out as I couldn’t hit a nail in straight. He said if a bird went in there it would be crucified. I was the first intake at Nantyglo Comprehensive School and it was chaos. But I left and started work at 16. I wanted to be an engineer, something hands on, and wanted to work in electrical. But when I went to the National Coal Board, who had the best apprentice scheme, it didn’t work out. My father took me to Britannia Pit in Pengam for the interview, which was a main training centre.

I had the interview for an apprentice electrician, but the chap who interviewed me said that there was one position for that and it was in Blaenavon in Big Pit, and I thought how am I going to get to there from Abertillery.

He said there is another position in Glyntillery Colliery near Pontypool for an apprentice mechanic. He offered me both so I went to see my dad in the car and he said the bus that he caught to Llanwern Steelworks went past Glyntillery and he said that I could get on the bus with him every day.

So that is the only reason I went mechanical over electrical. But of course, years later I ended up at Big Pit.

I trained for four years, and it encompassed everything mechanical from workshops to going underground where you worked on then pumps – so covered maintenance, installation and repair of anything mechanical.

It was hard work as everything is heavy.

In my first year there were 30 of us apprentices and by the fourth year there was only four.

As part of it, we also had day release to Cross Keys College and sat exams to gain a national certificate. If you passed, you became a qualified mechanic to work on your own. Then I did a further two years at college and got a class one technicians qualification.

You worked with blacksmiths, store keepers and went underground so you got an overview of everything.

I was terrified of going underground – everyone remembers their first time.

I remember waiting for the cage coming up as it moved at such speed and it would bring hot air up with it that looked like smoke.

Britannia was quite a deep shaft and they used to move at 30 feet per second but at Big Pit we wind the cage for visitors at seven feet per second.

I remember it being hot and dusty. There was a low training coalface that was three feet high that you had to crawl through.

There is great banter after work but it was strict underground.

When I heard the pit was closing I asked to do my coal face training there with a mechanic as other boys had told me they had to do the training at other mines with the colliers so I knew if I got it in there, I could do it with a mechanic and avoid shovelling coal.

I started in 1973 and was there until it closed in December 1975 and then went to Cwmtillery.

Abertillery had three deep mines, so it was a mining community and after the afternoon shift the men would go to the pubs with black eyes after their work.

Different pits had different shift times, but at Cwmtillery Pit it was usually 6.30am to 2.30pm and 2pm to 8.15pm.

At the end of a shift, we would all rush as we would want the best showers as it would get busy and would end up with two in a cubicle. There would be steam everywhere; scolding hot water and the water would be running black. At Cwmtillery there would be 400 or 500 men all on shifts and the day shift would be the busiest.

In my job, there was lot of responsibility as you were on your own. You were there to repair the machinery and if you fixed a coal cutting machine and it wasn’t done properly then the work would stop and if you didn’t fix a pump properly then there could be a flood.

Cwmtillery had over 30 miles of tunnels, so there were a lot of different sections to work in.

My ultimate goal was to work up to have my own coal face, and six years after starting I got this, when I was about 21. It was more responsibility and hard work but was more money.

Then I passed more exams and I got the next job up as the mechanic of the mine, looking after the winding engines – my aim was not to stay underground.

Then it shut in May 1982 and I transferred to Rose Heyworth Colliery (Abertillery New Mine). I used to go underground looking after the main pumping systems and if they had trouble with the main conveyor coming up the drift.

If everything was running smoothly, I would spend time in the workshop and carry out maintenance – there was always work to do.

There was the strike 84/85 – it was horrible.

I got married in that spring to my first wife and then the strike happened so we fell behind on any payments such as the mortgage.

I worked say one shift every three weeks so that was the only money we got and you had to give so much money into the strike fund.

Life at home was strained as you were always scrounging for wood to put on the fire. I remember going to the local furniture shop to get chip wood and on the days I did work I would take a bag to take coal home.

We had a food parcel every Thursday, which had tins of beans, soup and bread. But if you worked that week, you would not collect it.

We would go down the institute and watch the news for any updates.

Rose Heyworth closed in December 1985 – but I stayed to oversee the filling of the shafts, so I was the last mechanic there and stayed on until February. I would be salvaging components for other pits.

I was lucky, as I was out of work for just five weeks, and got a job in an imitation tile factory called Marmor Tiles. I was a machine operator for about 10 months.

With the closure of the pits in the area, lots of people left Abertillery.

But then the tile company closed when I was about 30, and I was out of work for a couple of weeks and I got a job at Yuasa battery factory in Ebbw Vale. I was on the production line, then after 4 four weeks, I was fixing my own machine on my back, and I saw feet by me and it was the mechanic and he transferred me to his department. My neighbour worked at Big Pit and got me the job as a fitter. It was already a museum in 1983 and in 1988 I came up here for an interview and started the same week.

They had a 10-year review of the winding wheel, so went straight into it.

It was around this time that I split up from my first marriage and met my new wife, Anita, who was my hairdresser, and we have now been together for 25 years and married for three of those.

In 1990, I got the job as mechanical engineer so was in charge of anything mechanical at Big Pit and worked for ten years in that position and would be like a vulture going to any mine that was closing to get items to keep Big Pit open.

The money here in those days was not very good for the level of responsibility, so I applied for a job in Uskmouth Power Station, which was owned by AES, the money was great so I jumped ship.

I was there for a year and it shut – story of my life.

So I came back up here with my tail between my legs, and asked the boss about being a miner guide. It was now owned by The National Museum, and I was given the job.

So I lead tours by learning information and dates and put in a few of my own stories.

I always tell people about the horses ay Glyntillery as it was one of the last to use them.

Four weeks into being a guide, we got Lottery funding and a job came out of it called conservation engineer to conserve large items of mining machinery and I got it.

I am now conservation and historical working machinery engineer and work across the seven sites in Wales owned by The National Museum, and have been doing it for 13 years. It is a great job as I have learnt about conservation and get to travel around and meet new people.

I never had an injury while working down the pits – lots of near misses – but in January, while working here, I slipped on ice and broke my ribs. Outside of work, I keep myself busy, I enjoy scuba diving and have been to the Red Sea ten times, I go travelling on my motorcycle – been to Scotland, Spain, France and Portugal. I have a coral fish sea tank, enjoy fly fishing, have a model railway and my wife Anita and I enjoy walking – so I am quite an active person.

Fingers crossed, I will be at Big Pit until my retirement.”