Pit Ponies · 10:04pm Apr 10th, 2017
I am in Yorkshire this week for a particle physics meeting in Sheffield. Before this, I decided to take a detour to Wakefield, and visited the National Coal Mining Museum, built on the site of Caphouse Colliery, where coal was extracted from 1780 until 1985. This was partly a research trip to learn more about mining for my planned Underground Science book. And partly just an excuse to visit somewhere new and have a fun solo travel adventure.
I would very much recommend the museum to anyone looking for a day out in this part of the world. They have a fascinating range of galleries on the social and industrial history of coal mining. You can take a tour through the tunnels 150m underground showing how the method of digging coal developed over two centuries. And they have ponies.
Apparently in 1913 there were 70,000 ponies employed in British mines, typically working eight-hour shifts hauling coal. Little breeds like Shetlands were best suited to work in the narrow, low-roofed tunnels. According to my tour guide, it was skilled work, requiring much training, which not all ponies could complete. They were respected members of a work team. Fed and treated well, and considerably more valuable to the mine owners than the human staff. They were stabled underground and only came to the surface once a year.
However increased mechanisation, the formation of the National Coal Board in 1947, and finally the pit closures of the 1980s led to large job losses. By 1992 there were just 24 pit ponies. The last one retired in 1996.
Sounds more like animal abuse.
4491542
I'm from a town which has a history of coal mining (although it all closed by the 70s) and historically they were often better treated than the human miners.
Yes it probably would be considered animal abuse now a days but historically a lot has happened to both people and animals which wouldn't be acceptable now.
4491542
Animal abuse was a fact of life at the time. However, I was told that because pit ponies were so valuable, they did not suffer any of the whipping or petty abuse which working horses on the surface endured. They were inspected before each shift, and if they had any injuries, left to rest.
Sounds cool, unfortunately, I live nowhere near that part of the planet :(.
Im trying to remember what the seam is called accross the valley, where the faults lifted them from deep underground, to almost the top of the moors. Theres a farm owned mine up there, and he drives his heavy equipment from the surface down along the seam. Something like Lower Mountain? the coal is over 2 yards thick and sits on over a foot of fireclay. Pit ponies would have had an easier time there than down in the mine running the 18 or 12 inch seams?
I can't tell from the angle. Are those blinders or blindfolds?
So basically rock farmers, right?
I've been reading about this a couple years ago. I got curious after I came across the song below. Haven't been to any musems regarding the topic yet, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4aFUbDly4M
4491816 `
I've got this idea for a pseudo-Victorian steampunk AU that I'm probably never going to get around to writing, and yes, Pinkie's family are pit ponies.
Great, now I can't get the idea out of my mind of an even darker sequel to Somewhere Only We Know.
4491691
Wouldn't make any difference in the underground dark. The head gear is to protect them against the inevitable collisions with the low ceiling.
4491816
Just bury your organic matter, and harvest it 200 million years later.
That's story fodder, right there