Canary In A Coalmine

Yay! We’ve finally completed Beamish Living Museum. We went a couple of weeks ago, but could not go into the mine because of flooding. With only five days before our tickets expired, it was pretty much now or never if we were to tick that final box. A phone call yesterday confirmed the mine was now open so we set off full of hope this morning. And we were able to go underground, although I’m not sure we got the full tour as there was definitely still a fair bit of water underfoot.
But what we did see was fascinating. Our guide was able to tell us all about the conditions in the mine and how hard life would have been for the men - and women, children & ponies! - who worked to extract the coal.
At one point the electric light was turned out so all we had was the glimmer coming from the safety lamp. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do a long shift in the semi-darkness. Not to mention the danger from various gases. The safety lamp would indicate the presence of coal gas and CO2 (the flame would burn brighter or dimmer accordingly,) but for Carbon Monoxide there was only one sure fire method of detection - put a canary in a cage on the end of a long pole and observe what happened. Canary sings - all good. Canary falls off perch - time to get out!
We were only at Beamish for about an hour so went on the Metro Centre at Gateshead as it was only a few miles away. Lunch in M&S and then some light retail therapy before heading back to Kendal in time for tea. Only just enough time to grab a couple of slices of pizza before I had to head back out for this evenings entertainment…