A Christmas Eve solo trip - t'owd man's candle

AR

Well-known member
?The miners used to find the best piece of ore they could, stick on it the best candle they could procure and squat round these on Christmas Eve singing their old carols until the candle was burnt? J.H Brooksbank, ?Castleton: Its Traditions, Sayings and Place Names?, 1920

Us PDMHS types like to keep up as many of the old mining customs as we can, and the tradition of t?owd man?s candle on Christmas Eve is one of these. On a wet and windy Christmas Eve, when most people would have been in front of the telly, I set out from home on the short walk over to Hillocks Mine. In my rucksack I had a good beeswax candle (and lighter, of course), my pewter tankard, a bottle of Old Peculier and a piece of the rum-drenched Christmas cake my Mother-in-law gave me for Christmas.

All was quiet as I left the village, no cars could be heard and I headed down the track to Knotlow farm and picked up the footpath to Five Lane Ends. On the lane towards the barn I pondered whether the resident barn owls would be sheltering from the weather inside or out hunting. With the climbing shaft copse silhouetted in the glow of Monyash?s lights I pressed on and soon came to the Hillocks entrance. Putting my headtorch on, I climbed down into the opencut and ratched through the pipe into the caverns beyond.

Hillocks Mine, or to give it its proper name, the Whalf Pipe, is a cave system that has had its infill of disaggregated vein material dug out over many centuries. It is the best candidate for a lead mine recorded in a late 13th century court case and given this long history, would be a fine place for remembering the miners of ages past even if it wasn?t in walking distance of my house.

Reaching my chosen place for performing the rite, I unpacked my rucksack, placed the candle on a ledge and lit it then put the cake on one side. Cracking open the bottle of OP and pouring it into the tankard, it suddenly occurred to me that I?d forgotten to bring my best bit of ore ? whoops!

Not disheartened by this, it was time for the old carols. There?s another good reason for singing in Hillocks, which is that the acoustics further in are great, about the right amount of reverb to give colour without muddying the sound. This year, I began with the carol ?Marshall? whose tune was written by the 19th century lead miner George Maltby ? here?s the video of my performance.

https://vimeo.com/197080938

Next, I went for a version of ?Hark, the Herald Angels Sing? known as ?Little Bilberry? that we sing at Castleton, although slightly cocked it up by substituting ?sons of men? for ?sons of Earth? in the last verse ? confusing one carol for another momentarily! For my third carol, it had to be the rousing Derbyshire classic ?Peace O?er the World?, affectionately known as the ?Bradda Anthem?. That done, I picked up the tankard and with the miner?s toast of ?A health to all miners and maintainers of mines?, quaffed the ale before pouring the last mouthful out for t?owd man. 
:beer:

All done, I blew out the candle, packed up and headed back updip, wondering how much lead ore had once been dug out from the gravel around me. A quick crawl through the pipe and I was back outside, and having left the piece of cake above the pipe (not wishing to leave it underground to go mouldy!) it was time to retrace my steps home. Unfortunately, the rain had picked up during my sojourn underground so it was a much wetter return leg, though I kept my spirits up by more singing.

So there we have it ? another year passed and the old custom (mostly) upheld. Doubtless I?ll be back in 2017!
 

Chocolate fireguard

Active member
I'd be happy to join you next year.
I can't sing and I'm not a fan of Old Peculiar, but I could mime and would drink (most of) a bottle of decent stuff afterwards.
 

teabag

New member
Six of us also set candles along the vein in Goodluck Mine on Christmas Eve, although no singing this year.
 
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