Gleison Licensed Mine, Glamorgan - May 08

[sinnerman]

Gleison Licensed mine has been operating high on the hillside above the Tawe Valley since at least the later 1970's producing house coal. The mine consits of two open adits diving into the hilside the main adit constructed of Arch girders was for most used for most of the mines life as the main entry and exit point connected to 2' gauge dram rails. It also provided the main dranage and ventalation point for the mine. The second Adit is at 90 degrees to the main adit droping steeply into the hillside, it was primarily used as an emergancy exit although it is fitted with a convayor. Underground the mine has extensive workings linking into some older colliery workings around Seven Sisters in the next valley .

The Mine was operated S&T Fuels a father and son outfit between 1997 and 2004, working the 2'6" Ynysarwed Seem using a modified Pillar and stall system. The face workers had to work kneeling or lieing down at the face cutting the coal by drilling and blasting within their stall and then removing the fractured coal by pick where it was hand loaded on to a panzer convayor running along the face to loading point on the main roadway here a miner controlled the flow of coal into drams. Once a Journey of six drams was filled it was then hauled out of the adit by a diesel haulage engine to the tipplers on the surface where it could be processed. The mine produced 200 tonnes of coal per week which was hauled away from the mine in a 15 tonne lorry making 6 trips a day. Gleison employed seven men including the owner until it license expired 2004.

The mine was put up for sale buy its owners who like many South Wales miners found new employement reinforcing the stone mines under Bath. A new license to work Gleison was issued to Coal Direct Ltd of Neath in november 2007 and by the looks of it some progress has been made in requiping the mine to re open a lot of old equipment is lying around in the colliery yard and new electrical cable has been installed in the drift but it seems like it might be some time before any coal is extracted.

After seeing Dweeb's report on the mine last week i knew i had to go soon, The last open drift i visited was capped just weeks after my report appeared on 28days. So Dreamworx and Pob popped round this morning and off we went, Our visit to the mine today was delayed trying to get this little beauty working, took a while to figure out how to access the filler cap but once we'd poped it open and got some lamp oil for B&Q the wick lit first time amazing when you concider the last time the lamp was used was 1974 and the only maintence its had since then is the regular dusting my mother gave it.



After a long climb up the hill side whe reached the mine site finding the old drams crushed and lying in a heep obviously the new owners didnt have a use for them. The engine house has also been demolished the previous operators sold of their haulage engine after the left, We spent a little bit of time looking around on the surface before heading down the second conveyor adit which was excavated during the early 80's. Wood lined all the way it really got cramped in placed causing us to double over, There were a series of side workings as we went down but we ignored these and followed the main roadway. Climbing back out was hard work dont know what the slope is on the drift but its bloody steep and with lower oxygen levels underground the climb back up was very hard work i was knackered when we regained the surface. After that we just took a breif look at the main adit didnt go in to far today as i was purley knackered will get back for a better look soon when i've sttoped the 20 a day habit. A lot of the pics will be very similar to dweebs but hell there's very few ways you can photograph a mine passage.

The Drams


Main Adit




Just inside the entrance the wooden wall is to improve the vetilation


Fan Exaust


Fan Intake


After a short distance the girders are replaced by wooden props


The Second Adit




Convayor controls




Ventilation Door




And the lamp as it was intended


The Powder Store

[croiz]

I'm loving all your underground stuff! Cheers!

[ERNIE99_UK]

You have quite a nice collection of mine related pictures. When there all gone it will be a good archive.

[sinnerman]

cheers guys have quite a few more to post up but i dont want to swamp the the froum with all my old reports on the same day, besided got to spread out the little bit of stuff ive got to keep my mind busy while im off work or heaven forbid i may have to watch jeremey kyle ARRRRRGGGGHHHH

[KingElvis]

Really nice, I love the second shot up from the bottom, looks like The Temple of Doom

[davidwilliams130]

just to let you know that this mine is back in production again. i called up there a few weeks back and had a chat with the owner i drove the new drift down there in the mid 80s just after the miners strike .

[Cuban Bloodhound]

Looks a great mine to explore with a lot of variety inside

[sinnerman]

Apparently it's up and working again now. wish i'd spent a little more time there in hindsight.

[davidwilliams130]

Apparently it's up and working again now. wish i'd spent a little more time there in hindsight.

if you email me i can give u the mines phone no the owner seemed a tidy bloke i am sure if you asked him he would take you dowb the mine to have a look around but i dont think you would be able to take any photos though becouse of gases .as i remember there was quite a bit of gas there .when i was there

[davidwilliams130]

Apparently it's up and working again now. wish i'd spent a little more time there in hindsight.

if you email me i can give u the mines phone no the owner seemed a tidy bloke i am sure if you asked him he would take you down the mine to have a look around but i dont think you would be able to take any photos though becouse of gases .as i remember there was quite a bit of gas there .when i was there