 Abercynon Colliery in 1973 | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
  Abercynon Colliery  Abercynon Colliery  Abercynon Colliery | |
| Location | Abercynon |
| Country | Wales, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°38′19″N3°19′42″W / 51.6385°N 3.3284°W Coordinates: 51°38′19″N3°19′42″W / 51.6385°N 3.3284°W |
| Production | |
| Type | Coal |
| History | |
| Opened | 1889 |
| Closed | 1988 |
Abercynon Colliery was a coal mine located in Abercynon, South Wales. Opened in 1889, it closed in 1988.
The colliery was developed at a cost of £270,000 from 1889, by the Dowlais Iron Company, to feed a new steel works in Cardiff. [1] Initially known as the Dowlais Cardiff Colliery, the two shafts were sunk to the Nine Feet coal seam at depths of 740 yards (680 m) (South - upcast) and 753 yards (689 m) (North - downcast).
Eighteen men lost their lives during development, including eight on 23 January 1893 and six on 9 September 1895. An underground haulage accident on 28 April 1906 cost the lives of five men. [1]
In 1903 the pit passed into the hands of Guest Keen and Nettlefolds Ltd, at which point it employed 2,502 men. By 1923 the colliery was producing from the Six Feet, Nine Feet and Upper Four Feet seams, employing 2,794 men. In 1931 it was taken over by Welsh Associated Collieries, who were absorbed into Powell Duffryn Company Ltd. in 1936. [1]
Nationalisation took place on 1 January 1947, but the returning miners wanted better conditions, and many choose to commute to work at the newly developed Treforest Trading Estate. Now only employing 1,100 men, the vacancies were in part filled by displaced and stateless Europeans, but even special allowances did not fulfil the labour needs of the mines. [2]
Following development of the A470 in the late 1960s, its distinct winding head gear in blue with very long backstays supported by transitional struts, became a distinct welcoming sign for travellers towards Merthyr Tydfil.
The winding engines were some of the most powerful in the South Wales coalfield. The South had a single electric motor producing 1600 hp and the North had a twin drive system which had a rating of 3200 hp.
In March 1975, it was linked underground via two parallel tunnels with Lady Windsor Colliery, which was situated on the other side of the mountain in Ynysybwl, [2] to form a single production unit at a cost of £450,000. Coal was raised at the Lady Windsor end of the unit from a depth of 687 yards, with 1,150 men were producing 318,000 tons yearly from Six feet, Lower Nine feet and Seven feet seams. [3] By 1981 manpower deployment broke down to 216 on development, 292 on the coalface, 342 underground and 305 on the surface. [4]
The Lady Windsor Lodge assumed a leading role in the 1985/86 UK Miner's Strike, but on return to work the unit managed an impressive recovery obtaining 98% of expected output within a month. [4]
The Lady Windsor/Abercynon unit was closed by British Coal in February 1988, [4] with an estimated 25 years of workable coal left. [2]
Seven Sisters is a village and community the Dulais Valley, Wales, UK. It lies 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Neath. Seven Sisters falls within the Seven Sisters ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough.
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stages in 1840 and 1841.
Ynysybwl is a village in Cwm Clydach in Wales. It is situated in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, roughly 15 miles (24 km) north-north-west of Cardiff, 4 miles (6 km) north of Pontypridd and 16 miles (26 km) south of Merthyr Tydfil, and forms part of the community of Ynysybwl and Coed-y-Cwm.
Abercynon, is both a village and a community in the Cynon Valley within the unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The community comprises the village and the districts of Carnetown and Grovers Field to the south, Navigation Park to the east, and Glancynon to the north.
Nantgarw is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, near Cardiff.
Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It was key to the Industrial Revolution.
Cefn Coed Colliery Museum is a former coal mine, now operating as a museum. It is located at Crynant near Neath in the South Wales Valleys.
Bedwas Navigation Colliery was a coal mine in the small Welsh village of Bedwas, two miles (3.2 km) north of Caerphilly. The colliery opened in 1913, and closed after the miners' strike of 1984-85.
Penallta Colliery was a coal mine, located close to Hengoed in the Rhymney Valley in the South Wales Valleys. A coal mine which in 1935 held the European record for coal wound in a 24-hour period, it is now the site of an original redevelopment project which will make use of the former pit head buildings.
Nantgarw Colliery was a coal mine and later developed Coking coal works, located in the village on Nantgarw, Mid Glamorgan, Wales located just north of Cardiff.
Windsor Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Abertridwr, Caerphilly.
Lady Windsor Colliery was a coal mine located in the village of Ynysybwl in South Wales. Opened in 1884, it closed in 1988, 104 years later.
The Llancaiach Branch railway line was a mineral branch line in Glamorganshire, South Wales. It was authorised in 1836 as part of the Taff Vale Railway, and its purpose was to connect collieries at Llancaiach and bring their output to Cardiff for onward shipment. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and built on the standard gauge. It opened in 1841 from a junction with the Merthyr line immediately south of Abercynon. It was intended to be horse worked, and included a self-acting rope-worked inclined plane near the junction. The collieries were slow to use the line, preferring their customary use of a tramroad and the Glamorganshire Canal, and the value of the line was diminished when the Taff Vale Extension line, an east-west connecting line belonging to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway, intersected it and cut off the colliery connections, and the line became dormant.
Six Bells Colliery was a colliery located in Six Bells, Abertillery, Gwent, Wales. On 28 June 1960 it was the site of an underground explosion which killed 45 of the 48 miners working in that part of the mine. It is now the site of the artistically acclaimed Guardian memorial to those events, designed by Sebastian Boyesen; although the memorial primarily commemorates those who died at Six Bells, it is dedicated to all mining communities wherever they may be.
Mosley Common Colliery was a coal mine originally owned by the Bridgewater Trustees operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1866 in Mosley Common, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. The colliery eventually had five shafts and became the largest colliery on the Lancashire Coalfield with access to around 270 million tons of coal under the Permian rocks to the south.
The Tarenni Colliery and its associated workings, are a series of coal mines and pits located between the villages of Godre'r Graig and Cilybebyll located in the valley of the River Tawe, in Neath Port Talbot county borough, South Wales.
Deep Navigation Colliery was a coal mine in South Wales, that operated from 1872 until 1991.
Great Western Mine, also known as Hetty Pit, was a coal mine, at Hopkinstown, near Pontypridd, Glamorgan in South Wales.
Bwllfa Colliery was a coal mine located in the Dare valley near Cwmdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. It operated from 1856 to 1957, remaining open as a ventilation shaft for Mardy Colliery until 1989.
The Ynysybwl branch line railway, formally known as the Clydach Valley Branch, was opened by the Taff Vale Railway company in 1885 to serve collieries that were expected to open in the Clydach Valley, Glamorganshire, South Wales. The branch line made a junction with the main line of the Taff Vale Railway at Stormstown, between Pontypridd and Abercynon. In fact the colliery development was limited, but the Lady Windsor Colliery became productive in 1886 and had a large output.