Tower Colliery near Hirwaun, last deep mine in Wales

From Rhondda Cynon Taff Wiki

Coal Dram stands proud outside Tower Colliery's Sales Office

Tower Colliery was the oldest continuously worked deep-coal mine in the United Kingdom, and possibly the world, until its closure in January 2008. It is located near the villages of Hirwaun and 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 protest 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. The mine has remained financially viable and has continued to provide employment to the workers, in an indictment upon the government's coal mining policy which had forced the closure of the mine for reasons of economics. The colliery is one of the largest employers in the Cynon Valley.

Philip Weekes the renowned Welsh mining 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.^[1]

Future developments

There has also 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.

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 closed on 25 January 2008.

Workers marched through the gates of the Colliery, and to Penywaun Welfare Club for a celebratory meal. It was in Penywaun Club in 1994 that the decision was made to buy the Colliery.

References

1. ↑ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1147641.ece

External links

• out-dated (1999?) Tower Colliery website with a good history
• newer but incomplete Tower Colliery website
• BBC News: Miner-owned pit faces closure
• Photos of Tower Colliery's Last Day