Tales from Wales #2 :: Along the Estuary

Hi there everyone 😃

For our first small venture out from Garden Pitts we opted for a short walk along the estuary. We really wanted to just see how Martin would get on walking any kind of distance with his crutches, following his recent ankle operation.

We headed right out of the gate and along the lane … which leads to a dead end, which does make for a very nice quiet spot …

Towards the end of the lane we came to the sign for the public footpath which would take us down to the banks of the estuary …

It was little odd at the bottom of the footpath as we seemed to be faced with a wall of very tall reeds and weren’t sure about where we would be heading …

When we reached the bottom we could see that the path had been trodden down to the left so we headed into the reeds …

Once we emerged from the reeds there were some lovely views in either direction …

We were heading down river …

 … and soon found the next footpath sign which would take us upwards …

After a previous hairy experience with the bovine kind we did make sure the locals were well and truly contained before making our way back up …

… and away from the river …

We were now on the homeward straight and followed the track …

… stopping to take in the signs of autumn in the hedgerows …

It was as we arrived back at Garden Pitts that we got to meet our neighbour for the duration of our stay for the first time and we had a good chat about the history of the area and the mining disaster.

We’d done just over 2000 steps, over some bumpy terrain, and whilst it wasn’t far it was just about the right distance for Martin and his crutches. We set ourselves the objective of doing at least 2000 steps a day for the rest of our stay.

A few days later, in between the rain showers, we broke out for another breath of fresh air … this time heading left out of the gate to walk down to the memorial on the quay …

The ferns were looking very green and lush …

Although rain had been forecast all day it was actually pretty nice …

This time we stopped for a good look at the memorial, reading the names and noticing the pieces of black welsh coal that had been placed in the nooks and crannies …

We hadn’t gone far enough to complete our 2000 steps so decided to have a walk along the bank of the estuary … this time upstream to see what we could find …

It was one of those walks where we kept saying let’s just get to the next bend in the rocks …

There was loads of different varieties of seaweed and so many different types of rock … which we took in in more detail in the way back …

We were both surprised too at the number of ancient oaks that were just growing out of the side of the banks …

Back at the memorial we bumped into another local chap walking his dog who was very happy to stop for a chat … it turned out that he actually stayed in Garden Pitts for a while and used to know our neighbour well, though they hadn’t seen each other for years … since the local pub shut.

As we started to head back we could see our neighbour over the other side of the quay, with his dog, so we all walked back together and we were chuffed to have kind of facilitated a bit of a reunion of two drinking buddies from years gone by 🍻🍻🍻

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Tales from Wales #1 :: Garden Pitts

Hi there everyone 😃

I wrote this post whilst on holiday in Pembrokeshire, holed up in Garden Pitts, our home for our stay. It’s in a tiny little place on the Cleddau Estuary called Landshipping. It was lashing it down with rain so I thought I’d take the opportunity to get ahead with a bit of blogging …

The drive to our holiday cottage took us along the estuary, past Landshipping Quay, where we noticed a memorial plaque, though we didn’t realise it’s relevance at the time …

Once settled in and doing a bit of research about the local area we discovered there used to be a pit called ‘Garden Pit’ very close by, which suffered a terrible tragedy in 1844. As we were staying in ‘Garden Pitts’ we were really interested in finding out more about what happened.

A Google search confirmed that On 14 February 1844, 58 men, women and boys were working in the Garden Pit at Landshipping on the eastern branch of the Cleddau River when disaster struck.

The usual water seepage, which was encountered at this mine, suddenly began to increase in volume. It is said that this concerned the miners so much that they left the mine … only to be sent back after being reassured that all was well.

The pit workings extended out under the river and, one hour later, the water suddenly burst through the walls of the mine, relatively close to the shore. The miners working at the far end of the pit were cut off and drowned before they had time to escape. Blame was placed on an unusually high tide putting extra weight on the shallow workings.

Several of the names on the original reports said simply "Miner" - these were thought to have probably women, employed and killed in the disaster even though legislation preventing their employment below ground had recently been passed in parliament. Other names gave ages as low as nine or 11. In one case a person was listed simply as "child" …

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/earthwatcher/38318600

Our first short walk, which I will tell you about another time elicited a bit more information. We stopped to chat to a chap, who lived next door and had been there for 70 years. Obviously he wasn’t around at the time of the disaster but he did have a few stories to tell … including the fact that the pit shaft had been situated on the land where Garden Pitts now sits. 

When the memorial was re-dedicated in 2019, exactly 175 years after the tragedy struck the plaque was updated to include the full names of all those lost in the tragedy … the youngest of which was just 4 years old …

He also told us a tale of a young girl who was working in the pit who had brought up a pebble to the surface and said that they must be very close to the surface of the river bed to have found it … the story tells that she was just told to get back to work.

We had a walk down to the memorial one afternoon to have a closer look and bumped into another local chap that we stopped and chatted to. He told us that in 2000 the villagers had funded the memorial as part of their Millennium Project as, until then, there had been nothing there to commemorate what had happened and those who had sadly lost their lives. 

When looking at the memorial it is striking that there are so many with the same surname … whole families were just decimated … it was just so sad … but so interesting to have found out a bit more about where we were staying.

I know we all think that sometimes Health & Safety has gone a bit crazy with what we can and can not do … but those miners back in 1844 may just have had a different view 💜

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