Miners of Meliden

Mr Edward Parry, the Assistant Overseer of the Poor writes about the miners of Meliden.

‘Mining is a funny sort of job because the miners don’t get paid wages. Instead, they go into the mine to find the ore and then the company buys it from them—but only once it is safely on the surface. The ore washers, engine drivers, carpenters, blacksmiths, clerks, agents and other surface workers don’t produce ore so the company pay them fixed wages.

‘The men rise at five in the morning—or earlier, depending where they live. By a quarter-to-six the roads and footpaths from the neighbouring villages—especially Dyserth—are teeming with miners going toward their place of work. The men have to carry their tools which includes long iron boring rods, iron stampers for ramming home the black powder, heavy lump-hammers, crowbars, wedges, short-handled shovels, tin dynamite boxes and large canvas sheets to catch the ore. They also bring face cloths, food in rat-proof tins, a bottle of drink and candles with metal bands to clamp them to their heads. Most of them walk in small groups led by a father or uncle with a couple of lads larking along behind. These boys are not old enough to go into the mine but they are employed from the age of fourteen to wash the ore on eight-hour shifts.

‘The mine bell rings at six but before any work begins, the agent must decided where each bargain group will work and offer a fixed price per ton, or part of a ton for what they can raise. With the bargain agreed, the group goes underground and works a six-hour shift. Sometimes the miners are lucky and there is a good lead ore with a high silver content and they will be paid well at the end of the month. Other times they work for days on a bargain with little to show for it—or perhaps only lower value zinc ore. Whatever the outcome, the company never looses out because it only buys the lead once it is on the surface and ready for the monthly sale at Holywell. Payday is the first Saturday after the second Thursday each month, which is of course, Meliden Fair Day, when dozens of market stall-holders from all over the Vale of Clwyd descend on Meliden and set up stalls along the road from the Star Inn to the Miners’ Arms. Rich pickings indeed.

‘Although the company maintains the pumps, lifting gear, crushers, washers and tramways, the miners of meliden have to supply all their own tools. The company has a large store next to the office at Talargoch, where the miners can buy tools, explosives and any other supplies that they may need. They can also go to the Talargoch company’s blacksmith to have their tools sharpened—but it’s not free and the cause of much grumbling.

‘The men enter the mine by long ladders and it can take them a very long time to reach their bargains. Much worse is the return journey at the end of the shift when it can take more than an hour to climb the thirteen hundred feet out of the Mostyn end of the mine, which is very hard after working a six hour shift. There are man-cages at the Mostyn shaft but the men don’t like using them because they know that in mines all over the country, more miners have died using them than falling off ladders. [The Mostyn shaft was across the road from the old toilets and bus shelter. It was 1,095 feet deep and if you would like to visualise that, it is the same as the distance between St. Melyd’s Church and the Vicarage.]

‘Water is everywhere, the passages are like flowing streams and the air is full of acid vapour which dissolves everything within months—including the iron straps that hold the ladders to the sides of the shafts. It rots the men’s clothing and even the nails in their boots. Worst of all are the Talargoch rats which fear nothing and no-one. As I have already mentioned, the age to go underground is eighteen but the miners don’t like the young ones because they have not built up their strength and they hold back progress. Occasionally, coal miners have come here to try their luck but they never last long and soon go back to the collieries. There are no women at Talargoch and there never have been because a woman’s place is in the home.

‘It always comes as a surprise when people learn that the shifts are only six hours at Talargoch when compared to eight hours in the collieries but it is due to the really awful conditions that lead miners must endure. They start at six in the morning, have their “dinner” at around nine and leave for home at noon. Back in 1856, the company tried to make the men work an eight-hour day and the resulting strike lasted seventeen weeks before the miners went back to work on the terms offered by the owners before the strike began—albeit with many additional regulations. Great damage was done to both sides but the six-hour shifts remain to this day.

‘The ample “spare time” enjoyed by the miners is reflected by their lifestyle and living conditions. I am always impressed by the remarkable cleanness and neatness of their cottages which are packed with excellent furniture and decoration. Tidy and well stocked vegetable gardens with pigsties at the rear are common and most have a flower garden at the front which is very tastefully arranged.

‘Our graveyard is full of miners—some died as the result of accidents—most died around the age of forty-two with lung complaints and a few, just a very few, who reached old age.’

Photographs of Talargoch and its miners are very rare indeed. These men are taking part in a first aid drill in the 1870s.