Tower Colliery

Coordinates: 51°43′37″N 3°33′18″W / 51.727°N 3.555°W / 51.727; -3.555 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 villages of Hirwaun and Rhigos, north of the town of Aberdare in the Cynon Valley south Wales.

[edit] History

With coal located so close to the surface, it was known by locals to be possible to drift mine coal from Hirwaun common. This activity increased from 1805, until in 1864 the first drift named Tower was started, named after the nearby Crawshay's Tower, a folly built in 1848 and named for Richard Crawshay.^[1]

In 1941, a new shaft was sunk to a depth of 160metres. From 1943 until closure, this shaft was used as the main "return" ventilation shaft and for the transport of men. In 1958 Tower No. 3 was driven to meet the No. 4 colliery workings, and was used as the main "intake" airway, conveying coal to the surface and transporting materials into the mine working areas.^[1]

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

[edit] British Coal closure

Post the 1984/5 UK Miner's strike, the Conservative government authorised British Coal to close the majority of the UK's deep mines on economic grounds, including Tower.

In October 1993 the red flag was raised on Hirwaun common as a symbol of unity between workers of Tower Colliery during a march to commemorate the Merthyr Rising in 1831, and highlight the plight of their own pit.^[2] In 1994, the constituency MP, Ann Clwyd staged a sit-in in the mine to protest its closure, accompanied by the late Glyndwr 'Glyn' Roberts (Senior) of Penywaun.

British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22 April 1994 on the grounds that it would be uneconomic in current market conditions to continue production.^[2]

[edit] Colliery Buy-Out by Workers

Coal Dram stands outside the Tower Colliery's sales office

Led by local NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O'Sullivan, 239 miners joined TEBO (Tower Employees Buy-Out), with each pledging £8,000 from their redundancy payouts to buy back Tower. Against stiff central government resistance to the possibility of reopening the mine as a coal production unit, a price of £2million was eventually agreed.^[2]

With their bid accepted, the miners marched back to the pit on January 2, 1995, with a balloon inflated for each worker. On January 3, 1995 the Colliery re-opened under the ownership of the workforce buy out company Goitre Tower Anthracite.^[2] Philip Weekes, the renowned Welsh mining engineer, was a key advisor to the buy-out team and became (unpaid) Chairman.^[3]

[edit] Operations

Up to 14 coal seams had been worked at Tower Colliery during its history, and the neighbouring mines within the lease area of Tower, which was 14.8km in circumference to create an area of 221.3 hectares.^[4] The actual boundaries of the lease were defined either by faults or seam splits in the local geostructure, or excess water to the northwest in the Bute seam.^[5] The seams produced good quality coking coal, which was washed onsite at a coal washing plant built in the mid-1980s, after extraction through the hillside on a conveyor belt.^[5]

Although the mine remained financially viable and continued to provide employment to the workers, by the time of the buyout the only seam worked at Tower was the Seven Feet/Five Feet, a combined seam of several leaves which offered 1.3m of anthracite in a mined section of 1.65m.^[5] Working directly under the shaft of the former Glyncorrwg Colliery's "nine feet" workings,^[4] the four faces worked in the western section of the lease were considered uneconomic by British Coal.

As the worked seam reduced in capacity, the management team considered three possibilities to extended the length of mine production:^[5]

• Work another nine faces in the existing workings, in coal classed only as mineral potential
• Address the water problem in the Bute seam, to the northwest
• Open new developments in the Nine Feet seam, 100m above the existing seam; the Four Feet seam, a further 30m above

But none of these prospects seemed economic, so the board recommended that work be concentrated on coal to the north of the existing workings, which had been left to protect the safety of the existing shafts. Accepted by the workforce and shareholders in an open vote, this decision effectively accepted the end of Tower as a deep mine.^[5]

[edit] Second closure

Having mined out the northern coal extracts, the colliery was last worked on January 18, 2008 and the official closure of the colliery occurred on January 25.^[6] The colliery was until its closure, one of the largest employers in the Cynon Valley.

[edit] The Site today

The shareholders are still debating the future of the site, which they eventually wish to have developed to leave a legacy for the area which provides employment. They are presently discussing plans and options with several potential partners.

The possibility of additional revenues exist, with residual coal stocks probably best extracted via open cast mining. 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.^[7]

Eventually there are plans to develop the site, with combinations of housing, industrial estate, industrial heritage museum or tourism resort being debated.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Old Tower Colliery website with a good history
• newer Tower Colliery website
• BBC News: Miner-owned pit faces closure
• The Pit and the Pendulum: Book that explores co-operative economics in Wales, focusing on Tower Collier