A grey day and a sombre mood at Landshipping Quay, Pembrokeshire

Originally uploaded for the Guesswhere UK group.

This is a view westwards over the Landshipping Pill and Daugleddau River at low tide from Landshipping Quay, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Close by here is a small but poignant memorial to the 40 miners killed in Pembrokeshire's worst ever coal mining disaster on 14th February 1844, when the rising tide broke through into a mine roadway heading out from the Garden Pit under the estuary with very little depth of cover to the sea bed.

There are several contemporary accounts of the disaster which vary somewhat in the details, and are summarised here:
www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Carm/Landshipping.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/landshipping_mining_disas...

Having worked underground in the coal mines of Yorkshire and South Wales, I find these stories especially moving. Even today, I feel there is an intense sadness about this place which still lingers, even on a bright sunny day.

A memorial service for the lost miners (which included children and probably some women too) is held annually on St Valentine's Day at St Burnett's Hill Chapel nearby.