Glo - National Museum Wales

Beth yw bag
tri chwarter?
What’s a three
quarter bag?
Cefais fy ngeni ar 15 Mehefin 1944. Gadewais
yr ysgol ym 1960 ac es i am brentisiaeth gyda’r
Bwrdd Glo Cenedlaethol yng Nglofa Bargod.
Cawsom ein hanfon i’r ysgol hyfforddi yng Nglofa
Britannia ac rwy’n credu i ni dreulio’r flwyddyn
gyntaf yno. Arferem astudio yng Ngholeg Addysg
Bellach Cross Keys yn y dyddiau hynny, felly fe wnes
i brentisiaeth peirianneg glo am bum mlynedd.
Roedd gen i gefndir glofaol, gyda ’nhad yn
ffeiarman yng nglofa Elliot ger Tredegar Newydd ac
yna yng Nglofa Britannia. Dechreuodd fel glöwr, cyn
mynd ymlaen i astudio a dod yn swyddog diogelwch
yng Nglofa Britannia. Bu farw danddaear yn y
diwedd, wrth dywys ymwelwyr o gwmpas. Cafodd
drawiad ar y galon, ond erbyn iddyn nhw ei gludo’n
ôl i’r brig, roedd wedi’n gadael ni. Dim
ond 52 oed oedd e.
Wnes i erioed ystyried unrhyw beth
heblaw mynd i weithio danddaear ar ôl
gadael ysgol – wedi’r cwbl, roedd fy
nhad yn löwr, a’r lofa oedd prif gyflogwr
yr ardal. Er bod llawer o gwmnïau
peirianneg bach yn yr ardal, wnes i
ddim ystyried gwneud cais am swydd
gyda nhw, felly penderfynais fwrw
prentisiaeth gyda’r NCB fel llawer o’m
ffrindiau. Dyma oedd y prif gyflogwr
bryd hynny. Mae’n stori wahanol iawn
heddiw, wrth gwrs, mae’r pyllau glo
wedi hen ddiflannu tydyn?
Roedd gweithio yn y diwydiant
glo yn dipyn o her. Roeddech chi’n
treulio’r flwyddyn gyntaf yn ysgol
hyfforddi Britannia, a rhywfaint o
amser yn y lofa ei hun hefyd – yn y
gweithdai ac o dan y ddaear, a
bydden ni’n ymweld â glofeydd eraill
hefyd. Doedd dim llawer o fywyd
cymdeithasol yn y lofa fel y cyfryw –
roeddech chi’n mynd i’r gwaith, dod
adref, a dyna ni. Er bod
sefydliadau’r glowyr ym mhob
pentref, rhywbeth o’r oes o’r blaen
oedden nhw, a doedd dim gymaint
o fynd arnyn nhw erbyn fy
nghyfnod i. Mwynheais i’r
diwydiant glo ar y cyfan, oherwydd
roedd yn brofiad da ar gyfer y
dyfodol.
Ni arhosais yn y lofa; roedd fy
nhad yn dioddef o’r emffysema ar
ôl gweithio danddaear ac nid
oedd yn awyddus i mi barhau’n
löwr. Dwi’n credu ’mod i wedi
Y diwrnod gwaith olaf
yng Nglofa Bargod – Mai 1977
Bargoed Colliery –
last day of work May 1977
Iwas born on the 15th of June 1944. I le school in
1960 and I went in for an apprenticeship with the
National Coal Board and I was based at Bargoed
Colliery. We used to go to a training school in
Britannia Colliery and I think we spent the first year
there. We used to study at Cross Keys College of
Further Education in those days, so for five years I did
a mining engineering apprenticeship.
I came from a mining background, my father was
a fireman in Elliot’s colliery near New Tredegar and,
later, Britannia Colliery. He started off as a miner and
he studied and he ended up being the safety officer in
Britannia Colliery. He actually died underground, he
was taking visitors to the colliery underground and
he had a heart attack and by the time they got back to
the surface there was nothing they could do and he
died. He was only 52 years of age.
I never really thought about not going
underground when I le school. I suppose with my
father being in the colliery and the fact that mining
was the main employer around here. ere were a lot
of little engineering companies around here, but it
didn’t cross my mind to try for work with them so,
along with a lot of my friends, I went in for an NCB
apprenticeship. It was the main employer of those
days. It’s very different today, there are no mines le
are there?
Working in the mining industry was challenging.
You spent the first year in the training school in
Britannia but you would also spend time on the
colliery itself in the workshops and below ground and
we also visited other collieries. ere wasn’t much of
a social life connected with the mine as such – you
went to work, you came home and that was it. ere
were miner’s institutes in all the villages but I think
they were of a bygone age when I came along and they
weren’t so frequented as they had been in the past. On
the whole I enjoyed the mining industry it prepared
me well for the future.
I didn’t stay in the colliery; my father had
emphysema from working underground and wasn’t
keen for me to stay in mining. I think I always looked
at getting out aer I served my apprenticeship. I was
looking at a career such as the Merchant Navy and
then this thing came up about atomic energy. ey
were looking for qualified people so, before I’d actually
finished my NCB apprenticeship, I went for an
interview in Bristol and they told me to get in touch
with them when I’d finished my apprenticeship about
three or four months later. ey offered me a position
and I went to Harwell nuclear power station for about
three or four months and from there I transferred to
Weymouth and later to Winfrith, I stayed there about
seven years.
ere was a big difference between the nuclear
power industry and coal mining. You didn’t have to
shower everyday to get the coal out of your eyes and
your hair for a start, it was much more pleasant. e
terminology was also different, I remember going to
the stores and asked for some three quarter bag and
the guy’s looking at me stupid, he said “What’s a three
quarter bag?” He eventually worked out that it was
three quarter hose pipe that’s what I wanted! I
enjoyed the atomic energy because it was totally
different from mining. You were always in clean
conditions; you were always well protected from the
dangers of radiation as working practices were very
strict, how you went in and out of certain areas and
so on.
I didn’t stay in atomic energy. ere were quite a
few of us youngsters who decided that we were going
to go abroad. So off my wife, two children and I all
went to Mufulira on the Copper Belt in Zambia. I
didn’t go underground in the copper mine and I
wasn’t unhappy about that because they were very,
very deep mines, I worked on the surface in the power
plant instead. Zambia was a nice country, the living
conditions were ok and we made some money but we
decided we’d go down to what was then Rhodesia and
is now Zimbabwe.
So we went down to Salisbury in Rhodesia in 1972
and worked for an electrical cable manufacturer. I
started off in the workshops and worked there for
seven years and then I took over as the workshop
foreman and then I had the opportunity to become
works manager at Phoenix Brushware who
manufactured brushes and plastic packaging and I
started off there as the works manager running the
factory. Aer I’d been there for about five years, they
asked me to take over as the chief executive and take
over responsibility for running the company I stayed
there until 2000.
When we went there in 1972 it was still Rhodesia
and there was a guerilla war going on. Aer about a
year I was called up to the forces I had to do basic
army training, weapons, marching and all the rest of
it. en aer that they sent us out to what they called
‘keeps’ which were fortified enclosures or towers.
ey had ‘keeps’ in the middle of villages throughout
the country and you were based there to look aer the
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