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Coal from the Valleys
For well over a hundred years the men of Wales have
toiled in the dark and dusty depths below the Welsh mountains. They tore
the hard anthracite coal from the heart of the earth so that the hungry
machines of the Industrial Age could produce wealth for their owners and
a meager living for those who operated them.
Through two World Wars the collieries of Wales provided much of the coal
needed to drive the steam turbines of the ships carrying men and supplies
to war.
In Post War Britain, Welsh coal burned to provide electricity for industry
and drive locomotives which hauled goods, steel, people, and more coal
across the land.
By the end of the twentieth century the Welsh coal industry had been decimated,
with only one mine left operational, and that because of the strength
and courage of the miners who once worked there and then bought the colliery.
These few pages are not intended to tell the story
of the struggles and strife the miners from the valleys endured, that
would take far more room and time. Instead they are to serve as a reminder
of the pits which once employed the hard working Welsh miners.
The pits these faded photographs show may have long since gone, but the
memories of their passing will take much longer to fade from the minds
of those who lived and worked in the coalfields of Wales.
We would like to express our extreme thanks to Jeff Harris who allowed
to use his photographs and information for the purpose of creating these
pages.
We also give many thanks to Stuart Tomlinson for his contributions of
photographs and historical facts. I urge all readers of these pages
to visit the Shropshire
Mines Trust site and support their efforts to record and preserve
the mining history of the people of Wales.
Abertysswg - Bargoed
- Bersham - Big
Pit - Britannia - Celynen
- Cwmtillery - Deep
Navigation
Elliots - Ferndale
- Groesfaen - Llanbradach
- Mardy - Marine
- Markham - Nantgarw
- Navigation - Oakdale
- Ogilvie - Old
Pit - Penalta - Pochin
- Point of Ayr - Rhymney
Merthyr
Senghenydd - Six
Bells - Taff Merthyr - Tower
- Wyllie