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| Photo credit: The Geological Society of London |
This 200 metre raised-earth sculpture in Caerphilly, in South Wales is named “Sultan” after a well-loved pit pony that worked in the local mines hauling tubs of coal and the sculpture is built out of coal shale from those mines. In 1913, there were some 70,000 pit ponies working below ground in Britain.
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| photo credit |
They worked an eight-hour shift each day, during which they might haul 30 tons of coal in tubs on the underground narrow gauge railway. As the ponies got older, their daily shift might be cut back to a mere 4 hours of work. The ponies stayed almost entirely underground where they were fed on a diet with a high proportion of chopped hay and maize, coming to the surface only during the colliery's annual holiday. Since pit ponies belonged to the mining companies, they were highly valued capital, who were generally far better looked after by the company management than the coal miners were.
More: Amusing Planet
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