Coal Mines and Mining Disasters
This illustration comes from the site: http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/.
Written by a collier who worked underground for some 30 years it is a useful and interesting source – and something intensely personal. It’s about the love-hate relationship miners had with the pits they worked in.
This year Steve Jones did a presentation on Industrial Ballads, specifically songs relating to mining. The songs were from the UK and North America but the theme was the same – disasters!
Steve concentrated on the four songs: Bells of Rhymney (South Wales), Ballad of Springhill (Nova Scotia – Canada), Gresford Disaster (North Wales – Wrexham) and Dark as a Dungeon (USA).
There are downloads of these songs and many others in MP3 format. Downloads Page
You can also download the worksheet with the words. Song Words – Mining Disasters