I have just finished a song about the Skewen Main which closed in 1925 because of the economic downturn at the time.The mine went under the beautiful Drymmau Mountain and the village of Skewen grew because of the mine.Many of its workers went off to work in the brand new Llandarcy Oil Refinery.That refinery is now also closed.I was brought up in a house called "Gerlofa" [house in front of the mine ] just 200 yards from the mine entrance.

    Skewen Main 1925
We paid the price of coal in blood
Fought fire and flood
Got soaked in the mud of the Drymmau
I've just turned thirty nine
Now I've left the Skwen mine
The last shift is finally over.
........
What a bitter sweet refrain
Is the wind and driving rain
And the old Skewen Main is gone forever
They cannot sell the coal
There's good men on the dole
Who can't feed the children in this weather.
..............
Now the level is stripped bare
There's nothing left down there
And I'm breathing fresh air outside the Cross Keys
And Tom and Mel and Jack
Are talking 'round the back back
Of the jobs at the Darcy Oil Refinery
........
So many years of toil
Now we're off to work the oil
But it makes my blood boil to think of our leaving
Because Bill and Trev the Turk
Can't find a job of work
And my oldest friend Dai Rees is barely breathing.
......
Coal trucks are standing still
On the top of Drymmau hill
And there's time enough to kill every morning
King Coal is king no more
And we've all been shown the door
And the slump is coming closer with each dawning.
....
The wind blows through my coat
I wrap my scarf around my throat
In the bay a boat sails off the Swansea shoreline
Now our working time is done
And we're walking to the sun
And its farewell to the Skewen Main mine
...........
We paid the price of coal in blood
Fought fire and flood
Got soaked in the mud of the Drymmau
I've just turned thirty nine
And I've left the Skewen mine
And the last shift is finally over.
Huw Pudner