Not a lot of joined up thinking in Wales. The steel furnaces use coal so if they ban it being mined here it will have to be imported to fire the furnaces, which is more "green"?
As I remember it, we had little say in the matter, I believe it was Thatcher who thought it was a good idea.
I don't think the Queen was indecisive (as portrayed in The Crown) she was adamant, at the time, that her attendance at the site would be a hindrance to the rescue work and not a help; she was stoic about her decision, although a number or people sought to persuade her to go. She has been on record, since then, stating that she regretted her decision not to go sooner although the Duke of Edinburgh was there on 22nd.
Coal had not been used to fire blast furnaces for long before the mininig industry was reduced to a sustainable level .. what is required in order to produce steel is Coke - it's a reducing agent which is still required to make steel. Coke comes from a particular type of coal which, as far as I am aware, did not come from the high quality coal mined in the Welsh coalfields.
Welsh coal was used to produce coke - you have two coalfields in the South of the country roughly divided by the River Tawe, you have the South Wales coalfield (the'valleys', Merthyr, Ebbw Vale and so on, They produced soft, bituminous coal, 'steam coal' then the South West Wales coalfield, the Neath valley, Loughor and Aman valleys (where I am) and the Gwendraeth valley and areas even further West, even the Pembrokeshire tourist traps of Saundersfoot and Tenby had a thriving coal industry, apparently the coal ranges right out under the sea all the way to Ireland. The South West Wales coalfield was high quality hard coal (dug out by even harder men
) although ironmaster David Thomas devised a method for smelting iron from anthracite which was also used in Pennsylvania.
I stand corrected - I was always told that Welsh coal was just too good a quality to produce good coke ... there were clearly mines with the grade of coal required for coke production ...Welsh coal was used to produce coke - you have two coalfields in the South of the country roughly divided by the River Tawe, you have the South Wales coalfield (the'valleys', Merthyr, Ebbw Vale and so on, They produced soft, bituminous coal, 'steam coal' then the South West Wales coalfield, the Neath valley, Loughor and Aman valleys (where I am) and the Gwendraeth valley and areas even further West, even the Pembrokeshire tourist traps of Saundersfoot and Tenby had a thriving coal industry, apparently the coal ranges right out under the sea all the way to Ireland. The South West Wales coalfield was high quality hard coal (dug out by even harder men
There's a seam of coal deep under the mountain opposite me called the peacock vein, the coal from that looks like black glass, you don't get your hands dirty handling it and, if you use it 'neat' it burns so intensely it will burn out your firelace within a few hours.
Yes I’d subsequently read that too and agree the series made good television
I can echo that about Parkgate. Back in the day, it was the second most polluted air after Middlesborough. In later life I had a white company car which slowly turned a reddish brown from the fallout. Living in Pitsmoor the heavy hammers from the Sheffield works could be heard all day and night.
Yes ... the red death was diabolical ... my Dad had a white Hillman Superminx and I took it to a friends house in Parkgate and stayed overnight ... the following morning it was covered in the fine red dust that had actually eaten into the paintwork - it took me all weekend with a can of T-cut and a lot of elbow grease to get it back to the state my Dad approved of ...
