Author’s second book on county’s mining heritage

Nov 9 2007

A HAMILTON historian has released her long-awaited second book about the county’s coal mining heritage.

Wilma Bolton, a former staff nurse at Hairmyres Hospital, has spent the last 10 years researching coal mining in the area.

Her new book, Pit Props and Ponies, has already sold over 200 copies in its first week.

Wilma said: “I wrote the book as it is very personal to me, as many members of my family were coal miners. But I also did it to tell the true stories of these people, and not the accounts of the pit owners who enslaved them.

“Many people across Lanarkshire will have relatives who are mentioned in the book, as it has over 2000 names of miners and their families in it, as well as 217 photographs.

“Pit Props and Ponies is packed with hundreds of true stories and poems from the coal mines of Lanarkshire.

“The book is a personalised social history of the Lanarkshire coal miner.

“It tells who he was, where he came from and what he stood for.

“Most of all, it is about what he stood up against.”

Within Pit Props and Ponies’ 216 pages are stories of the Irish miners who came over to work in Lanarkshire and the bonded slaves of the Duke of Hamilton in 1785.

Pit Props complements Wilma’s first book, Black Faces and Tackety Boots, which was released a two years ago.

Black Faces has sold over 2500 copies worldwide. Many of the copies were sold to descendents of miners mentioned in the book.

Earlier this year, Raewyn and Peter Clarke travelled from New Zealand to South Lanarkshire after discovering their ancestors were victims of the Udston Colliery Disaster. They learned about their relatives while reading Wilma’s work.

Lanarkshire has a rich heritage in coal mining. Many county people, whose families have lived in the region for generations will have relatives and descendents who worked in the coal mines.

Lanarkshire was also where both the largest and second-largest mining disasters in Scotland occurred: the Blantyre Colliery Explosion of 1877 and the Udston Pit blast 10 years later.

Black Faces and Tackety Boots and Pit Props and Ponies represent a decade of work for Wilma.

“I don’t know what I will do now,” sighs Wilma. “These books have dominated my life for so long and now I have finished them, I need to figure out what is next for me.

“I have developed a keen interest in photography. I think I will continue that and document present-day South Lanarkshire for my grandchildren to look at when they grow up.

“I will also write a few bits here and there, but no more books.”

Wilma’s book is available directly from her on (01698) 423759 or www.wilmabolton.com

It is also available from a variety of shops in the area, including W H Smith in Hamilton’s Regent Centre and Waterstones in East Kilbride.

MINING STORIES: Author Wilma Bolton, pictured with her new book Pit Props and Ponies. It tells the stories of Lanarkshire’s miners.

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By Graham Fraser

“Pit Props and Ponies is packed with hundreds of true stories and poems from the coal mines of Lanarkshire.