Mining in Wales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
A Welsh miner at Tower Colliery
A Welsh miner at Tower Colliery

Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century.

Wales was famous for its coal mining in the Rhondda Valley, the South Wales Valleys and throughout the South Wales coalfield and by 1913 the capital city of Cardiff had become the largest coal exporting port in the world, as coal was transported down by rail. Tower Colliery near Hirwaun is regarded by many as the oldest open coal mine and one of the largest in the world.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Coal mining

There is evidence of mining in the Blaenafon area going back to the 14th century, and there is evidence of mine workings at Mostyn as far back as 1261,[1] but it is believed to have been practised even as early as Roman times. The coal mining industry burgeoned throughout the Industrial Revolution and into the 19th century, when shafts were sunk to complement the open-cast mining and drift mining already exploiting the ample and obvious coal resources.

During the first half of the nineteenth century mining was often at the centre of working-class discontent in Wales, and a number of uprisings such as the Merthyr Rising in 1831 against employers were a characteristic of the Industrial Revolution in Wales, Dic Penderyn became a martyr to industrial workers. The Chartist movement and the 1839 Newport Rising showed the growing concerns and awareness of the work force of their value to the nation. Although the Mines Act of 1842 was meant to prevent women and boys under 10 years of age from working underground, it is believed to have been widely ignored. Much later, in the middle of the 20th century, mining was still a hazardous enterprise, resulting in many accidents and long term ill-health with many of Blaenavon's older citizens still suffering from silicosis and other mining related diseases.

Incorporating the existing Coity colliery and Kearsley's pit (sunk in 1860), the Big Pit ('Pwll Mawr' in the Welsh language) opened in 1880, so called because it was the first shaft in Wales large enough to allow two tramways. At the height of coal production, there were over 160 drift mines and over 30 shafts working the nine seams in the Blaenavon locality. Big Pit alone employed some 1300 men digging a quarter of a million tons of coal a year. Large amounts of coal were needed to supply the local ironworks, as it took 3 tons of coal to produce a ton of iron. Blaenafon 'steam' coal was of high quality and it was exported globally. Burning hotly while leaving minimum ash, it was ideal to power the steam engines that drove ships and railways across the world.

However both economics and politics after World War I with its resultant 1926 United Kingdom general strike, the 1930s Depression and later Nationalisation and the UK miners' strike (1984-1985) took their toll and all the smaller pits were either abandoned or swallowed into Big Pit's encroaching search for new seams. Finally in February 1980 the coal ran out and even Big Pit, then the oldest mine in Wales, had to close.

There are still nine headstocks remaining in Wales, including Big Pit (the metal frame erected in 1921 during the Miners' Strike of that year, to replace a wooden structure).

Big Pit museum at Blaenavon
Big Pit museum at Blaenavon

[edit] Big Pit National Coal Museum

The Big Pit National Coal Museum is located at Blaenavon, and in 2005 it won the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for museum of the year. It is one of only two remaining mines where it is possible for visitors to journey to the underground workings some 300 ft (90 m) below using the same cages that transported the miners.

[edit] Slate mining

See main article: Slate industry in Wales

North Wales also had a significant slate mining industry.

[edit] Gold mining

See main article: Welsh gold

[edit] Working mines

Following the UK miners' strike (1984-1985) the only two deep mines remained working in Wales. Tower Colliery, Hirwaun, had been run by a miner's co-operative since 1994. Due to dwindling coal seams, the colliery was last worked on January 18, 2008 and the official closure of the colliery occurred on January 25.[2] Mining continues at Aberpergwm Colliery, a smaller mine closed by the National Coal Board in 1985 but reopened in 1996. Several other small mines still exist, including the Blaentillery drift mine near to the Big Pit National Coal Museum.

[edit] List of mines in Wales

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

[edit] Coal

[edit] Metal ores

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell; Thomas Pennant, 1796, p.133
  2. ^ Coal mine closes with celebration. BBC News. Retrieved on 2008-01-25.

[edit] External links