Today we visited Big Pit National Coal Museum and Black Mountains Smokery Artisan Food Shop & Hampers. Both were within 1/2 hour ride of our B&B and today's weather is beautiful, sunny, mid-70s and little wind.
Big Pit Museum - a working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales.
We toured the actual mine after taking a refurbished miner's elevator 300 feet straight down. The tour took about an hour. We had to put on helmets and head lamps. There we two guides for our group who were funny, knowledgeable and related to former miners that used to work in the mine. We also had to leave anything with a battery aboveground which included cell phones, key fobs and cameras so we were not able to take any pictures underground.
Both Sooz and I knocked our hardhats in the low tunnels and slipped or tripped on muddy, rocky floor of the mine. Both of us were very happy to emerge from the mine and see the sky after only one hour. It's hard to imagine how men, women and children worked in the mine for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Of course, these conditions are not limited to only Big Pit, mines in the US and other countries had/have conditions like this. But to be in similar conditions really brought it home.
Next up was the Black Mountains Smokery. we picked up some smoked ham, cheese and crackers and had a little picnic in the little town of Crickhowell.
Inside the smokery shop
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