I met with some writing chums this morning, a group of four who used to be more. We used to write to a specific topic, now we seem a little more laid back and although there might be a suggestion of a topic, we generally write something of our own choice.
We’re four days into November now, and for the first day it seemed to be more wintry than autumnal, and I began to think I should stop wearing shorts and find my jeans and boots. We take it in turns to meet at a convenient home of one of us – being on the coast it would mean the others would have further to travel to come to me so generally I don’t host. I set off in plenty of time, confident I remembered the way to our rendezvous, in the small north Somerset town of Nailsea. If you visited you might think it was a country town, in the middle of green pastures, fields and woodlands, but in fact it has an industrial heritage.
From about the 1500’s, Nailsea was a coal-mining area, and within a couple of hundred years it had a great many pits. The first pits were bell-shaped and as they were dug deeper, miners (boys as young as nine as well as adult men) were lowered in baskets down to the workings and the same winch would raise the coal they hewed from the rock. Don’t imagine they were standing there, hacking away at the coal face, most of the seams were less than one metre thick – some much thinner! Their workings would have been illuminated by candles and their protective gear was maybe leather caps and pads, or maybe nonexistent. Later horses were used to hoist the returning miners and coal back to the surface, until, of course, they were replaced by steam power once the technology had developed. The availability of coal drew glass manufactures to Nailsea and in 1788 Nailsea Glassworks was established, and became the fourth largest producer in the country. It ceased production less than a hundred years later in 1873, although its glassware is highly collectable today. My featured image is of a Nailsea glassblower.
We four writers were sitting comfortably in a lovely warm house, well supplied with coffee, tea and biscuits as we discussed our offerings. I shared another episode from my children’s story about young Peggy, who in this part was helping her granny find items for the village jumble sale up in the dusty lumber room. R shared a story about fossils and geology, A continued her story of a young woman whose happiness was threatened by the unexpected and unwelcome appearance of her ex-partner. J shared a favourite poem, ‘The Listeners’ by Walter de la Mare, which led to quite a discussion!
Our next meeting, in December, will be more of a festive occasion at the café of a local garden centre which we hope will have a supply of mince pies available! If we do share any stories, maybe they will have a seasonal slant, with a winter theme, or maybe Christmas threads weaving their way through our compositions!
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/historic-remains-telling-story-nailseas-6696007
Lois Elsden 