My name is Glyn Hughes. I was at Point of Ayr from 1952 to1992 - 40 years. You had to be 16 before you went underground. I started at 15, worked on the surface for 8 months, went to Gresford to do my underground training - two months in the college, and two months in the colliery itself.
In the college they asked you if you wanted to go as an electrician, a fitter or just an ordinary miner. I chose to go as an ordinary miner. The apprenticeship then was five years, and money was tight at home, so I thought that the sooner I could start earning money to fetch home the better. That was what I did.
When you went underground for the first time, you were put with someone from your own village, someone that you knew. You went with him for about a fortnight to three weeks to get you used to underground. Gronant was my village, which is about three miles from Point of Ayr. I went with a chap from the village, the late George Hayes, for three weeks. The following Monday morning they told me 'Today you'll be given a pit pony' and that's when I started working with a pit pony.
My horse's name was Turpin. The ponies there were named after different people. There was a Churchill, an Atley and there was a Bevin. My horse was actually named after Randolph Turpin, the boxer, who was doing his training at Gwrych Castle in Abergele.
On my first morning with the horse, I went 'gee up horse', and he wouldn't move, 'gee up horse' and he wouldn't move. The old collier said to me 'Glyn, it's no good, they don't understand English. You'll have to learn Welsh and speak Welsh to them.' So that's why I started learning my Welsh. I had to speak Welsh to the pit ponies.
We had no Welsh in school, actually. My parents were both Welsh speaking but we never spoke it at home. I learnt my Welsh in Point of Ayr! I'd say 99 perc ent were Welsh speaking when I was there. We had one or two English chaps, one or two Germans- after the war, they stayed round here and married local girls. The language of the pit was Welsh.
When I started, there were 35 pit ponies underground and there were five on the surface. They stayed underground. They stayed down there until we finished with pit ponies. I believe the last three came up in 1978.
Point of Ayr was one of the last pits to get mechanised so that's the reason the pit ponies were still down there. There were other places where you couldn't take machines and this was where the pit ponies came in handy.
A lot depended on what chapel you went to. There was one certain under-manager. His chapel was in Ffynnongroyw. If you went to his chapel you were well looked after. Some of our overmen at that time were lay preachers. It was definitely the case that if you went to certain chapels, you were looked after.
