Learning the ancient craft that made Wales famous

The industrial structure has featured on album covers and within other areas of modern culture – it can even be found in exhibitions at London’s Tate Modern.

Beneath the tower and the UNESCO heritage landscape of Blaenavon lies the black gold which propelled Wales to the forefront of the industrial revolution.

Since closing as a colliery in 1983, the band of brothers tasked with extracting the coal from the ground have become tour guides, informing the public about the art of mining.

Joining the orange-clad chaperones are two new faces – both born after the mine shut and both unlikely ever to take a lump from the ground unless required for maintenance.

Ben Munro, 25, from Caerphilly and David ‘Dai’ Powell, 32, from Treharris were successfully chosen to become mining craft apprentices from 52 applicants.

Their task is to preserve the mine so that only the practice of mining becomes consigned to the annuals, not the museum.

For the elder of the two apprentices, it was a chance to reconnect with his forefathers.

“I have had a keen interest in Welsh industrial history for a number of years and once I saw the role advertised, it just seemed like a golden opportunity to be part of it from the ground floor at this phase,” he said.

“It is very important for the museum and very important for educational purposes.

“With my enthusiasm for history and the industry, it just seemed like something that I could contribute to.

“My grandfather was a miner in the Penallta colliery and my great-grandfather was a store mason at Senghenydd.

“I never got to meet my grandfather unfortunately but my mother used to tell me stories that he told her from a young age, and we lived very near my grandmother.

“She lived pretty much next to Penallta colliery and that was still going when I was born.

“I have little childhood memories of the little shunters going passed with coal on board – it is one of those things which you forget for a few years and as you develop your own interests, you pick it back up.

“It all comes back around to heritage.”

His counterpart does not have the family background forged in mining.

“There’s been an awful lot to take in as I don’t come from a mining background so with the tour, it is literally picking up everything from scratch, from the beginning,” said Mr Munro.

“Fortunately from all the guides here, there is a wealth of experience for us to tap into.”

The pair will eventually lead groups into the darkness, having learnt all they can from the guides, some of whom will be reaching retirement age.

However, a core part of their training will be how to maintain the mine and ensure its safety.

“The six month induction is a period of familiarisation but the whole full training period, by the time when we will be fully trained, is around three years,” said Mr Munro.

“It is a proper apprenticeship – it will be a long learning and training process but it is necessary in order to impart the wisdom.

“It is not all about being a tour guide, it is about ensure the safety of the mine for the future.”

Mr Powell added: “Big Pit is still classed as a working mine so you still need to have confident people in situ so it stays open.

“Once you lose that and those skills, it will become unsafe to take tourists and visitors underground.”

Despite only joining the team in the past few months, the pair already feel at home among their contemporaries at Big Pit.

“The guys have been really welcoming and taken us into the fold very quickly,” said Mr Munro.

“They see us as part of the group and it has been great to fit in with them.

“It creates a better learning environment for the apprentices with all the information and to soak up all the history that is on offer.

“We’re part of the jokes already and it is an enjoyable place in which to work.”

The 32-year-old from Treharris added: “The current guides are a smashing set of lads.

“There’s a lot of experience from all members of the team, from the elder miners to the younger ones.

“They were very much involved when the pits were closing and they were working in a time of more mechanised mining.

“It’s a long period of experience and the same as any industry, you do things different.

“It is about taking snippets of information of all the team and add that to your knowledge base.”

For the younger of the two apprentices, it was the pit’s prestige within the local area which lured him down the mine as well as the industry’s historical relevance to Wales as a whole.

“I have worked in Blaenavon for the past three years and I have become heavily invested in local history during that time and its importance in the history of Wales on the whole,” said Mr Munro.

“The thing that attracted me to this role here is to keep the practice of mining alive and to promote the history and the important part that mining played in Wales’ history here and across the world over is really vital.

“It is down to use to keep places like this open and moving forward in order to not let these things fall into the history books and ensure that people continue to come to places like this.

“For people of my generation and younger, the idea of going underground and mining is very much something which is attributed to the history books.

“It is not an industry which people really think about anymore and it is really important to get as many young people interested in it as possible to keep it alive so we don’t forget.

“We need to remember how mining has impacted on Wales’ past over so many years.

At the back of their minds is the realisation that before long the safety net of the former miners will have gone, and the pair and any subsequent apprentices will be driving force behind Big Pit.

“It is something that I think about during my training, but we started with zero hands-on experience of mining and we feel as if we are in safe hands – no-one is going to let us do something we can’t do,” said Mr Powell.

“It is very important that we learn and take on the skills that myself, Ben and any further apprentices are taught.

“It is something that needs to happen.”

Mr Munro added: “As the way it is now, in around 10 years’ time, a large portion of the miners will be retired or reaching retirement age.

“The responsibility will be put onto us in order to maintain the mine and manage it.

“But also to bring more people in to keep the flow of apprentices going so we will always have people here to keep Big Pit open.

“It is a big responsibility but I imagine with the coming years, we will have plenty of opportunities to learn and gain the experience so that when the time comes, we are equipped with the knowledge and tools to handle any situation.”

Just a few months into their mining careers, the pair already know what they enjoy and are less fond of.

“The most exciting part is going underground, inspecting the mine and seeing the different variations in the work that is there – the mine stretches back to the 1860s and some of that is still in place,” said Mr Munro.

“It’s fascinating to see those aspects of history still standing.

“However, learning the mining legislation can be a bit dry.

“It is not the most enthralling bit of literature but it must be done.”

Mr Powell added: “The legislation is dry to say the least but we need to learn and need to absorb it.

“Aside from that, it’s fantastic – it feels like I haven’t been at work for two months.

“When you are interested in something, it makes it all the better. So far, there are no faults and I have no complaints – I hope they don’t have any about me.”