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A Grey Past and a Blacker Future

Reminiscences of a Cardiganshire Miner in the early 1900’s
Edited by Megan Waring

NEW BOOK:  A Grey Past and a Blacker Future.

Elias Jones was born in the Cardiganshire village of Pontrhydygroes in 1881 and started life as a lead miner at the age of 13 and also worked as a coal miner in South Wales. One section of Elias’ memoirs are solely about Frongoch Mine and the other overlaps it with details other Cardiganshire mines, like Lisburn Mine. He talks about how they had to individually bargain with the Manager to agree a cost for extracting the lead from a lode and how this broke some people.

He was self-educated, politically, motivated and left several memoirs in Welsh that have been translated here. This compilation also includes newspaper articles about him and mining documents.  The book gives a fascinating insight into the early 1900s, an era where work was hard and badly paid. However, the humour of the miners can be seen and their interest in the wider world.   £9.50  + p&p.

Enquiries to Megan Waring meg@t-waring.demon.co.uk

Pine Lodge, Deganwy, Conwy, Wales, LL31 9PZ

Tel:  +44(0) 1492 572169 Mob: +44(0) 7887 984565

The book contains the reminiscences of Elias Jones who was born in Pontrhydygroes and worked as a miner in the area. It gives an excellent insight into his life in the village and his working life as a lead miner. It is good to have a book detailing some of the social history of the area at the time the mines were active.

Graham Levins