Ceredigion, and Anglesey, and Powys (1801)

Manners and Customs of the Welsh. From Bingley's Tour Round North Wales.

... They [the Welsh people] are much inclined to superstition. But in all countries, there are weak and foolish people; in England, many of our peasantry are ready to swallow, with the most credulous avidity, any ridiculous stories of ghosts, hobgoblins, or fairies. In Wales it is more general, and the people are certainly more credulous than the generality of the English. - There are very few of the mountaineers, who have not by heart a whole string of legendary tales of those disembodied beings.

The Roman Cavern, in Llanymynech-hill, called Ogo, has been long noted, as the residence of a clan of the fairy tribe, of whom the villagers relate many surprising and mischievous tricks. They have listened at the mouth of the cave, and have sometimes even heard them in conversation, but always in such low whispers, that their words have been never distinguishable. The stream that runs through it is celebrated as being the place in which they have been heard to wash their clothes and do several other kinds of work.

These busy little folk seem to be somewhat allied to what are called Knockers, which by the Welsh are believed to be a species of aerial beings, that are heard under-ground, in or near mines, who by their noises direct the miners where to find a rich vein. The following extraordinary account of them, is from a letter of Mr. Lewis Morris to his brother, Mr. W. Morris, Comptroller of the Customs at Holyhead, dated October 14th, 1754. I will make no comment upon it, and only preface it by observing, that Mr. Morris was a very learned and sensible man, and a person whose judgment is esteemed of great weight by every one who has been either acquainted with him or his writings.

"People who know very little of the arts or sciences, or the powers of nature, (which, in other words, are the powers of the author of nature) will laugh at us Cardiganshire miners, who maintain the existence of Knockers in mines, a kind of good-natured impalpable people, not to be seen, but heard, and who seem to us to work in the mines; that is to say, they are types, or forerunners of working in mines, as dreams are of some accidents which happen to us. The barometer falls before rain or storms. If we did not know the construction of it, we should call it a kind of dream, that foretells rain; but we know it is natural, and produced by natural means, comprehended by us. - Now how are we sure, or any body sure, but that our dreams are produced by the same natural means? - There is some faint resemblance of this in the sense of hearing: the bird is killed before we hear the report of the gun. However this is, I must speak well of these Knockers, for they have actually stood my very good friends, whether aerial beings, called spirits, or whether they are a people made of matter, not to be felt by our gross bodies, as air and fire, and the like.

"Before the discovery of Esgair y Mwyn mine, these little people, as we call them here, worked hard there day and night; and there are abundance of honest sober people, who have heard them, and some persons who have no notion of them or of mines either; but after the discovery of the great ore, they were heard no more.

"When I began to work at Llwyn Llw[y]d, they worked so fresh[?] there for a considerable time, that they even frightened some young workmen out of the work. This was when we were driving levels, and before we got any ore; but when we came to the ore, they then gave over, and I heard no more talk of them.

"Our old miners are no more concerned at hearing them blasting, boring holes, landing diads, &c. than if they were some of their own people; and a single miner will stay in the work, in the dead of night, without any man near him, and never think of any fear or harm they will do him; for they have a notion that the  Knockers are of their own tribe and profession, and are a harmless people who mean well. Three or four miners together shall hear them sometimes, but if the miners stop to take notice of them, the Knockers will also stop; but let the miners go on at their own work, suppose it is boring, the Knockers will go on as brisk as can be, in landing, blasting, or breaking down the loose; and they were always heard, a little from them, before they came to the ore.

"These are odd assertions, but they are certainly facts, though we cannot, and do not pretend to account for them. We have now very good ore at Llwyn Llwd, where the Knockers were heard to work, but have now yielded up the place, and are no more heard. Let who will laugh, we have the greatest reason to rejoice and thank the Knockers, or rather God, who send us these notices."

An intelligent friend of mine informs me that those noises the Knockers, as they are called, have very lately been heard in the parish of Llanfihangel Ysceifrog, in Anglesea, where they continued at different intervals for some weeks. In accounting for these noises it has been observed, that they probably may have proceeded either from the echo of the miners at work, or from the dropping of the water; but these seem by no means sufficient, if Mr. Morris's assertion be true, that while the miners are going on with one kind of work, they are going on with another, while for instance, as he says, the miners are boring, they are blasting, the former certainly cannot be true, and the blasting entirely puts the latter conjecture out of the question, for droppings of water could never produce any effect of that kind. As I am only acquainted with the subject from report, I am under the necessity of leaving the elucidation of these extraordinary facts to some who have better opportunities of enquiring into them. 

I have only to express a hope that the subject will not be neglected, and that those who reside in the neighbourhood where they are heard, will inquire into them carefully, and, if possible, give to the world a more accurate account of them than the present.

Chester Chronicle, 23rd January 1801.

Redmoor Mine, Callington, Cornwall ((1937)

 Eerie Noises at Night.

Mine's Ghostly Will-O'-The-Wisp. Strange experience at Callington.

A strange experience which befell three miners working at Redmoor Mine, near Callington, was related to "The Western Morning News" representative yesterday by the men.

The old mine has recently been re-opened, and it is stated that queer noises for which no accountable reason can be given have been heard at the mine at night. The men, Messrs. Roscoe Smith, Lionel Smith, and Fred Scould, of Wadebridge, were on night shift, and were the only miners in the mine at the time.

"I left the levels at 2.30 a.m.," said Mr. Roscoe Smith, "and I made my way to the drying-house. It was a dark night, with no moon or stars, not a breath of wind, even. Just as I reached the drying-house something, I cannot ell what it was or what it looked like, suddenly came out of the drying-house and swished past me. Then I heard a sound, but saw nothing. The thing, whatever it was, made my lamp go out. Presently I lit my lamp again and entered the drying-house, but saw nothing to indicate what it was that had frightened me. Then I heard a loud noise, like stones falling on a galvanized roof. It came from the direction of the mine-sheds. I went towards the place, but the sound shifted and I heard it coming as if from the stamps up above me. My mates came out from the levels just then, and we went to investigate.

"We heard a mysterious thumping and rattling, coming from the old mine-burrows and stack, then from the sheds and blacksmith's shop. Wherever we went in an attempt to locate the cause of the noise it shifted to another region. Once we heard it coming from the direction of some farm buildings about 200 yards away. As a matter of fact, the weird noise came from many angles, at almost regular intervals, but always on the mine or the immediate vicinity. It began at 2.30, and not until daylight, about six o'clock, did it cease."

The other two miners admitted feeling scared at the time. "It's past explaining," Mr Lionel Smith remarked. "I've never heard anything like it. It was really uncanny. I'm not nervous, but I shall never forget my experience. Sometimes I thought it sounded like something scrambling away and making a big noise about it."

Other miners spoke of curious tapping sounds being heard in the levels, reviving the theory, popular in Cornwall, that the spirits of departed miners, known as "knockers," haunt old workings.

Western Morning News, 23rd September 1937.

Morfa, Swansea, South Wales, 1895 and 1938

 The Strange Action of Morfa Miners.

An Echo of Ancient Legends. Uncanny Noises Underground. The Coblyn Knocker. Interesting Chapter on Coblynau.

In connection with the extraordinary conduct of the miners employed at the Morfa Colliery, it is interesting to read of Welsh miners' superstitions as described by Mr Wirt Sykes, who in 1879 was the United States Consul for Wales at Cardiff. The author classes, under the general title of Coblynau, the fairies which haunt the mines, quarries and underground regions of Wales, corresponding to the cablistic gnomes.

"The word coblyn," says he, "has the double meaning of knocker or thumper and sprite or fiend; and may it not be the original of goblin? It is applied by Welsh miners to pigmy fairies which dwell in the mines, and point out, by a peculiar knocking or rapping, rich veins of ore... The coblynau are described as being about half-a-yard in height and very ugly to look upon, but extremely good-natured, and warm friends of the miner. Their dress is a grotesque imitation of the miners' garb, and they carry tiny hammers, picks, and lamps. They work busily, loading ore in buckets, flitting about the shafts, turning tiny windlasses, and pounding away like madmen, but really accomplishing nothing whatever."

It would appear that the miner of old was not particularly afraid of these sprites, because "They have been known to throw stones at the miners when enraged at being lightly spoken of, but the stones are harmless. Nevertheless, all miners of a proper spirit refrain from provoking them, because their presence brings good luck." ..."Miners are possibly no more superstitious than other men of equal intelligence. I have heard some of their number repel indignantly the idea that they are superstitious at all."

The author quotes from the South Wales Daily News, which in June, 1878, recorded a superstition of the quarrymen at Penrhyn, where some thousands of men refused to work on Ascension Day. "This refusal did not arise out of any reverential feeling, but from an old and widespread superstition, which has lingered in that district for years, that if work is continued on Ascension Day an accident will certainly follow. A few years ago the agents persuaded the men to break through the superstition, and there were accidents each year - a not unlikely occurrence, seeing the extent of works carried on, and the dangerous nature of the occupation of the men. This year, however, the men, one and all, refused to work."

"These," proceeds Mr Sykes, "are examples dealing with considerable numbers of the mining class, and are quoted in this instance as being more significant than individual cases would be. Of these last I have encountered many. Yet I should be sorry if any readers were to conclude from all this that Welsh miners are not in the main intelligent, church-going, newspaper-reading men. They are so, I think, even beyond the common. Their superstitions, therefore, like those of the rest of us, must be judged as 'a thing apart,' not to be reconciled with intelligence and education, but co-existing with them. Absolute freedom from superstition can come only with a degree of scientific culture not yet reached by mortal man. ... When they (the miners) hear the mysterious thumping, which they know is not produced by any human being, and when in examining the place where the noise was heard they find there are really valuable indications of ore, the sturdiest incredulity must sometimes be shaken.

Science points out that the noise may be produced by the action of water upon the loose stones in fissures and potholes of the mountain limestone, and does not actually suggest the presence of metals. In the days before a Priestley had caught and bottled that demon which exists in the shape of carbonic acid gas, when the miner was smitten dead by an invisible foe in the deep bowels of the earth, it was natural his awe-struck companions should ascribe the mysterious blow to a supernatural enemy. When the workman was assailed suddenly by what we now call firedamp, which hurled him and his companions right and left upon the dark rocks, scorching, burning, and killing, those who survived were not likely to question the existence of the mine fiend. Hence arose the superstition - now probably quite extinct - of basilisks in the mines, which destroyed with their terrible gaze. When the explanation came that the thing which killed the miner was what he breathed, not what he saw, and when chemistry took the firedamp from the domain of the faerie, the basilisk and the fire fiend had not a leg to stand upon. The explanation of the Knockers is more recent, 'and less palpable and convincing.'"

South Wales Daily News, 13th December 1895.

 

 Local Mining Superstitions.

Apparitions seen by miners.

By "J.D.L."

While miners were working in the Morfa Colliery long before the explosion, a strange light would be seen, and on other occasions, a man clad in oilskins would be seen riding on a journey of trams, only to disappear within a few moments.

Such are the stories which were told by workmen at the colliery, and which are embodied in a book written by Mr Martin Phillips, the local historian.

A few weeks ago, I paid a visit to the little hamlet where once stood the Morfa Colliery, and the explosion and the scenes which accompanied it, were brought back forcibly to me. Of mothers, brothers, fathers, lovers, anxiously awaiting news, which in most cases was bad news; and ambulance men and salvation Army members working feverishly to save life in the first instance, and to comfort stricken relatives.

Mr Martin Phillips, in his book, relates the story which was prevalent at the time, and which was sworn to by the workers, of an oilskin-clad figure which appeared in the cage, and sometimes on a journey of trams, only to disappear suddenly. Many of the workers said that they had seen phantom trams or ghost trains running wild in the pit, drawn by a ghostly white horse.

Mysterious lights were claimed to have been seen, and noises of heavy falls in the colliery, when no such happenings had taken place. The singing of Welsh hymns by voices of extreme quality were also stated to have been heard.

On the fateful morning of the explosion, a miner, David Tanner, was proceeding to work, when he claims that he was told by unseen forces to retrace his steps, which he did, and thus saved his life.

In one part of the colliery, it was said that a pleasant odour pervaded the air at certain times.

The spectral dog of ill-omen, known as the Red Dog of the Morfa, was often seen, and it was claimed that the "animal" possessed blazing eyes, and was soon underground just previous to an explosion. In Welsh folk-lore, there are references to black and white dog apparitions, but locally, the Morfa dog provides an interesting underground counterpart.

Also a pigeon was observed at the top of the pit shaft for several days before the explosion. The association of birds with local mining superstitions was a leading feature in the district. The robin was regarded as an omen of ill-luck when seen near the shaft. A collier, seeing a magpie when proceeding to his daily duties, believed it to be an unlucky sign, while two crows, flying together, meant good luck.

Seamen are said to be superstitious, but colliery workers have superstitions which, even in these days, still persist.

Glamorgan Gazette, 22nd July 1938.

 

Scotswood, Newcastle, 1925

 Pit's Mystery Noises.

Mr Herbert Smith, President of the Miners' Federation, and Mr WP Richardson, of the Durham Miners' Association, who are to represent the men at the inquiry into the Scotswood Pit disaster, descended the pit, accompanied by a number of local officials, on Saturday afternoon. Mr Smith and his friends donned pit clothes and penetrated into the mine to within 230 yards of the spot where the water broke through. At times they had to wade waist deep through the water.

Mr Smith declined to make any statement when he returned to the bank, but it was said the party had the opportunity of listening to the hammering noises to which Mr William Straker referred in his circular.

Lancashire Evening Post, 29th June 1925.

Blyth, Northumberland, 1930

 Eerie Noises Mystery.

Eerie noises, apparently coming from below the ground, are causing alarm to householders in various parts of Blyth (Northumberland), and people are unable to sleep at nights. It is officially declared that the noises are not due to mine workings.

1862

Superstitions of our colliers. The World Below.

The change from the upper world to the coal pit beneath is a startling one. Above you have the broad fields and distant hills, lit by sunshine; here a river, there a stream; here trees waving, and there woods full of melody. All is life; chimneys are sending up their wreaths of smoke from every point; furnaces are casting forth their glare; engines are pursuing their monotonous beat; voices are heard on every side; and whether in the field or the town, active open day work seems the law impelling every one on in the race of life. 

Visit the coal pit. Your conductor takes a bar of iron and beats it against the signal "gloch," and the sounds seem to sink downward with a melancholy cadence. Again he repeats the warning, and then is heard, as if from a confined spirit immured far below, a wail that echoes again and again, and at last dies away. All is right. You enter the carriage, and with swift gliding motion descend. A strange thrill creeps over the frame as the opening above becomes smaller and smaller; you look nervously at the chains which link you to the world above, and never before has it appeared so bright as now, when, a faulty link, and 'tis gone from you for ever. The car at length comes to a stand still; you are helped out; pass the great fire which maintains the ventilation, and through the long dark heading, with a twinkling light thrown on the path by a Davy lamp, take your way.

Stop! Your conductor has forgotten something; he must return, and you wait his coming in a low stall! Now is the time, in the fell thick darkness, with the solemnity of the pit around you like a shroud, to feel and comprehend the change from the upper to the lower world. Not a voice is heard. Now and then a drop of water splashes down into the pool by your side, or a piece of shale or coal falls with sullen noise in the seeming vault you are in. Fancies crowd upon you, the heavy air seems to hum and to teem with solemn life. List! a distant step; a light creeping like a small thread over the black sides of the heading; it grows, expands, a long demon like shadow passes you, and your friend is by your side! 

I do not wonder in an atmosphere so congenial, that the Welsh collier is in the majority of cases a superstitious being - prone to believe in appearances and warnings before accident or death, and to hand down their warnings in many a social gossip, to the men who succeed him. One of their warnings, told with great earnestness at a congenial time for such relations, was as follows:-

An old collier, of sober religious habits, was at work in his stall one afternoon; he plied his mandril busily, for times were bad, and the hours were fleeting fast. One by one he heard the tread of his companions leaving the pit, some he saw, and one in particular, who spoke to him as he went by. On he worked. Suddenly he heard in the distance a strange and yet a common noise; it was simply the rolling of a tram, but it came from a place where he knew no trams could be at that time, and he rose up from his work and looked out into the dark heading, hearing trams approaching quietly and regularly. Then he heard voices in conversation blending with the noise of the tram. It was strange! he rubbed his eyes, passed his hand across his brow, and still the tram neared him and the voices continued. 

At length a faint light appeared, and in a moment afterwards the tram passed, pushed forward by several colliers, and, inside was a dark heap of crushed limbs with a ghastly face visible, clammy with the dews of death. The tram passed, and before he could step out and speak to the men, it faded away into the black heading, and voices and roll of wheels gave way to the awful stillness of the mine. The old man, aged by labour and by time, instantly gathered his mandrils and tin, and with step quickened by fear made his way to the foot of the shaft. There he met others of the workmen, to whom he told the strange appearance that had been seen, and from these he learnt that the man noticed in the tram had long left his work, and so had the others whom he had recognised as pushing the tram along the heading.

He went home; his old dame shook her head as he related the events of the day, and prophecied something would happen ere long, for the warning was unmistakable. All night long he brooded over what he had seen, at one time resolving to tell his fellow-workmen, at another determined he would not; for, old as he was, he dreaded the fun they would be sure to make of him and his tale, however much in reality they were solemnly affected by it. 

So when the long tardy morning broke, and he again went to the pit, his course was decided- with him and his wife the subject should remain a secret. All that day the slightest unusual movement startled him; but the day passed like other days, and night found him returning home to his anxious expectant dame. And day after day passed with the same monotonous roll, and recollection of the "appearance" he had seen was becoming less vivid, when it was again brought to memory, and there impressed with enduring distinctness. Late one day found him working as usual; step after step passed his stall just as they did on the day when he was so sorely frightened; adn he was in the act of gathering up his tin and mandril, when the same noise of tram and presently the sound of voices was heard. He hastily stepped out to the tramway, determined this time that there should be no doubt left on his mind, and in a few minutes the same faces, the same ghastly countenance and crushed form met his gaze. This time there were no shadows; the men spoke to him, and told the brief tale of the poor fellow's mishap. 

Together they all walked out of the pit, and the old man, after assisting the wounded collier home, retraced his steps to his own little cottage with something to think about during the few years he had to live. His determination to keep the matter secret was not of long continuance, and when it did become known his honest sober character stamped the tale with genuiness. And long after, at the dinner time in the pit, or around cosy fires in the colliers' homes, the narration was told with additions due to the fertile imagination of the narrator, which made the young creep closer to the mother's side, and caused uncomfortable feelings even among the "children of longer growth."

29th March

 

 Superstitions of our colliers. No. 4.

It is but natural that those labouring in the comparative silence and loneliness of the coalpit should become predisposed to superstition. Take the case of men working in daylight - how we scout in open mid-day anything of a superstitious character: tales of witchery, of ghosts, of strange appearance or sounds, uncanny fall flatly on the ear. They pale and wax faint in daylight, and scare nobody. In open day we may hear sounds that strike us as peculiar, but they are put to the credit of some natural cause - a cat, a rat, or the limb of a tree; but at night, when the world is abed, and we sit alone by the fireside, doing bachelor honours for a time to ourselves, the rustling of a tree against the window makes us start, and a strange creaking noise behind the door sends a chill over the frame. Thus, if we open-day men are so affected at night, and when alone, there is but little to wonder at in the superstitions of colliers.

Men of veracity will declare that they heard some one working in a stall where no one was certainly working; they will tell you that they heard the regular sound of the mandril plied by sturdy hands, the fall of a mass of coal, the filling of a tram, and will add that on going into the place neither man nor fall of coal was visible. There is no doubt that subterranean echoes play a great part in awakening these fancies, and that many a case of unaccountably strange to the coal-digger might, to a mind of a higher and a more investigating character, have turned out simply a natural result ensuing from natural causes.

There is a plant akin to some of the fungi tribe found adhering to old trees, which is to be met with in some coal pits. It has a peculiar phosphorous character, and will actually light up a place if the fungi are plentiful. In past times these played strange tricks with some of the earlier colliers - many a glare have they emitted which frightened them sorely, until with experience came a better acquaintance with these same fungi, and research led to a knowledge of their curious properites. 

With regard to sounds heard, there is one anecdote on record which formed one of the budget of a collier's lore. The alleged facts occurred in the Merthyr valley, and to this day no explanation has been given. IT happened in the winter time, some years ago, that one John Morgan - we may not be precisely right about the name - was working with others in a certain heading. Beyond them, for they were working back, there was an old work or heading which had been nearly worked out. The props had been removed, rubbish thrown in, and the place partially but not entirely closed. We are not certain if all the stalls were closed, but at all events it was impossible for any adventurer to penetrate there, and risk his life for the sake of getting a tramof coal that might have fallen. From this old working came strange sounds.

The men heard distinctly the rolling of trams there, and noises issuing just as they did from other parts where bona fide colliers were employed. Every usual action of the collier was parodied by some one or thing in the old working, and as the sounds were heard when the men rested from labour in order to listen, no one thought of the possibility of there being an echo. This was never explained, and to this day the affair is raked up occasionally by a communicative pitman, and, garnished with savoury particulars, laid before his listener.

There is another prevailing impression in the minds of many of our colliers, a belief in omens coming to the individuals who are destined to an early and a frightful death. These we will treat upon in a future paper, and with them complete the superstitions of our colliers.

CLIO. 5th April 1862. 

Merthyr Telegraph, and General Advertiser for the Iron Districts of South Wales.

Kingswood, Bristol, 1880

 A Collier's Superstition.

It is stated at an inquest held on the body of the man Hudd, who was killed at the Deep Pit, Kingswood, that one of the witnesses declared just after the accident that he had seen the ghost of the deceased man walk up the incline leading to the bottom of the shaft.

Cardiff Times, 24th July 1880.