Slate Miner songs from North Wales

Subject: Slate miner songs from North Wales
From: GUEST,Brightwood
Date: 28 May 24 - 12:54 PM

I'm looking for songs from the North Wales slate mines. I imagine many of them will be in Welsh, which is fine.

Subject: RE: Slate Miner songs from North Wales
From: GUEST,sortaottery
Date: 29 May 24 - 03:25 AM

I'm not aware of any, but had fun doing a quick Google before work. Have to get back to the grind now so no chance to look deeper into it.

Y GLOWR A'R CHWARELWR

Chwarelwr

Hwiangerdd

Subject: RE: Slate Miner songs from North Wales
From: GUEST,sortaottery
Date: 29 May 24 - 03:25 AM

Pob lwc!

Subject: RE: Slate Miner songs from North Wales
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 29 May 24 - 08:43 AM

The Ffestiniog Railway was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport slate from the quarries around the inland town of Blaenau Ffestiniog to the coastal town of Porthmadog where it was loaded onto ships.

https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/The_Fairlie_Duplex_Engine
The Fairlie Duplex Engine is a folk song that was written by Hughie Jones and was performed by The Spinners in the 1980s. It was also released on a VHS cassette tape. It describes the unusual features of the Ffestiniog Railway's Double Fairlie locomotives and the trials of Little Wonder against the England Engines.

Subject: RE: Slate Miner songs from North Wales
From: sian, west wales
Date: 29 May 24 - 03:59 PM

I have been looking for you and will let you know if I come up with anything. Following up on sortaottery's links ...

I've probably heard Mynyddog's "Y Chwarelwr a'r Glowr" (The Quarryman and the Miner) sung but can't remember the tune. If memory serves, it's a fairly typical Victorian duet for tenor and baritone on the concert stage.

The Chwarelwr (Quarryman) piece is actually the one made famous by Rita MacNeil and Men of the Deep choir. In fact, there are two Welsh versions, one about quarrymen and one about coal miners.

On the Hwiangerdd link, you would actually scroll down to "YMFFROST CHWARELWR" (Quarryman's Boast) for the relevant song. (Hwiangerdd is Lullaby, which this isn't.) I can't think of the English equivalent offhand but pretty sure there is one. The first verse is, My grandad was a quarryman, my dad was a quarryman, I'm a quarryman, and my baby in his cradle will be a quarryman. Ain't it grand? And in the next verse, the family is a family of farmers, then shepherds, then, miners, etc etc etc. Not old but a bit of fun in the right situation.

I'm going to ask around as I can't remember if the Welsh Folk Song Society has published any articles on Quarrymen songs which would have been shared over lunch breaks in the Caban - the sheds dotted around quarries for workmen to shelter in. There have been huge amounts of collecting in the N. Wales quarrying districts but I can't think of any specifically about the craft. I rather think they would be using the general folk songs of their time, as well as penillion singing (versifying) where you would make up verses about specific other quarrymen for fun.

One possibility crosses my mind: Pan Oeddwn Rhodio Mynwent Eglwys (As I was roaming the Church graveyard). There weren't a lot of songs collected from female singers but I remember this from a lecture on J. Lloyd Williams, a famous collector but professionally a Botany Prof. at U. Bangor. He would send his (male) student out as a summer project to collect folk songs in their home regions and, being men, they collected from other men in male spaces. One, however, collected this from a young woman who was mourning her dead husband and I think he may have died in a quarry accident as it was the Llan Ffestiniog area.

There is one song that I will try to chase up for you. I can't actually remember which it is, but I'm sure I heard of it at a lecture by Roy Saer, former Keeper of Folk Literature (or some such) at the National Museum of Wales. He mentioned a song that was found in 3 places: N. Wales quarry districts, Mathry in south west Wales, and in Cornwall. His (informed) speculation was that it travelled with quarrymen looking for work; if the work was scarce in N. Wales, they would hop a coastal ship down to the Mathry quarries and, if no luck there, would carry on to Cornwall. I find this interesting as my (supposedly) non-Welsh side of the family was from Cornwall but, thanks to an amateur genealogist in the family, there is some possibility that the Cornish lot also came from Wales at some point.

You should really get in touch with the National Museum of Wales' Slate Museum in Dinorwig. Chances are good they will have the info you want.

More later, perhaps.

sian, west wales (tho' now southern ontario)