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hilarybarryartist

Another shot from The "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women

Another shot from The "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" launch yesterday, at @cyfarthfacastle Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil.

With Welsh Assembly Member @dawnbowdenam Dawn Bowd

With Welsh Assembly Member @dawnbowdenam Dawn Bowden, at the launch of the "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" exhibition, which opened yesterday at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil, to coincide with International Women's Day. ⁣
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The exhibition runs till Sunday 31 May. Opening times: ⁣⁣
• Till 31 Mar: Mon (Closed); Tue-Fri: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm⁣⁣
• After 1 April: Mon-Fri: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm. ⁣⁣
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Cyfarthfa Castle Museum is in Cyfarthfa Park; Brecon Rd, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8RE. ⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls. ⁣

Perhaps the last "Pit Girl" portrait. ⁣ ⁣ This

Perhaps the last "Pit Girl" portrait. ⁣
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This sculptural piece of work commemorating and celebrating the lives of the Pit Girls stands at the top of the high street in Tredegar. It's one of the very few references which remain. ⁣
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Unsurprisingly, the names of the woman and child featured in the work are not recorded.

Happy International Women’s Day. “Forgotten Wo

Happy International Women’s Day. “Forgotten Women” Show Cyfathfa Castle Merthyr Tydfil

Excellent news: BBC Radio Wales are doing a piece

Excellent news: BBC Radio Wales are doing a piece on the "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" exhibition, including an interview with me on the background to the project and how I came to paint their portraits! ⁣
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For the early birds, it will be on between 6am and 7am tomorrow morning (Monday 9 March) but, if that's a bit too soon in the day for you, you should be able to catch it later on BBC Sounds. ⁣
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This is a shot of me in conversation with Holly Le

This is a shot of me in conversation with Holly Lewis of BBC Wales, who came to interview me about the Pit Girl portraits: what they mean to me and how I came learn about and paint them.

#12 of the "Pit Girl" portraits and the last in t

#12 of the "Pit Girl" portraits and the last in the series. ⁣
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All 12 portraits form the centrepiece of a new exhibition, "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women", which opens tomorrow, Sunday 8 March, at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil, to coincide with International Women's Day. ⁣
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This is Naomi Agassi. ⁣
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"I was born here. I don't know where my dad came from but he wasnt Welsh. They have said I have the same chances as others, but some of them say I shouldn't be here taking Welsh work. They are mostly good to me. ⁣
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"I don't know my age really, but I have worked here six years and they know how hard I work. We all look the same after a days work – as black as coal, that's what the girls say. ⁣
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"I think it would be better if we were paid once a week instead of once a month, for then I would buy my food with ready money. It is bad to live on 7s. and rent is 1s. 6d." ⁣
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Dawn Bowden (Welsh Assembly Member) opens the exhibition formally tomorrow at 1pm, and there's still time to receive an invitation if you want to be there - message me directly if you'd like one, or contact me via my website (details below)! ⁣
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"Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" runs till Sunday 31 May. Opening times: ⁣⁣
• Till 31 Mar: Mon (Closed); Tue-Fri: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm⁣⁣
• After 1 April: Mon-Fri: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm. ⁣⁣
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Cyfarthfa Castle Museum is in Cyfarthfa Park; Brecon Rd, Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8RE. ⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls.

This is Nesta Lewis, #11 in the Pit Girl Portrait

This is Nesta Lewis, #11 in the Pit Girl Portrait series. ⁣
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"I like to look nice, I make a lot of the hats that we all like to wear. We put them over our scarves to try and keep the coal from our hair. ⁣
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"Everybody gives me their bits and bobs. I get some lovely feathers. You can’t look after anything because the work is so dirty and hard. It’s hard on your clothes, so I cover mine with a sack pinnie. ⁣
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"My boots go first, they wear out quick and cost a lot, 8 shillings a pair. My little brother lends me his when my soles have gone. ⁣
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"I’m 17 and I’ve been down here two years."⁣

#10 in the Pit Girl portrait series, which forms t

#10 in the Pit Girl portrait series, which forms the centrepiece of the "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" exhibition, opening in a couple of days at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil. ⁣
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This is Sabrina Thomas. ⁣
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"I’m 17 and I took some coal and rope to sell, as we had nothing. I was married, but he went off. I had to go to the courts; I got six weeks in prison. They let me out a few months ago. I can do a man’s job, though they don’t like it. ⁣
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"I walk about and get the fresh air on Sundays. I have not learnt to read. I don't know my letters, I have never learnt. I never go to chapel. Women with a family can seldom get to chapel. Some have a mother to look after. ⁣
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"Colliers' houses are generally not well off for furniture. I have a table and a bed, and I have a tin kettle to boil potatoes in. I wear a pair of trousers and a jacket, and am very hot when working, but cold when standing still."⁣

#9 in the Pit Girls Portraits series. ⁣ ⁣ This

#9 in the Pit Girls Portraits series. ⁣
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This is Wynn Griffiths. ⁣
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"I used to work down the bottom. I am 36. I have been hurt once: I got on a truck of coals in the pit to get out of the way of the next truck, and the truck I was on went off before I could get off, and crushed my bones about the hips between the roof and the coals, my eye is bad too. I was bad for 23 weeks. I have been married 19 years. ⁣
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"I was a carrier of coals, which caused me to miscarry five times from the strains. A lot of women have dead children. My last child was born on Saturday morning, and I was at work on the Friday night. ⁣
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"I have always had to work below till sent home to have the baby. I came back as soon as I could, never longer than 10 or 12 days. Women soon get weak, and makes them old women at 40." ⁣

#8 in the series of "Pit Girl" Portraits, which fo

#8 in the series of "Pit Girl" Portraits, which form the centrepiece of a new exhibition, "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women", at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil. ⁣
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Dawn Bowden (Member of the Welsh Assembly) opens it next Sunday 8 March.⁣ Let me know if you'd like an invitation!⁣
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This is Sara Homfray. ⁣
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"We go at five in the morning. We begin to work as soon as we get down. We get out at five or six in the evening. We work the whole time except an hour for dinner, and sometimes we haven't time to eat. The work is far too hard for me; the sweat runs off me all over, sometimes. ⁣
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"I am very tired at night. Sometimes when we get home we have not power to wash, and then we go to bed. Sometimes we fall asleep in the chair. Dad said last night it was both a shame and disgrace for girls to work as we do, but there was nothing else for us to do. ⁣
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"I am 27. I would like to be married; it’s too late now, though. I have no time to do the housework and I don’t cook well. The men want women who have been in service – they know they can look after them. There is a great deal on managing a house. Some can manage better than others; those that can write and have been properly taught can manage best." ⁣
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The exhibition runs till Sunday 31 May. Opening times: ⁣⁣
• To 31 Mar: Mon (Closed); Tue-Fri: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm⁣⁣
• After 1 April: Mon-Fri: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm. ⁣⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls.

#7 in the "Pit Girl" series, part of the "Pit Girl

#7 in the "Pit Girl" series, part of the "Pit Girls - Forgotten Women" exhibition which opens tomorrow 3 March at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil. ⁣
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This is Molly Donovan (aged 15) ⁣
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"My father has been dead about a year; my mother is living and has ten children: three boys and seven girls. The oldest is about twenty, the youngest is two. Three of my sisters have moved and married; they help a bit, but the others are all little. My big brother lives at home and does nothing. ⁣
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"Mam looks after the house. I like to get out of the house and the girls here look out for me. When I get home at night, I fall asleep sometimes before I get washed. I would rather work in a shop than in a coal-pit. I can’t read and write, though."⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls. ⁣

#6 in the "Pit Girl" series, part of the "Pit Girl

#6 in the "Pit Girl" series, part of the "Pit Girls: Forgotten Women" exhibition which opens on Tuesday at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil. ⁣⁣
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This is Mary Ann Davies. ⁣⁣
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"I’ve worked here at Merthyr for 6 years. I’m 22: my dad works here, Mam died. We have seven mouths to feed. It’s very hard work and too many men to deal with – the boys take liberties with me, sometimes they pull me about. Dad gets them if they go too far. ⁣⁣
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"We eat our dinner down here. My sister is 10 years of age and keeps the house, makes the broth and does the washing. I get as black as the coal and it never comes off."⁣

#5 in the “Pit Girl” series. This is Lizzy Jon

#5 in the “Pit Girl” series. This is Lizzy Jones.⁣ ⁣
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“I am 16 and never went to day school. I go to Sunday school, but I cannot read or write. I have a bad leg from an accident in the pit, and lost a finger. I work on the tip now and take home less wages, but it gets topped up from “The Die and Sick Fund”.⁣ ⁣
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“I pay 6 shillings a month for rent. 2s. 8d. for coals, 6d. for the doctor. Though I am better off than hundreds, I can hardly live. But we are obliged to bear it, the masters can't help themselves. We all know the masters can afford to pay us more. We just get reductions.”⁣ ⁣
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You can see all 12 "Pit Girl" portraits in a new exhibition, "Forgotten Women", opening at Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil on Tue 3 March.⁣⁣ ⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls – and, of course, by visiting the show, which runs:⁣
• Tue 3 March-Sun 31 May 2020⁣
• Opening times: ⁣⁣
⁣ • 1 Oct-31 Mar: Mon (Closed); Tue-Fri: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm⁣
⁣ • 1 April-30 Sept: Mon-Fri: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm.⁣ ⁣
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Dawn Boden (Welsh Assembly Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) will be opening the exhibition on Sunday 8 March, to coincide with International Women’s Day. Please get in touch if you'd like an invitation!⁣ ⁣

This is Gwenyth Matthews, #4 in the Pit Girl serie

This is Gwenyth Matthews, #4 in the Pit Girl series. ⁣
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"I am aged 24, and have worked in in the pit three years. My business is to stack the coal. I go to the doctor for my back. I have often got to lift, from the trams, pieces of coal which weigh over a hundredweight, and carry them to the pit. I work eleven hours a day. ⁣
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"It’s hard getting up in the morning when it’s dark and cold. We all look after each other there, but it’s very hard. I go often to my father's though I live away from him. Without the assistance of my father I could not live. My clothes cost me most, because I must have best, and working clothes.⁣"

I was listening to a radio programme in which the

I was listening to a radio programme in which the presenter suggested that women recruited into the workforce during WW1 were the first recorded instances of female industrial labour. But I could remember stories from my own past of women working down the mines long before then. ⁣
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This was the start for me of a long period of research and exploration into the lives and stories of a group of women - the Pit Girls - for whom almost no details exist, and whom History seems to have forgotten.⁣
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I wanted to give a voice to these silent and forgotten women. The result is this series of 12 portraits. ⁣
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This is #3 in the series: Gladys Morgan. ⁣
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"There is eight of us in one bedroom in our house. My father and mother, my brother, four sisters and myself, we all sleep in one room. We have three beds. ⁣
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"My brother is nineteen and can’t hold down a job. I am 16: I work very hard and get up when it’s dark most days. I get my breakfast of porridge and milk first, I take my dinner with me, a cake, and eat it as I go; I do not stop or rest any time. I get nothing else until I get home, and then have potatoes and meat; not meat every day, though."⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls. ⁣⁣
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#2 in my "Pit Girl" series of 12 portraits. ⁣
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In the 19th Century, it was not uncommon for women and children to work down the mines, in appalling conditions and for next to no pay. In Wales, they were known as the “Pit Girls”. ⁣
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This is Enid Price. ⁣
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"It’s a long day working; I get very hungry all the time. I eat down there, I do not get cheese to eat – the others do, sometimes, but seldom, I have some meat for supper. ⁣
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"I live at my father's. I cannot read or write, more shame for me. I was working very young at 10 to help my father. He doesn’t work now and I give him my wages. He does look out for me. I would miss him if he went. He worked in the pit for 30 years and he cannot breathe right now."⁣

This is the first of 12 portraits in the "Pit Girl

This is the first of 12 portraits in the "Pit Girl" series, which will be the focal point of a new exhibition, "Forgotten Women", opening at the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil on Tue 3 Mar.⁣
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Each day in the run-up to the exhibition, I'll post a new portrait in the series, together with a commentary by the subject of the picture. ⁣
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This is "Betty Williams". ⁣
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(Please note the commentaries are not directly attributable to the subjects themselves. They're assembled from the different testimonies given at the time to the parliamentary commission which, in 1842, finally put an end to the practice of women and children working underground.) ⁣
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"I am 18, I’ve got a baby; my mam has her all day. She has two little ones. We are on our own. I never was ill in my life, but only when I was lying in. I’m not as strong as I was, though, and cannot stand the work as I used to. I have her at night. ⁣
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I am very tired and sometimes fall asleep standing. I don’t want her to end up like me. If I was married I would not go to the pits, but I know some married women that do."⁣

Exciting news: the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Mert

Exciting news: the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum in Merthyr Tydfil is hosting my series of 12 “Pit Girl” portraits as part of a new exhibition titled “Forgotten Women“! ⁣
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The exhibition runs Tue 3 Mar-Sun 31 May 2020. Opening times: ⁣
• 1 Oct-31 Mar: Mon (Closed); Tue-Fri: 10am-4pm; Weekends: 12pm-4pm⁣
• 1 April-30 Sept: Mon-Fri: 10am-5pm; Weekends: 12pm-5pm. ⁣
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You can learn more about the Pit Girls’ history and how I came to paint their portraits on my website, at www.hilarybarryartist.com/figures/pit-girls. ⁣
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And get in touch if you'd like an invitation to the Private View!

At the opening of @newcutarts The Cut Open exhibit

At the opening of @newcutarts The Cut Open exhibition in Halesworth, with one of two of my "Superhero" series on show there: "We Failed Them, My Friends - We Failed Them". ⁣
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The exhibition runs till 12 January, Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm. ⁣
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The Cut is at New Cut, off Station Rd, Halesworth, IP19 8BY.

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