ISSN 1746-7551 Welsh Mines Society Member of the National Association of Mining History Organisations NEWSLETTER 65 Autumn 2011 Announcements .......................... 2 Forthcoming Events ................... 5 Spring 2012 Indoor Meet ........... 6 Bronfloyd Lead Mine .................. 6 Aberdyfi: Detective Work ......... 12 Geology and Mine Exploration 14 Goginan in the Francis Years .. 16 Future Prospects for Cardigan- shire and Elsewhere............... 19 John Evans, Minera Miner ...... 23 Lead Mine Near Caernarvon ... 25 News ......................................... 28 Reviews and Publications ........ 33 Correspondence ....................... 38 Membership .............................. 47 Lead Mine near Caernarvon (detail) – see item 17 Editorial 1. Meet Organisation At the WMS meeting on 17th September, Society President George Hall announced that he no longer wanted to be involved in organising and leading weekend meets. George has been responsible either wholly or in a large part for organising a number of recent meets, in particular selecting of venues for the evening meal and obtaining details of local accommodation. His contribution to the Society is in this respect possibly under- valued by members because of the seemingly effortless way in which things come together for the field meets. (George details the work involved in setting up a meet in item 8 below.) Consequently the Society now needs someone to step into George’s shoes to organise our meets. The main aspects are the choice of an area, the location of a suitable venue for the Saturday evening meal, arranging knowledgeable leaders for the area and, where necessary, contacting local landowner(s) to arrange access and car parking (or at least warning them President: GEORGE HALL, Abilene, Sheet Road, Ludlow, SY8 1LR Chairman: JOHN HINE (a.k.a. Mole), The Grottage, 2 Cullis Lane, Mile End, Coleford, GL16 7QF Secretary/Treasurer: DAVID ROE, 20 Lutterburn Street, Ugborough, Ivybridge, PL21 0NG Editor: DAVE LINTON, Hendre Coed Uchaf, Llanaber, Barmouth, LL42 1AJ www.welshmines.org Newsletter 65 Welsh Mines Society Autumn 2011 that there will be a number of visitors taking an apparently unusual interest in their land and the mining remains on it). This is not the first time we have asked for more members to participate in organising and leading meets. Chairman Mole made a similar plea in 2006 (see NL 54 item 11). However, with George’s expressed desire to be less involved in this aspect of the Society’s activities, the need for other members, particularly some of the younger and newer ones, to play their part is more urgent. Without meet organisers the affairs of the Society will be significantly impoverished. Whist we could operate as a purely correspondence-based society, with a Newsletter and individuals pursuing their own interests, I think without the weekend meets it would be dif- ficult to maintain the interest and participation of existing members or to recruit new ones. 2. Copyright I discussed some aspects of copyright and the necessity of obtaining permis- sion to use material for publication in NL 63 item 3. I should perhaps have gone into more detail. Authors should be aware that when an item is ‘re-published’, such as when a website publishes images of out-of-copyright maps, the copyright in those images is owned by the website publisher. Consequently, when using material from the web, or images supplied by other parties such as the RCAHMW or NLW, care should be taken to adhere to any terms and conditions associated with the images and the necessary permissions should be sought or licences obtained. Terms and conditions associated with images sometimes allow ‘non-commercial’ use of such material. However, considering that The Lode of History was put on sale outside the Society (and made a profit) we can hardly claim that a ‘non-commercial’ exemption applies. As previously mentioned, it would be embarrassing for me as Editor and for the Society as a whole if I published material which was later found to infringe copyright. At very least we might be required to withdraw and destroy all printed copies and we could be liable to damages and costs. Consequently, I would again draw the attention of anyone writing for the Newsletter or for future issues of Welsh Mines and Mining to the requirement that it is the responsibility of authors to obtain all necessary permissions before submitting material for publication. 3. Towards a Better Understanding I have to apologise for the late publication of the Pro- ceedings of the WMS Conference in October 2010. This is due to a combination of events including Pam’s accident (see item 6 below), the late submission of papers, copyright issues (as discussed above) and the necessity for significant editing work on some papers. I hope that the publication will be with the printers by the end of the year at the latest. Announcements 4. NAMHO Conference 2013 Peter Claughton has proposed that the Society host the 2013 NAMHO Conference at Aberystwyth. He suggests a lecture programme on the theme of Mining, Archaeology and the Environment: the legacy of mineral working – which he - 2 - Newsletter 65 Welsh Mines Society Autumn 2011 thinks would suit the location, with some good examples available in the Ceredigion Up- lands behind Aberystwyth. He says he would have support in organising the lecture pro- gramme from a colleague working on the environmental history of mining at the University of Stirling and from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth – ensuring interest from outside NAMHO similarly to the way the 2002 conference (on the theme of the application of water power in mining) attracted international interest. Peter says this would be an opportunity for interaction and co-operation outside the usual mining history community. Peter says that he (and his associates) have in mind the material evidence for historic and associated activities: drainage, rock cutting techniques (perhaps something on 3 foot adits?), ore preparation (dressing floors) and the environmental impact of mining. The sort of par- ticipation and contributions he hopes for are in the areas of archaeological investigation (a local example might be the work of the RCAHMW at Ystrad Einion) or the problems of in- terpreting historic mining techniques, as with hushing at Craigymwyn. On the environmen- tal side he suggests there are at least two areas of interest: the current issues of heavy metal and acid mine drainage, how they are dealt with and the impact on mining heritage; and the application of paleo-environmental techniques in the investigation of past mining activity. Peter has visited Aberystwyth to check the conference facilities and the availability of accommodation and found they are, if anything, better than they were in 2002. Aberystwyth University’s favoured date for such a conference would be late June. Peter’s proposal was discussed after dinner at the WMS meeting on 17th September. There was not much support for the proposal, mainly on the grounds that it would be difficult to find volunteers from within the Society to handle conference organisation (both before and during the conference) and, with the unavailability of the underground sites in Cwmystwyth, (and possibly elsewhere) it would be a problem to arrange a sufficient number and variety of the underground trips which are a feature of NAMHO conferences. However, Mole volun- teered as general booking manager, Roy Fellows said he was willing to act as underground co-ordinator and said he was confident that a full range of underground trips could be pro- vided, and Mike Munro offered to do the necessary web work. It was considered essential that anyone involved with the organisation of the conference should be contactable by email. The desires were expressed that it should be clear that the conference is being hosted by WMS, that there should be an emphasis on Welsh subjects for the papers to be presented and that the proceedings should be published by WMS in the series Welsh Mines and Mining. Following the meeting discussion has taken place between the above-named people and Mole has been active in contacting members to take on the various tasks needed to host the conference. The responses Mole has had so far leads him to think that it would just about be feasible for WMS to host the 2013 NAMHO Conference. However, he considers that before a formal decision is taken the membership should be offered the chance to comment. He therefore asks that members contact him (01594 833217, [email protected]) with their opinions (and, ideally, offers of help) by 12th December 2011. In particular such comments should take account of the fact that if WMS does host the NAMHO Conference then the proposed autumn 2013 WMS Conference would need to be postponed. If the membership is in favour of the proposal, it would be necessary to confirm its fea- - 3 - Newsletter 65 Welsh Mines Society Autumn 2011 sibility, particularly with regard to underground (and surface) access and whether we would have sufficient volunteers. Consequently, it is unlikely that the Society would be able to an- nounce its decision before the NAMHO AGM and Council meeting in March 2012. Should it be decided not to go ahead with Peter’s proposal for 2013 then it might be that WMS would consider hosting a future NAMHO Conference – and again Mole would wish to hear members’ views on that. Mole 5. Bwlch Glas Bernard Moore has very generously offered the WMS the Mineral Rights for Bwlch Glas. The Officers of the Society considered this very carefully and came to the conclusion that we have neither the resources (in terms of people and funding) nor the constitutional framework (particularly charitable status which would enable us to access funding) that would allow us to take on a long-term project of this nature.