Calvert's Engine or the Newbridge Colliery Engine is a beam engine of 1845, now preserved on the campus of the University of Glamorgan, South Wales. [1]
Calvert's Engine or the Newbridge Colliery Engine is a beam engine of 1845, now preserved on the campus of the University of Glamorgan, South Wales. [1]
Newbridge Colliery [2] in Gelliwion, Pontypridd was sunk in 1844. [3] Its owner was John Calvert (1812–1890), [4] a Yorkshireman, who would give his name to this engine. Calvert had previously been a railway contractor, the major contractor of the Taff Vale Railway, but after his initial distrust of Wales [5] he remained in the area once the line opened and switched to mining. The winding engine was installed in 1845, in which year production began from the 55 yard No.3 Rhondda seam. [4]
Winding was carried out with an iron flat chain, with wooden blocks through the links. [6] The winding engine also powered the water pump for draining the mine. [7] The pump was at the bottom of the shaft, worked by a vertical pump rod and linked to the engine by a 'tee bob'. [6] Ventilation was by the bratticed split-shaft furnace method and so there was no fan engine for ventilation. [lower-roman 1] Later the winding chain was replaced by rope. [6] Steam was supplied from an egg-ended boiler at a pressure of between 8–10 pounds per square inch (55–69 kPa ). [6]
The original engine was built in 1845 by the Varteg Ironworks [8] of Cwmavon, near Blaenavon. [lower-roman 2] This was the first steam winding engine to be installed in the Rhondda valley. [7]
The cylinder was replaced in 1861 by Brown, Lenox and Co. [9] of Newbridge Works, Pontypridd. [10] This new cylinder was of 26.5 inches (670 mm) bore, 5 feet (1.5 m) stroke. Although the original bore is unknown, the stroke remained the same, as the crank was unchanged. Reversing is by slip eccentric and gab valve gear.
Similar engines were used for winding at both Glyn Pits and at Calvert's second pit, Gyfeillion, which would become the Great Western Colliery. [6] Other dual-purpose engines were used at Welsh collieries at this time, but later it became more usual to use separate engines for each purpose. [6]
By 1869, ownership of the mine had passed to the Fowler Brothers. In 1880 it was owned by the Newbridge and Rhondda Coal Company. Later the Crawshay family owned it. [11]
At the end of the colliery's working, the Inspector of Mines' list of 1896 shows 489 employed there. The colliery closed in 1897 and the shaft was abandoned. [lower-roman 3] [11]
The engine and winding house lay derelict. A widely known postcard of 1912 shows the hose overgrown with ivy, but the engine beam still in place. [11] [12] There is some question as to when the engine finally worked. The 1897 closure is well documented, but many sources also state that the engine was last worked in 1919. [7] It is not clear if this is an error, in either direction, or that the engine was re-started for a time, possibly during World War I and then closed soon after.
In 1913 a School of Mines was established for the Welsh coalfield. [13] The school was owned and funded by the Welsh coal owners, through a levy of one tenth of a penny on each ton of coal produced by the companies involved. [13] This South Wales and Monmouthshire School of Mines [lower-roman 4] was based in Forest House, built by the Crawshay family on the site of Fforest Isaf farm at Trefforest, Pontypridd. [14] It served the large coal mining industry in the South Wales Valleys.
Around 1920 the engine was removed from the derelict colliery and re-erected nearby in the grounds of the School of Mines. [15] This was a historical exhibit, more than a practical instruction. Engines of this type were thoroughly obsolete by this time. Although the last Cornish beam engines had been installed only a few years earlier, [lower-roman 5] these were pumping engines, not rotative beam engines like this for winding.
The school went through several different names and statuses over the years. Most recently it was the University of Glamorgan, now part of the University of South Wales.
Surprisingly, Calvert's Engine is not listed in Crowley (1982), usually considered as one of the first standard works of modern-era steam preservation for such engines. [16]
South Wales is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales. The Brecon Beacons National Park covers about a third of south Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest British mountain south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia.
Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales. A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales. The site is dedicated to operational preservation of the Welsh heritage of coal mining, which took place during the Industrial Revolution.
Dinas is a village near Tonypandy in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Dinas is often referred to as Dinas Rhondda to avoid confusion with Dinas Powys in the Vale of Glamorgan. The word dinas in Modern Welsh means "city", but here it means "hill fort".
Cwmavon is a hamlet about 2 miles south of Blaenavon and 4 miles north of Pontypool. The hamlet is part of the community of Abersychan in the county borough of Torfaen in south east Wales, and is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Upper Boat is a village on the southernmost outskirts of the town of Pontypridd, within the electoral ward of Hawthorn, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, and comprises part of the Treforest Industrial Estate. Historically part of Glamorgan, it fell within the parish of Eglwysilan.
Rhondda Heritage Park, Trehafod, Rhondda, South Wales, is a tourist attraction which offers an insight into the life of the coal mining community that existed in the area until the 1980s.
Crawshay Bailey was an English industrialist who became one of the great iron-masters of Wales.
Hafodyrynys is a village on the A472 road between Pontypool and Crumlin in Caerphilly county borough, south-east Wales. It lies within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire.
Cilfynydd is a village in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, a mile from the South Wales Valleys town of Pontypridd, and 13 miles north of the capital city, Cardiff. Cilfynydd is also an electoral ward for the county council and Pontypridd Town Council.
Hopkinstown is a small village to the west of Pontypridd in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, alongside the River Rhondda. Hopkinstown is a former coalmining and industrial community, now a district in the town of Pontypridd within the Rhondda electoral ward. Neighbouring settlements are Pwllgwaun, Trehafod and Pantygraigwen, and the sub-districts of Troed-Rhiw-Trwyn and Gyfeillion.
Richard Griffiths (1756–1826) was a Welsh industrial pioneer. Griffiths is notable for building the first recognised transport links into the Rhondda Valley paving the way for future coal exploration into one of the world's richest coal fields.
Maerdy Colliery was a coal mine located in the South Wales village of Maerdy, in the Rhondda Valley, located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened in 1875, it closed in December 1990.
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.
Rhondda Cynon Taf is a county borough in South Wales. It is located to the north-west of Cardiff and covers an area of 424 km2 (164 sq mi). In 2021 the population was approximately 237,500.
Coalbrookvale is a village in the Ebbw Valley in Blaenau Gwent. It belongs in the community of Nantyglo and Blaina.
The Cymmer Colliery explosion occurred in the early morning of 15 July 1856 at the Old Pit mine of the Cymmer Colliery near Porth, Wales, operated by George Insole & Son. The underground gas explosion resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country" in which 114 men and boys were killed. Thirty-five widows, ninety-two children, and other dependent relatives were left with no immediate means of support.
