Australian writes a book about 19th century Scotland

[Tam the Celt]

www.users.zetnet.co.uk/mmartin/fifepits/

Hello Carmel and welcome to ES. I don't have much time this evening and so I have to be short. I was born in miners rows in Kelty Fife my father was a coal miner and so was my two grandfathers, my father died and one grandfather died with miners lung. I also had two relations who were killed in the pits and mines in Fife their names are entered in the web page I've just posted above. Hope it works for its worth a read. :) Ok got to go for now hope to come back later.

[AussieScot]

Hardie was a legend, nothing surer. My darling father, who passed away just a few months ago and never got to hold my book in his hands, said that his family had a photo of Hardie on their wall in New Cumnock. There's more information about Ours, Yours and Mines on the Books forum. Hardie features in the book and you can get a feel for why such a man was needed by the coal miners. You hear about the big money that miners get today but they received a pittance back then for longer hours and harder conditions.

Carmel

[AussieScot]

Thanks for posting the link Tam. This will be very helpful to me when I write the third book in the trilogy set from 1913 (where the current book finishes) to the present day. Ours, Yours and Mines is set from the mid-1800s to 1913 and several of the people in the book die from Miner's Lung and many others from tuberculosis. Can you imagine living in a crowded space with people coughing and spluttering all over the place. How the heroine of the story, Mary, didn't contract tuberculosis is a mystery as she cared for her family members in their dying days.
Carmel

[Tam the Celt]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-EiwiiAh68 Hope this works?

[Tam the Celt]

Hello Carmel two web sites I think you may find interesting one is of my home village in Fife, Kelty!

http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/p...ay/Lyndsay.htm

[AussieScot]

I remember when this song first came out 'It's a working man I am, and I've been down underground and I swear to God if I ever see the sun'. Rita McNeill did a great job of it. There's also a song 'Along the Miners' Rows' and I can't recall the composer/singer but it will no doubt be on youtube.com.

[Trena Wyatt Heater]

Some months since the last posting here .. hope you don't mind me putting in my 2p worth.

Rita MCNEIL wrote the original song, 'It's a Working Man I Am', although others have changed some words or added verses to suit themselves / audience. Rita is from Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia. She very often appears with 'The Men of The Deeps' when singing this particular song. They are a group of former coal miners from Glace Bay / Sydney area of Cape Breton Island. If you are ever in Big Pond Cape Breton Island during the summer months, stop in to Rita's tea room. If she is home in CB, that's where she'll be and might even be the one who serves you. She's always up for a chat if the place isn't very busy.

'Along The Miners' Rows' was written by Bill ADAIR of Glasgow (Scotland). Written about the Auchengeich colliery disaster of 1959.

A few 2C lived in Lochgelly, Kirkcaldy & Lochore. Father was in the pits in through the 1950s & '60s. When the pits began to close down, they went down to Yks. Although the older two boys had gone to the pits in Fife, when they moved south the father did his utmost to keep them out of the mines. Eventually they did finish apprenticeships in other fields, then helped make sure their younger 2 brothers also stayed topside. As we know, the pits started closing down in Yks as well. Hard life is that of a miner, but a coal miner's is more so.

[Trena Wyatt Heater]

'The Men of The Deeps' ~ The second part is poem like, followed by a song, both in tribute to the 26 coal miners who lost their lives in the Westray mining disaster near Stellerton Nova Scotia on 9th May 1992. The bodies of 11 miners are still entombed in the deeps. The mine closed forever with this disaster, ending 200 years of mining on the Foord seam.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westray_Mine