Cob a Coalin'

There's a fine cycle path along some of  the North East coast of Wales with views across the Dee Estuary to the Wirral in England. There's not much to indicate all the industry that existed here for many years. For well over a century coal was mined here at the Point of Ayr Colliery where substantial deposits were found - here were the Two Yard Seam, the Three Yard Seam and the Five Yard Seam! The mines closed in 1996 and all evidence seems to have disappeared - but there's an engaging wooden sculpture of a miner and pit pony pulling a real wagon on a real section of track. The bike is mine.

Prestatyn is to the west of Point of Ayr and the villages stretching inland from here were homes to miner and other workers even before the early days of the Industrial Revolution. This photo is of the Clive Engine House a short walk from where we now live. This was built in the early part of the 18th century and housed one of the newly developed Newcomen steam engines which pumped water out of the local mines. This particular building is actually more typical of the Cornish landscape where this technology was taken up early on by the mining industry down there.

The hill at the back of the engine house is Craig Fawr, a prominent limestone feature towering over the Meliden area, which was the epicentre of North East Wales mining from Roman times. Lead, silver, copper and coal were all extracted from the rich seams. The red cleft in the side of the hill in this early painting is supposed to indicate mineral deposits - I've not been able to see anything reddish on my walks up the old railway line which was built to carry ore down to Prestatyn for shipping further afield.

I'm not sure now where I got this horse photo from but it's a somewhat larger animal than the ones they used to send down the pits in these parts.

Bet the horseshoes are on the heavy side!