“There is still at least ten thousand million tons of the coal that made her famous. Enough for another four hundred years.”

That was the promise. A trade of dust and darkness for security, pride, and prosperity. Men were told there would always be work underground, always something new, always another seam to cut. The coal would last forever. The valleys would endure.

Another miner that I’m adding to the series. Each of these small portraits feels like it’s building on one another as I explore this theme. My head is full of all these characters with their differences and personality but shaped by the similar culture, lifestyles, circumstances and landscapes. Even the way they dress and carry themselves speaks of that shared story.

Four Hundred Years of Coal…

The promise of four hundred years of coal wasn’t just economics, it was identity. It meant sons would follow fathers down the pit. It meant the valleys would remain what they’d become: communities forged in darkness, bound by shared labour and shared risk.

But promises made about coal have a way of turning to dust.

I keep returning to these faces because they represent something more than just miners. They’re the people who believed in that promise, who built their lives on it, who descended into the earth trusting there would always be another shift, another payday, another generation to carry on the work.
Building the Series

Like Miner No.1 and Miner No.2 before him, this figure stands weathered and enduring. But with each portrait, I’m finding new details, new ways of showing the weight these men carried.

The differences matter. The tilt of a cap, the set of a jaw, the texture of a face marked by years underground. But so do the similarities, the shared landscape, the common circumstances, the culture that shaped them all.

I’m drawn to the tension between the individual and the collective. Each of these miners had his own story, his own personality, his own way of carrying himself. But they were also products of the same system, the pits, the terraces, the promise of four hundred years.

The Print

Miner No.3 measures 105 x 148 mm, part of an ongoing limited edition series exploring the faces of South Wales mining communities. Each print is hand-carved, every line deliberately placed to capture not heroic mythology, but the quiet dignity of men shaped by the systems they served.

This is the third portrait in a series that continues to grow as I explore these characters, their differences, their shared culture, their enduring presence in the landscape and memory of the valleys.

Hwyl fawr for now.
Dan