Sultan the Pit Pony is a massive 200 metre raised-earth sculpture in Caerphilly, in South Wales.
Previously, children and women were employed to lug or drag coal out of the mines.
As the mines became deeper and distances became greater, they were replaced with pit ponies.
Sultan The Pit Pony was designed by Mick Petts using roughly 60,000 tonnes of coal shale.
At its peak around 1913, there were some 70,000 pit ponies working below ground in Britain.
When Ellington closed for the first time in 1994, there were four pit ponies working.
The Penallta colliery closed in 1991.
One of a series taken by Johnny Briggs who was employed by The Ashington Coal Company.
There’s no date with this image but it would have been between 1930-45.
