Coal Mining
Coal mining has left its traces throughout Elmet. Smaller early mines are mainly found to the West, in the Pennine hills. Moving East for richer seams, ending around Selby. Fryston Colliery was, before the Selby coalfield was exploited, one of the major collieries on Elmet's North-Western edge.
I spent my formative years at Fryston as an apprentice electrician, then an electrician. I was just fifteen when I first went down the mine; still fifteen when I first went through the face. I was with an electrician in the tailgate when my next-door neighbour, a deputy, saw me and took me through the face to the mothergate and back, without pads. It was the Beeston, hot and thick with dust. I wasn't there that long long; long enough for the colliery, the colliers and my experiences underground to leave a profound impression on me.
Mostly, I don't think of myself as a mining poet, but with the amount of work around the theme, I must admit I am.
I often find myself writing a mining poem that didn't start that way. 'Short Cut ' is a prime example; not a mining poem as such, but the vein runs deep and the mine for me in this poem is overwhelming. It's one of my favourite poems.
Fryston mined under Fairburn Ings. Another place that I am steeped in, and in effect created the RSPB reserve. Short Cut is set just the other side of the River Aire from Fryston, along the Cut that used to serve limestone to the world from the quarries of Fairburn, down to the cut to the river.
Short Cut is not a mining poem as such but is:
Short Cut
The moon is a blind eye, milk white,
moths do not fool around it, unlike streetlights
where I still sense the dark side of a lover
and the breeze with its touch of fever.
Colliers walked this path towards a much thicker darkness,
the red burn of tobacco, a twist of smoke, the sound of good boots.
Underneath a flab of bank the river moves, its dark hide flinches round the gaping mouths of fish;
driftwood stretches out an arm.
Gnarled hawthorn I remember in April thick with blossom, a false snow,
silent under boots, warm between fingers.
Short Cut was part of the winning entry in erbacce's 2023 international prize for poetry
For more insight regarding mining throughout Elmet I strongly advice a visit to the National Mining Musem at Caphoiuse Colliery, Overton, between Wakefield and Huddersfield.
Address:
National Coal Mining Museum for England
Caphouse Colliery
New Road
Overton
West Yorkshire.
WF4 4RH
Web Address:
www.ncm.org.uk
My intention is to carry out some research regarding mining in Elmet and publish here.
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