When Welsh Coal Was King
Written By Angharad Bridges
Origins
Coal is made up of many different compounds, and due to this there is variation in the quality of coal. It just so happened that South Welsh coal was some of the best in the world - in particular, there was a type of coal called “dry steam” which, when burned, did not produce smoke. The demand for this type of coal soared when military strategists recognised that this would give the British Navy a large advantage in warfare, as ships would be harder to spot due to the absence of rising smoke. As expected, the Welsh coal industry was fully propelled into action in the 18th century, with coalfields mainly concentrated in the South Wales valleys and in smaller pockets in North-Eastern Wales. Large investments into these areas attracted immigration from other parts of Wales, the UK, and even internationally; therefore, between 1851 and 1911 the population increased by 320,000. By the mid-19th century, one fifth of all coal produced in the UK originated from South Wales, and one fifth of all coal miners in the country were Welsh. Wales became a country of coal and remained so until the infamous strikes of the 1980s, when most coal mines were shut down.
Whilst some of what is written about coal mining and health is not specific to Wales, I am writing about Wales because I feel that Wales has been underrepresented in discussions about public health. I found minimal research surrounding the effects of coal mining and deindustrialisation on health in Wales specifically, as most of the literature on British coal mining focuses on Northern England, or England and Wales as a whole. Coal mining in Wales has shaped the health of Welsh people for centuries, and children born today are exposed to a legacy of poor health that plague coal mining communities.
Work Not Fit for Beasts
It comes as a surprise to no one that coal mining had many negative effects on the health of miners. Coal seams can be very thin, and coal miners were often required to lie on their side in pools of water for hours on end to extract the material. Even when lamps were provided, the mines were very dark and shifts were long – typically, a miner would work for six days a week and have Sunday off to attend Sunday school. Before the Mines and Collieries Bill of 1842 had passed, children as young as five were sent down the mine to control air doors for ventilation or to haul coal from the seam to the surface.
Pneumoconiosis, also called black lung, is a disease caused by coal dust. Pneumoconiosis is an occupational lung disease (meaning that it usually originates from the patient’s occupation) and often takes years to develop. Symptoms are typical of other lung diseases, including shortness of breath and a productive cough. The severity of the disease varies, and due to its progressive nature, it can be both asymptomatic and totally disabling. What is striking, though, is that a wildly disproportionate 85% of the 22,000 pneumoconiosis patients in 1948 were Welsh miners. The reason for this is likely a combination of the dry and dusty nature of Welsh mines, and the lack of safety measures in place.
Another major threat to the Welsh coal miner was tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is still more prevalent in miners than non-miners today (due to, for example, silica exposure), and studies from the 1960s have shown that Welsh miners were between 43-84% more likely to die from tuberculosis compared to coal miners working in other regions in the UK and non-miners. However, these papers make it clear that there are other factors at play besides the conditions of the coal mine, such as the quality of available healthcare which made Welsh people more likely to die from tuberculosis in general.
Other conditions associated with the mines include stomach cancer, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and “white finger”. White finger, also called dead finger and vibration white finger, is a disease which arose from the mechanisation of coal mining in the 1960s onward. The use of hand-held vibrating tools to cut coal caused damage to blood vessels, joints and nerves of the hand, leading to arthritis-like symptoms such as pins and needles, weakness, and most notably, whitened fingers.
Carved at the Coalface
In 1890, in a South Wales coal mining town called Tredegar, a society was founded called the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society. Members of the society, mostly coal miners and steelworkers, would financially contribute to the society in return for free healthcare at the point of use. Does this sound familiar?
Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, Labour politician and founder of the NHS, would take inspiration from the Tredegar Medical Aid Society. Bevan grew up in Tredegar in a coal mining family after the society had been established, and in 1925 he would witness the death of his father from pneumoconiosis. These experiences undoubtedly shaped his political ideals, and Bevan famously remarked that he would “Tredegarise” the UK – and that he did in 1948 upon founding the NHS. A close friend of Bevan’s told the BBC in 2008 that “Bevan’s political ideals were carved out at the coalface”, and in a way, the NHS was carved out at the coalface too.
Another tale worth discussing is that of Archibald Cochrane, a Scottish doctor who studied medicine across Britain and is considered the father of evidence-based medicine. Cochrane had been working on research into various diseases before coming to Wales, however his most successful research up to that point was a study of the coal mining communities of Rhondda Fach and Aberdare. Cochrane wanted to study whether progressive massive fibrosis of the lungs was caused by pneumoconiosis and tuberculosis. Cochrane and his team managed to recruit 95% of the target population (around 25,000 people), carrying out chest X-rays and histories. He concluded that his hypothesis was correct, and he also linked coal dust with many other diseases and disabilities. The scale and success of the operation set an example to other researchers of the era, launching Britain into the modern age of epidemiology.
Disaster
There have been many disasters in Welsh coal mining history – the most notable being the explosion in Senghenydd’s Universal Colliery in 1913, which killed 439 men and boys and was the deadliest coal mining disaster in British history. In fact, 48% of all UK mining deaths occurred in the South Wales valleys, despite only 18% of British miners working in Wales.
But the disaster at Aberfan was different because it did not originate from within the mine. As the coal mining industry expanded, the hills and valleys paid the price as they blackened with the unwanted waste that was dug up with coal, forming coal tips which can still be seen today. On the 21st October 1966, three weeks of heavy rain caused a coal tip on a valley nearby to slide down the hill and hit a primary school, killing 144 children and teachers.
The disaster at Aberfan caused significant emotional turmoil for the survivors, local population and the wider community. This event has, without a doubt, increased the mental health burden of the local community – survivors have told of their psychological trauma related to the event, and those involved in the rescue missions remember every bit of the gruesome details. My grandfather was a coal miner who was sent to Aberfan to help remove the slurry that covered the school. “You wouldn’t find whole children, just arms and legs.”
A survey from 2009 showed that of the top ten areas in the UK for antidepressant use, numbers one to seven were in the South Wales valleys. This has been called the “coalfield mental health gap”, and there are more contributing factors to this.
Deposing the Kings of the Underworld
In a coal mining community, everyone’s lives revolve around coal. In 1920, 1 in 3 working males in South Wales were coal miners, and their families worked around the clock to support them. In fact, when new coal mines were implemented in an area, the wealthier members of the community would often leave to avoid being associated with coal mining. To many, coal mining represented the depths of the working class, but the miners viewed themselves differently;
“Every boy’s ambition was to become a miner. Miners believed themselves to be the aristocrats of the working class… One could stand on the street corners and look at the posh people passing with hostile eyes. Insulting were these cold looks, for [the miners] were the kings of the underworld.” - Welsh actor Richard Burton.
But a series of political events would occur to disturb this monoculture. As the 20th century progressed, the demand for coal declined and oil became a major opponent. The Thatcher government (1979-1990) developed the Ridley Plan, which was an active endeavour to confront the National Union of Miners when their plan to turn off coal would inevitably lead to pushback. The closing of the mines deserves an article of its own, but it essentially involved a series of local and national strikes, repeated balloting and broken promises.
Like with the recent junior doctor strikes, there is always debate about whether it is moral or reasonable for workers to strike – in 1972, a national miner’s strike caused coal shortages which resulted in a three-day working week. But the new 1980s government was more prepared, and the South Wales miners were left with little choice as investment dried up. There were few opportunities outside the mine for working-class men. Unlike in other parts of the UK, Welsh miners consistently voted in favour of striking, and this meant no pay, no food for the family, stress, attacks from riot police, and an unemployment crisis when the mines were shut once and for all. It is important to note that the coalfield mental health gap closes in younger generations, suggesting that the mental health issues in older people can be partially traced back to this political turmoil.
This raises questions about the health effects of deindustrialisation. There is still very low job density in these regions since the mine closures, and a disproportionate number of people are on unemployment benefits (7% compared to 4.5% national average). But what is particularly striking is that a map of poor health in Wales almost exactly matches the map of ex-coal-mining communities.
The mine closures affected not only health outcomes, but also attitudes. A study from 2022 found that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Welsh coal mining communities was higher than in non-mining communities, and people from these communities were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic, such as that the pandemic was deliberately planned. Additionally, they were also more likely to disobey lockdown rules. This largely stems from a distrust of the (usually Conservative) government as well as economic distress, leading to poorer health outcomes.
To learn more about the effects of deindustrialisation on health, I contacted one of the authors of the paper, Dr Christopher Saville from Bangor University. Dr Saville is currently researching the trends in coal mining communities and health, where he confirmed that people living in former coal mining areas have poorer mental health, and possible mechanisms for this include economic shock, experiences of miner’s strikes, and loss of identity. Dr Saville has also linked anabolic steroid use to the loss of the traditional masculine role of coal mining, with a project titled “From Coal to Swole” (which I find absolutely hilarious). He found that, of a sample of 1427 men, around 14% had used or were using anabolic steroids, and steroid use increased linearly where there was a greater extent of mining before mine closures. There exists a cultural memory of coal miners, toughness and masculinity, and many young boys yearned to become coal miners. The removal of this outlet is one of the reasons for this new public health concern.
Doomed to Repeat It
On the 30th of September 2024, Tata Steel’s plant in Port Talbot, the largest steel producer in Wales and the UK, was shut down. This event was preceded by strikes and the closure led to thousands of job losses in the region, echoing the fatal blow of mine closures across Britain. Promises have been made to restore work in 2027 by investing in a greener future, but it should be noted that similar promises of investment and employment were made to the miners of the 1980s. Whilst the national and Welsh governments have made attempts to restore the ex-coal-mining regions of Wales, little progress has been made, and health outcomes have remained poor. It is time to move these Welsh communities on from days of ill health. Perhaps the solution lies in more local investment or in better connections to major cities.
Whatever the solution, there is a dire need for change. Britain’s coal mining era caused a lot of suffering, but it became meaningful to many people – and then it was brutally taken away. It is important for politicians and healthcare professionals to recognise that, although Welsh coal mining communities have experienced poor health for a long time, it does not have to remain this way. For centuries, these communities evolved time and time again to carry out the “hardest work under Heaven” and are certainly capable of great change. Equipped with modern public health knowledge, ex-coal-mining communities can be transformed just as they were in the 19th century, and mass-unemployment events such as the one at Port Talbot do not need to be repeated.
Read the rest of the edition here