What's that half wheel for?

What's that half wheel for?

"What's that half wheel?"
My daughter asked
"I see them everywhere"
How could she not
know what it is
or the reason they are there?

"What they were for",
I said to her
"When made into a wheel;
Was to wind the miners
down to work
Did they not tell you in school?"

If they just teach
of kings and queens;
of wars and ancient times
What will we know
of pits and coal;
Of working in the mines?

It's up to us
who lived the days
where memories are so clear
To keep alive the history;
don't let it disappear

The half-wheel's there
to remind us all
of the people of our town
They became our heritage
and we must not let them down.

(c) Tim Fellows 2017