Mike Rev's Up the Pithead at the Scottish Mining Museum

To celebrate the end of things being closed for the holidays, and us being cooped up in the flat without access to a nearby video store, Mike, Gen and I took a day trip down to the Scottish Mining Museum in Newtongrange.

I was very impressed with the museum. There were two floors of artifacts and interpretation covering everything from the geological history of coal to the lives of coal miners and their families. As expected, Margaret Thatcher's systematic shafting of the Scots was highlighted in several places.

The museum encompasses the buildings of the Lady Victoria Colliery. After we'd exhausted the exhibit, we went on a tour of the other buildings. Part of the tour was done by recordings, pumped in through the "ear protectors" on the helmets we had to wear. But we were also accompanied by a live tour guide who had worked as a miner at the colliery before it was closed (by Maggie Thatcher) in 1981. Really, there is no substitute for a live guide.

One of the buildings has been remade into a simulation of a mine. They have one of the machines that they used from the 1960s onwards to cut through coal seams. The machine includes a cutting wheel, a conveyor belt and 300 meters of hydraulic posts to hold up the earth above. As the machine moves forward, the roof of the tunnel is allowed to collapse behind it!!! Our guide explained that most of the time seams were only 4 to 6 feet in depth, so the posts would only be kept at that height and the men would have to work 12 hour shifts on their hands and knees. These were the conditions right up until it was closed. Earlier working conditions were of course far worse and involved children and pit ponies.

I highly recommend a visit to the museum. Much of the site dates back to the 19th century. Much of it also still working, like the pithead that Mike is controlling pictured above. It isn't connected to anything anymore, but it originally brought the cages of men and coal up from the mines 500 metres below.

One warning. Much of the tour is in semi-ruined buildings, i.e. it is the same temperature as outside, without the sun. We were very cold on our tour. Mike and Gen are still thawing out.