Maureen Burns

Royfellows

Royfellows

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In some of my photos there is a blonde lady, so I think it appropriate to introduce her. She was in effect and to be honest, the one corner of a friendly triange, I was married and was widowed in 1998. my late wife, Rita, never had any interest in visiting mines. Ritas funeral was abit odd in that Maureen did the catering, must have been some background talk.
Maureen is still alive, but I dont see much of her now, its the occasional phone call. But she was very supportive of my efforts re Cwmystwyth and was the other original subscriber to Cambrian Mines Trust. She was originally a co director and resigned in favour of David James, but I dont think that David ever met her. She appears in many of my photos, both surface and underground. I think its desirable to include a figure in underground shots to give scale. Considering the number of my photos, I thought this would answer some questions.

Maureen went everywhere with me and met some personalites. At Devizes Shooting Centre she used to talk to Michael Ryan of all people. If unsure, look it up. On the other end, up at Cwm Einion she met Robert Plant, got on well with him, he is a nice bloke. We also used to go undergound a lot at Nenthead with the Lawsons, the late John liked her.

She was a divorcee when we met, a bit older than me, eventually we drifted appart and she went back to her family
 
Well this has answered a lot of questions for me ! Also it’s always brilliant to know who was in the images , brings the image more to life .
 
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That’s interesting to read, Roy, and no doubt was quite an emotional thing to write.

That triggered a memory for me too… I remember visiting Savernake forest with my late Father (I was about 8) literally the day before Michael Ryan went on the rampage. I grew up in rural Wiltshire, so the memory of that still lingers.
 
The only thing I get emotional about these days is the direction my country is heading.
Anyway, I have just turned up some albums from the 1980s with good archive material. I will check for duplication and get scanned anything else.
Still cant find the North Hendre on site stuff, I also definately took photos inside the late George Halls mill at Esgairmwyn, can I find them, grr.
Most of the trucks from NH went to Dolaucothi, there is a photo plus 2 cages.
 
Hi Roy, Yes these "mining wives" can be a bit of a problem. My Hilary was a bit of an exception in that, although suffering somewhat from claustrophobia, she accompanied me in many dark, wet and dangerous places. Not only that, but managed to take photographs with her (then in the 60s and 70s) range finder folding camera , known as a Pearl, which was second hand and the previous owner had thought to make things better by disastrously oiling the shutter leaves! But many of her photos were pretty good ! She was also adept at sitting on spoil heaps reading a book while yours truly vanished for long periods underground. Never seemed to complain either. An artist at my place of work did this little cartoon of her when I gave a slide show to the AGM of the NMRS. She died in 2015 from breast cancer and I will miss her to my last breath.

Angus drawing for H NMRS show.jpg
 
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Hi Dickie

My Rita died in 1998 of cervical cancer. I well remember her recovering after the operation and back to driving her big car, a Grenada. She didn't like small 'girly' cars. I was very buoyant, but she was somewhat, how can I put it, I now think that she knew where her karma lay.
When I think of my life, prior to gaining 40, I didn't seem to achieve much, good at earning, but nothing else. It was later in life that I founded Cambrian Mines Trust and acquired Cwmystwyth, and NAL which acquired Upper Dinas. She never lived to see any of this.
We never had any kids and I now live on my own, the people I get to see the most are those at the martial arts clubs, I tend to look at them as my family.
Maureen used to either accompany me underground or sit in the car reading.

Worst thing about getting older I think is those friends who fall by the wayside. Names within the mining community we will all be familiar with, but the same in my 'other world'. The other week I was at the funeral of my aikido Shihan, not much older than me, same week as my screen hero Chuck Norris died, again, not much older than me. I will see them in Valhalla.
 
Royfellows said:
Hi Dickie

My Rita died in 1998 of cervical cancer. I well remember her recovering after the operation and back to driving her big car, a Grenada. She didn't like small 'girly' cars. I was very buoyant, but she was somewhat, how can I put it, I now think that she knew where her karma lay.
When I think of my life, prior to gaining 40, I didn't seem to achieve much, good at earning, but nothing else. It was later in life that I founded Cambrian Mines Trust and acquired Cwmystwyth, and NAL which acquired Upper Dinas. She never lived to see any of this.
We never had any kids and I now live on my own, the people I get to see the most are those at the martial arts clubs, I tend to look at them as my family.
Maureen used to either accompany me underground or sit in the car reading.

Worst thing about getting older I think is those friends who fall by the wayside. Names within the mining community we will all be familiar with, but the same in my 'other world'. The other week I was at the funeral of my aikido Shihan, not much older than me, same week as my screen hero Chuck Norris died, again, not much older than me. I will see them in Valhalla.
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Yes, you are right about the last para Roy. I could never get over the early demise of Damian McCurdy, 19 years ago at the age of 61!
 
Yes, his last underground trip was into Frongoch with me, to the best of my knowledge. The days before email, we used to write to each other, as I did with George Hall. I still have the neatly typed letters.
 
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