The Depths of Pwll Mawr

On November 19th, I took a day trip to Wales! For a previous blog post explaining the relationship between Wales and Cymru and Wales and England, click here.

The first place I went was Pwll Mawr, or Big Pit, a coal mine that was in operation from 1860-1980, and now functions as a museum.

The tour was really awesome. They outfitted us in hard hats, rebreather devices, and wet cell battery packs, which were pretty heavy. Then they cased us for anything with a dry cell battery. Dry cell batteries are strictly contraband in mines, as they can cause explosions. We squished into an elevator and descended nearly 300 ft down the shaft.

The green thing is the entrance to the elevator that took us down the shaft. This is where they took our dry cell batteries away, so no more photos of the mine. That's fine by me. Dying in a mine explosion I caused myself isn't high on my list of things to do.

Our guide walked us around the various tunnels, which have all been left in very real condition--no Mickey Mouse setups, or really much in the way of regulated walkways. He showed us the oldest part of the mine where Victorian children were forced to work in total darkness day in and day out, many never seeing the sun except on Sundays, as they went to work before dawn and came up after dark. In fact, it was this mine and these terrible conditions that led to one of the biggest pushes for child labor laws in the UK.

We also saw the stables. Horses were taken down at two years of age, and lived and worked in the mines 24/7/365.25 until they gave out. No Sunday sun-days for these poor horses. The stables still had the nameplates of the horses that were living there at the time it was shut down. I have to say, miners weren't very original with their horse names.

Back above ground, we traded in our wet cell batteries and rebreathers for our cameras, watches, and cellphones, and spent some time wandering around the various buildings on our own time. Not knowing much about mining, I'm afraid I can't tell you much about what anything is in these pictures, but it looked cool!

Splish, Splash, I was Visiting Bath

A couple weekends later, I went back to Bath, this time with Mary Kate.

It was a very literary day. We started off at the Jane Austen Museum. The Jane Austen Museum isn't actually in the house where Jane Austen lived (that one is currently a dentist's office) but is very close to it, both in location and architectural style.

Jane Austen spent most of her life in the country. It was only after her father retired that they moved to Bath, and she hated it there. She found the society silly and city life stifling. Be that as it may, it provided excellent fodder for her books.

Here are some photos of parts of the museum.

Trim Street, one of the other Jane Austen locations (she moved a few times).

We then stopped at Sally Lunn's for lunch and tea, and partook of the renowned Sally Lunn buns. The buns are very large and plain. They were very tasty, but honestly I don't understand the hype. The building was cool, though. It's the oldest house in Bath. It was built in 1482, and Sally Lunn lived there around 1680.

I wasn't quite ready for the camera.

Tea time!

We ended the day with a different literature-related item: Turkish Delight! While Turkish Delight is an actual sweet, we Americans mostly know it as the food Edmund requests from the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Neither Mary Kate nor I knew it was a normal sweet. In fact, we didn't even know if it was a sweet. But here it is! It's very gelatinous, kind of like softer, more mildly-flavored gummy bear cubes. We got them in rose and lemon flavors, which apparently are the most popular.

I'll close this post off with a string of pictures we took in and around Bath. It's a very beautiful city, no matter what Jane Austen may tell you!

The Baths.

So Mr. Darcy, Robin Hood, and Harry Potter Walk into a Pub...

What with traveling during winter break and then final exams, I have a lot of catching up to do in this blog. So let's start where I left off: Lacock.

Lacock is this teensy-tiny little village that we visited on our Stonehenge tour. It's known for being one of the most historically preserved towns in England (13th to 18th century), and as such, a lot of movies get made there. In fact, two of the most important requirements of living in Lacock (as a National Heritage site, all homes are leased by the government), you must first have proof that your ancestors lived in Lacock, and secondly be willing to deal with film production companies. When a film is being made, the production company pays all of the residents of Lacock to move out for the weekend, and then brings in dump trucks full of dirt to cover over the paved streets. At the end of filming, the filmmakers pay to sweep up the streets, and everyone moves back in to their homes.

Perhaps the most widely-recognized film involving Lacock is the Harry Potter series. Lacock is used to create the scene of Godric's Hollow, where Harry was born. The nearby abbey was used for shots inside Hogwarts, such as Quirrel's classroom and the Potions room. This is a shot of the house used as Lily and James Potter's house in The Half-Blood Prince.

And this is a pretty building nearby.

This wheel is in the the George Inn in Lacock. It's actually in the wall next to the fireplace. A small dog would be placed in the wheel and made to run round and round like a gerbil (poor dogs!). The turning motion would rotate the spit in the fire, ensuring your meat was cooked well on all sides. They actually bred a species of terrier to specialize in turning these wheels, called a "Turnspit Dog." The species is now extinct; as the saying goes, "Use it or lose it."