>> Re; historically important mines:
>> to stand back from the mines-for-mines sake answers,
>> a mine / group of mines can be of tremendous historic importance for
>> what
>> they tell us of the way a section of population lived at a given
>> point in
>> time; or in the case of multi-period occupations, how a region, even
>> a whole
>> country "lived".
I've awaited comments from the more erudite List members and having
seen only one herewith my two'pennorth worth. I cannot agree more re
the importance of an 'all-embracing study of mining history, to
encompass not only the developing technology et al but also the
'socio-economic' factors.
>> Calling the former coal mine at Blaenafon, the National Mining Museum
>> constitutes one of our more recent own-goals.Try walking in to
>> reception and
>> asking about bronze Age copper mines at Cwmystwyth and on the Great
>> Orme;
>> Iron Age argentiferous lead mines in Cardiganshire, Gwent, Glamorgan
>> and
>> Flintshire; they might have "heard about" the ancient gold mining at
>> Dolaucothi. It is the importance of mines and mine sites such as
>> Mynydd
>> Parys on Anglesey that they offer a lens through which to study our
>> history.
>> Steve Gray
>> Tongwynlais
This is a tad hard to swallow whole! Who is the 'they' in this context
who, "might have 'heard about'" the one other aspect of Welsh mining
but not the others mentioned here? Surely, just because a museum bears
the moniker 'National' doesn't require them to have an overarching
knowledge of ' 'the universe and everything', For example, I would be
amazed if I walked into my own 'National' Museums and Galleries
(Merseyside) and asked them about the mining history of the region on a
general let alone detailed basis that they would be able to come up
with more than a few examples of coal-mines and maybe some geological
evidence of mining in the region.
I once asked the staff in the Bronze Age Mining Museum, Llandudno, if
they had any information on Le Neve Foster, I wasn't too surprised to
be met with blank stares until I mentioned a few details then to be
informed, that, 'we are a Bronze Age not 19th century mining museum',
it made some sense to me!
Peter Challis
>>
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