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View Full Version : Tower Collery, Hirwaun - March 08



sinnerman
05-11-2008, 11:14 AM
Ive been wanting to visit tower for a few months now but something has always got in the way finaly made it up, Have to thank the workers on site who were kind enough to let us on the the site and for permission to freely take photographs the only condition being we couldn't take the cameras in to the conriband zone around the top of the shaft.

The first collery at tower was small drift opened in 1864 it was named after a nearby folly, a second drift during the late 19th Centuary both of these are now buried beneith the colliery waste tips. Number 3 drift was sunk in 1920 this is also long abandoned and lost beneth the waste tips. The single shaft at tower (Tower No4) was sunk between 1941 and 1943 and became the main return vetillation shaft and for the transport of men. The bathhouse and lamphouse was constructed at the same time with the earlier lamphouse being converted into the colliery office a role they still serve today. At its peek in 1945 1048 men were employed at tower

In 1958 a new drift (New Tower No 3) was constructed between the shaft workings and a modern washery near the railway lines at Hirwaen. In 1966 the workings of Tower and Fernhill collery on the other side of Rhgos Mountain were merged into a single unit with the coal produced by both pits being surfaced at tower. A second merger took place in 1985 when Tower was linked to Maerdy Colliery in the Rhondda again the coal produced at both pits was surfaced at Tower. In 1990 Maerdy beacme the last pit in the Rhondda to close leaving Tower as a single colliery once again. Tower itself was closed on 22nd April 1994 in the run up to the privatisation of British Coal, however the local NUM lodge who were convinced of the long term viablity of the colliery pursuaded 200 of the former miners and management to pledge £2000 of their redundancy each into buying out the pit. during Conservative Party conference in October 1994 it was announced that the tower minners were the prefered bidders for the colliery and they marched back to work on 3rd January 1995. Since then the workers have proven that Tower really did have a future keeping the pit open and producing for a further 13 years exausting all of the reserves they could reach.

It was a pleasure to visit today a bit quiet on the weeken there were less than ten men on site, The majority of the men employed in salvaging equipment from under ground finished up on Friday, When asked how many men were still working we were told "Well we've still got our lodge so there must still be 30 of us". Unfortunallty because most of the underground work has been completed there was no one in the winding house or lamp room so we couldnt visit these today, but we still got to see the lamp room from the back corridor frustratingly behind bars.

But the real treat was the bath house still complete with naked miner " Go in There's still one in the showers but he won't give a F*%k". Seems unlikely the bathouse is going to be saved and work has already begun to salvage the lockers which are going over to Aberpergum Mine which is better than the scrappers. One other little room our guide insisted on showing us was the little Gym "We cant afford Gym Memberships so the boys all clubbed together to buy the equipment". Absolutley fabulous day I really do hope i'll get the chance to pop up again before its all to late. The Shaft was supposed to be capped and filled by friday but yesterday no one knew when that was going to happen but appaerntly the drift over at the washery has already had its first layer of concrete capping put in place.

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