‘We’ll shortly be arriving, ladies and gents, but I believe if you look either side of you right about now, you should see the gate pillars for the estate entrance.’
Just on cue, a granite pillar loomed up out of the blizzard to theright of Midge’s window. The surrounding ground was covered in the thick, deep snow, the drifts obscuring most of the hedgerows with only the tallest trees poking through.
A sudden parting in the white landscape revealed a dramatic gorge just to the left of the road.
‘Christ!’ cried Rona, standing up in her seat and pointing out of the left-side window. ‘What is that?’
Thatturned out to be a small stone building with a tall chimney stack, perched halfway down the side of the gorge.
‘It’s an engine house for the old mines,’ said Noah matter-of-factly – Midge had the sense that he had been waiting for the opportunity to say it.
‘Engine house?’ asked Rona, sitting back down with a jolt as a sudden bump caused Harold to swear.
‘For pumping out the water from the shafts below,’ explained Noah.
‘Those tunnels extend out for miles under the hills here,’ confirmed Rendell, calling back down the aisle. ‘But some of the seams became unsafe, and others were worked out, and from the late 1860s the operation was wound down. The Athertons kept the mine and the estate, but as their main source of income dried up, they sold land off. Subsequent owners did the same – mostly selling to the military.’
‘Gone the way of so many mines,’ said Gloria, her eyes fixed on the chimney as they drove past on the road above.
‘I remember learning all about that inBilly Elliot,’ Rona said, which left Midge wondering at what point in society a musical had taken the place of a taught history curriculum.
‘That was coal mines,’ shouted Harold.
‘Most mining is an environmental disaster,’ said Noah.
‘But such a shame to lose a piece of history like that,’ said Gloria.
‘Funny how people romanticize history, isn’t it?’ Noah pushed his fringe out of his eyes. ‘I mean, hundreds of actual miners musthave died down those mines from rockfalls or poisonous gases and no one cares.’
‘You stick it to them!’ shouted Rona. ‘Workers of the world, unite!’
Midge desperately hoped they weren’t all going to start talking about politics – nothing ever good seemed to come of it. She’d voted Labour all her life except for one year when Bridie said there was something quite demonic about Gordon Brown and so she’d changed her vote at the last minute. That was the year Labour lost, and she’d never really forgiven herself for it.
‘The last time I checked, the proletariat didn’t wear Gucci sunglasses and have an entire suitcase full of shoes,’ pointed out Noah. He had an odd way of talking, like someone much older, hesitantly measuring out every word. Which was a stark contrast to Rona, thought Midge, who seemed to be getting louder as the trip went on.
‘Well, I’d hardly call talking into a microphone to nobody “working”,’ said the doctor.
‘I’ve got over a thousand subscribers, actually,’ said Noah. ‘They Do It With Stringswas listed in the top ten most popular haunted house podcasts and won a Golden Ear award in the Glowing Globes.’
‘Was there a lot of competition?’ asked Midge.
‘It’s a popular genre,’ muttered Noah, slouching back into his chair. It was clear from his tone that he’d had this conversation many times before.
‘I expect their families did,’ said Gloria, quietly.
‘What?’ said Noah.
‘I expect their families cared,’ she explained. ‘The miners.’
‘Well, yes, of course,’ said Noah.
‘In the old days they used to send canaries down the mine into a new tunnel,’ shouted back Rendell, just as the engine house disappeared behind them. ‘If they came back up alive, then they knew the shaft was safe.’
And if they didn’t?thought Midge, shivering despite the coach’s heating. What became of all those beautiful, bright dead birds?
Chapter4
Extract fromThey Do It With Stringspodcast
