'Allan o'r tywyllwch y daw y Goleuni'
It was in the midst of the bitter struggle between the North Wales Coal Owners and the miners, and after many setbacks, that the Flintshire and Denbighshire Miners Association was born.
1898 saw the election of Edward Hughes as Miners Agent for the North Wales coal field, a position he held until 1925. He was responsible for building the miners office in Wrecsam in 1903.
Edward Hughes was born in 1856 in a thatched coftage at Ffordd Fain, Berthengam, Flintshire. At the age of 7 years he began work at Trelogan Lead Mine working a 10 hour day. He received his little and only formal education at the Sunday school in Trelogan. We should not underestimate the role which Sunday school education had on improving the social conditions of working people throughout Wales.
lf we are to get a real understanding of this time we must try and put ourselves back into the late 19th century when Edward Hughes, like so many of his contemporaries, were denied work in their native Wales and had to seek work where they could.
ln 1875 he took the decision which was to have a major influence on his life. He took the long and well travelled road of previous North Wales miners to join the welsh community working in the Durham coalfield. He was one of the founders of the Welsh Chapel at South Hetton. lt was whilst working the Durham pits that he learnedthe benefits of the miners being organised in to a union. That experience was to prove invaluable to him on his return to Wales.
With the death of his father in 1887 his mother asked him to come home. The rentedold cottage where she lived was in bad condition and Lord Mostyn was refusing to do any repairs. Edward Hughes could not find any work back in Wales. There were hundreds of men walking the countryside looking for work, willing to accept anything, even to work for their food only. He was on the point of going back to Durham when he got a job at Point of Ayr Colliery taking the place of a collier who was too ill to work again.
