Tower Colliery

Tower Colliery

Tower Colliery was the oldest continuously worked deep-coal mine in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world, and the only mine of its kind remaining in the South Wales Valleys. It is located near the village of Rhigos, north of the town of Aberdare in the Cynon Valley south Wales.

Colliery Buy-Out by Workers

The colliery was worked from 1805 until the late 1990s, when the Conservative government sought to close it down. In 1994, the constituency MP, Ann Clwyd staged a sit-in in the mine to protest its closure. She was accompanied by the late Glyndwr 'Glyn' Roberts (Senior) of Penywaun.

Later that year many of the original mineworkers banded together to purchase the colliery, led by local NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O'Sullivan. Philip Weekes, the renowned Welsh mining engineer, was a key advisor to the buy-out team and became (unpaid) Chairman of Goitre Tower Anthracite, the new company formed to run Tower Colliery. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1147641.ece Times online] ] The mine remained financially viable and continued to provide employment to the workers, in spite of the government's coal mining policy, which had forced the closure of the mine for reasons of economics. The colliery was until its closure, one of the largest employers in the Cynon Valley.

Closure

There has been talk of using machinery and manpower from Tower to boost production at the nearby Aberpergwm Colliery, a smaller mine closed by the National Coal Board in 1985 but reopened by a private concern in the mid 1990s. [Cite web
url = http://www.energybuild.co.uk/
title = Energybuild Home Page
accessdate = 2007-12-07
publisher = Energybuild Holdings]

The Aberdare branch of the Merthyr line continues north from Aberdare railway station to the colliery. While passenger services terminate in Aberdare, a freight services operates, several times a day, along this stretch of line, owned by the colliery.

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.Cite web
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7200432.stm
title = Coal mine closes with celebration
accessdate = 2008-01-25
publisher = BBC News]

The Site

There are plans to use the site of the colliery as a museum or to use the site as a tourism resort

References

External links

* [http://www1c.btwebworld.com/tower-coal/tmenu.html out-dated (1999?) Tower Colliery website with a good history]
* [http://www.towercolliery.co.uk/ newer Tower Colliery website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4653710.stm BBC News: Miner-owned pit faces closure]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tower Colliery — Ein Förderwagen steht vor der Vertriebsstelle der Tower Colliery Tower Colliery war die am längsten betriebene Kohlezeche in Großbritannien, möglicherweise auch der Welt, und ist die letzte noch erhaltene Zeche ihrer Art in Südwales. Tower… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Tower Colliery — …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Tower — (englisch Turm) bezeichnet: Tower (Luftfahrt), den Kontrollturm eines Flugplatzes Tower of London, Festung in London in der IT eine Ausführung von Computergehäusen Tower (Spiel), Gesellschaftsspiel von Piet Hein Tower ist der Familienname von… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mardy Colliery — was a coal mine located in the South Wales village of Maerdy (Welsh: Y 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 …   Wikipedia

  • Easington Colliery — infobox UK place country = England static static image caption = latitude = 54.78681 longitude = 1.32912 official name = Easington Colliery population = shire district= Easington shire county = County Durham region = North East England… …   Wikipedia

  • Agecroft Colliery — was a coalmine in the Agecroft district of Pendlebury, what is now part of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. First colliery (1844 1932) The colliery had two spells of usage, the first was between 1844 and 1932. The first pit was …   Wikipedia

  • Blackhall Colliery — is a village on the North Sea coast of County Durham, in England. It is situated on the A1086 between Horden and Hartlepool. To the south of the Blackhall Colliery s Catholic church is Blackhall Rocks. Built around the once extensive mining… …   Wikipedia

  • 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.[1] The colliery eventually had five shafts and …   Wikipedia

  • Kellingley Colliery — is one of the newest of the few deep coal mines left in Britain today. It is situated about 1 1/2 miles east of Knottingley in Yorkshire. Its siting was mainly influenced by the close proximity of road, rail and canal routes.Historyhaft sinking… …   Wikipedia

  • Mining in Wales — 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… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”