tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127226013787633926.post2717937391636675792..comments2024-01-28T03:15:55.657+00:00Comments on Nemesis Republic: Good news, bad news...Nemesis http://www.blogger.com/profile/16935291114531954647noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127226013787633926.post-25590072678495574492009-01-27T22:44:00.000+00:002009-01-27T22:44:00.000+00:00I know - I find it very sad, how so much of our mi...I know - I find it very sad, how so much of our mining heritage is being wiped out. <BR/><BR/>I had intended before now to post on my blog about the RCAHMS Treasured Places exhibition, just ended in Edinburgh (we spent a very long time enjoying it) and I will try to do that soon, but in the meantime here's the poem which was commissioned to celebrate that:<BR/><BR/><BR/> A Poem by Valerie Gillies<BR/><BR/>In January 2008, RCAHMS commissioned Valerie Gillies, the Edinburgh Makar, to write a poem to celebrate the winning image.<BR/><BR/>The Lady Victoria Colliery<BR/><BR/>The Lady is the last of all her kind.<BR/>Headframe in the clouds, these pulley-whorls<BR/>Change with the light, a beacon to remind<BR/>Who fuelled Scotland, lit us, kept us warm. <BR/><BR/>The shaft was sunk to reach the deepest seams:<BR/>The Jewel, clear shining, the Splint, hard glinting,<BR/>The Parrot crackling with its bright papingo flame,<BR/>All the extent and take of the colliery workings<BR/><BR/><BR/>For miles underground below the valley of the Esk.<BR/>Where a face opened, they cut the coal out<BR/>With pick and shovel. Deep mining mechanised<BR/>With ear-splitting shearers, self-advancing supports. <BR/><BR/>The miner was always listening to make sure<BR/>If he could hear the earth shift, the creak of props<BR/>Before roof-fall, the squeal of chocks under pressure.<BR/>Working underground gave him an edge. <BR/><BR/>Men and hutches shot up and down the shaft<BR/>In double-decker cages with a balance rope,<BR/>With brakes, jacketed cylinders, drop valves,<BR/>Steam-powered by winding-engine, lion rampant. <BR/><BR/>Steel-framed, arcaded, with sheet-metal roofs,<BR/>The red-brick buildings are fit for purpose.<BR/>The endless rope, tub circuit, tipplers moved<BR/>Into the estuary of railway yards and sidings. <BR/><BR/>At washers and hoppers, at the jigger screens,<BR/>The shades that leant across the picking-tables<BR/>Never stopped the chutes of coal in a torrent,<BR/>Their teamwork controlling drum and cable. <BR/><BR/>Keep her headgear. The Lady burns our minds.<BR/>Without her wheels we could never know<BR/>How, in the miner's eye, a coal glows.<BR/>The Lady is the last of all her kind. <BR/><BR/>And by tomorrow I will recall the poetic form... but tonight I am sad for the loss of so much, but delighted that this was chosen as the most treasured place in Scotland. <BR/><BR/>http://www.treasuredplaces.org.uk/gallery/winning_image.phpNemesis https://www.blogger.com/profile/16935291114531954647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4127226013787633926.post-54356014198506617302009-01-27T22:03:00.000+00:002009-01-27T22:03:00.000+00:00Also on the SAVE site is sad news about the iconic...Also on the SAVE site is sad news about the iconic <A HREF="http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/news/article.php?id=52" REL="nofollow">headstocks</A> at Annesley Colliery.<BR/>It seems bizarre that the miners' strike is now history - a quarter of a century gone (and an entire industry).<BR/><I><BR/>It stands so proud, the wheels so still,<BR/>A ghost-like figure on the hill.<BR/>It seems so strange, there is no sound,<BR/>Now there are no men underground.<BR/><BR/>What will become of this pit-yard,<BR/>Where men once trampled faces hard?<BR/>Tired and weary, their work done,<BR/>Never having seen the sun.<BR/><BR/>Will it become like sacred ground?<BR/>Foreign tourists gazing round.<BR/>Asking if men once worked here,<BR/>Way beneath this pit-head gear.<BR/><BR/>Empty trucks once filled with coal,<BR/>Lined up like men on the dole.<BR/>Will they e're be used again,<BR/>Or left for scrap just like the men?<BR/><BR/>There'll always be a happy hour<BR/>For those with money, jobs and power.<BR/>They'll never realise the hurt,<BR/>They cause to men they treat like dirt.<BR/><BR/>What will become of this pit-yard,<BR/>Where men once trampled faces hard?<BR/>Tired and weary, their work done,<BR/>Never having seen the sun.<BR/><BR/>There'll always be a happy hour<BR/>For those with money, jobs and power.<BR/>They'll never realise the hurt,<BR/>They do to them they treat like dirt.<BR/></I><BR/>That's by Kay Sutcliffe, wife of a Kent miner. It's been performed by <A HREF="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HB8ublmImNU" REL="nofollow">Chumbawumba</A>, Martin Carthy, Coope, Boyes & Simpson, the Oyster Band and many more.Caius Pliniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00347224774825805571noreply@blogger.com