Drinks Coasters and Beer Mats

I'm not 100% sure when and where I got this pair of drinks coasters. It might've been at the Norfolk Show at some time in the early 1980s. It also might have been. My dad would often pick these things up somewhere and give them to me.

In fact I've got a tub of drinks coasters, so here's a few more to delight/bore you.

The first one is a slate coaster from Wales, with a nice red dragon and the word Cymru (Wales). I got this whilst on a family holiday in Wales in the late 1980s.

To give the next one the correct terminology, it's a beer mat. Most of my "coasters" are actually beer mats. This is definitely I didn't personally obtain as it was way before I was legally allowed in the pub!  Given the loud tie and chunky sideburns I think it dates back to the 1970s.

The final one is from the Chatterley Whitfield Experience. Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal mine on the outskirts of Chell, Staffordshire in Stoke on Trent and I think this coaster/mat was picked up on a school trip, though it might've been on a family visit. I'm not sure.

The mine closed in 1977 and reopened in 1979 as a museum. In 1986 the Chatterley Whitfield Experience opened, a purpose built mining experience (apparently it had become unsage for visitors to visit the old underground workings of Chatterley Whitfield.). Sadly Chatterley Whitfield Museum closed in 1993, however, the site has been scheduled as an Ancient Monument by English Heritage and can now be visited on Heritage Open Days. If you want to find out more check out Chatterley Whitfield Friends

I may post a few more of the beer mat/coaster collection another time.