Cwmgors Patrol

Roz Hughes, the daughter of William Davies; "The most vivid thing I remember was after the war was all over. In about 1952/3 I think it was. Back in the day my Grandfather had also run a small drift coal mine on the hill behind the house. It had been disused for many years . So when I saw colliers blacked up from a shift in the mine coming past the house one day it was quite newsworthy.  At dinner that evening I happened to tell everyone what I'd seen. The colour drained from Dad's face. After a very intense grilling he left the table and hurried off. 

To cut a long story short, they had used the drift mine to store ammunition etc during the war. They had apparently sealed it all away and created a secret entrance so they could use it should we be invaded. There was apparently a considerable amount of explosives, quite a lot of equipment still buried in the mine. It had never been disposed of after the war ended. Unknown to my Father, after nationalisation of the coal mines in 1947, it had been discovered that our old drift mine was connected underground to one of the big mines in our village and the national coal board decided to use the old drift as a ventilation for the bigger colliery. However my Father and the Smallmans knew about the explosives which were still hidden.

Dad was terrified, if they decided to extend into the drift and started blasting they might have set off the old stash which probably was quite unstable by then. The next day all hell broke out and the army had to be brought in to remove the stash and take it away. In a small Welsh village it caused quite a stir. It turned out to be  quite a task and required the soldiers to bring the explosives down the mountain side and carry it some mile and a half to the main road. Thankfully all done without further drama".