We departed Parkfield and made good time to Big Pit singing concert and production songs.  We particularly enjoyed singing "We're All Going On A Summer Holiday" as we were baptised by the Welsh weather!

When we reached Big Pit, we had lunch and took a tour of the mines.  Our tour guides were fantastic and very knowledgeable.  Big Pit was a working mine from 1860 to 1980 before it reopened as a tour destination in 1982.  We learned that the coal was called steam coal because it was primarily used to generate steam.  We saw the drams which carried the coal.  We also saw the wires from when electricity was installed in the mines in 1910.  However, in 1913, the wires actually caused an explosion down the mine - thankfully, nowadays the mines are carefully inspected for methane to make them safe and ventilation is provide.

Trappers were children who helped open and close doors.  They worked by candlelight and for long periods in pitch black, often tied to the poles.  In 1834, Shaftesbury reformed the rules so that only boys over 10 could be used for this job and only boys.  The mine continued to be successful until 1930 when 1,300 people worked down it.

We saw the stables where the ponies were housed.  Jess T said this was her favourite section: "It was cool because they didn't touch any of the horse equipment.  They left it all there!"  You could even see the names of the horses.

Lily said, "My favourite bit was when it was all dark.  So we had headlights but then we had to turn them off and stay in one place for a minute.  It was really dark and I couldn't see anyone!"

The ponies would be down for such a long time that when they reached the surface, they had to be blindfolded to protect their eyes from being blinded by the light.  Often ponies would live their lives down in the pits but in 1947, the Coal Board was nationalised and two weeks of holiday -- called the "Miner's Holiday" -- was introduced in the summer.  We saw the "collar and arms" structures used to hold up the mine and we were glad we had helmets to avoid bumping our heads.

On the way out, we saw the Davy lamp which had been invented to detect carbon monoxide and saw the canaries who had been used for this task before.  Molly now really wants a canary!

After another trip, we made super time and reached Broad Haven at 5pm where the children were assigned their rooms and are settling in!

Thanks to the children for assisting with this write-up.

Dinner was lovely - see the videos below.  The menu was switched a little bit so we had the Thursday menu tonight but the children all spoke positively about the food - you can see the video below although unfortunately the wind made some of the clips inaudible!

After dinner, we went down to the beach to let off steam.  The children had a fantastic time and blew the cobwebs off as the photographs show.

The children are now settled for the night.  The weather is looking up for tomorrow's boat trip!