Fair play to him, hope the powers that be leave it up there

http://www.wrexham.com/news/miners-memorial-becomes-new-icon-of-wrexhams-skyline-112283.html 

---

Good on him, I hope they save the tip as well, too many have already disappeared and they are, after all, fitting tributes to the men who grafted them out.

---

I have been convinced right from the very start that the ultimate reason for removing the tip was to build houses on cheap land.
I am not the only one with these thoughts.

Interestingly, I've just been on the CA mapping website.
Bersham does not seem to exist on there : no shafts listed, no filling or capping of shafts, etc.

One hell of an oversight !

---

Good on him, I hope they save the tip as well, too many have already disappeared and they are, after all, fitting tributes to the men who grafted them out.

What he said.

Many local's think this is the intention.

---

Just driven past the site, it looks good to me! 🙂

---

Who is it that wants the tip removed ? :devil::devil:

---

Who is it that wants the tip removed ? :devil::devil:

Someone bought the tip to remove and sell the burnt shale some years back. Some test drilling or digging was done.
Since then nothing has happened other than the consent being renewed. Many suspect that the whole plan was to build houses on the site once cleared.

Thanks rufenig for the information. Why are people so Hell bent on destroying what remains of our mining heritage? Corrupt and/or ignorant Planners plus fat brown envelopes being passed around, and the entire sketch liberally sprinkled with lots of ££££££££££££££'s.

Yes - off the meds. again !:guns:

---

I wondered what the large group scaling the heap at the weekend was up to!

On the other matter.... Wrexham council won't rest until everything from our past has been swept away, either by turning a blind eye, or deliberately removing funding and letting it quietly disappear.

---

Thanks rufenig for the information. Why are people so Hell bent on destroying what remains of our mining heritage? Corrupt and/or ignorant Planners plus fat brown envelopes being passed around, and the entire sketch liberally sprinkled with lots of ££££££££££££££'s.

Yes - off the meds. again !:guns:

I presume it's because mining is "dirty" and manual, and not at all the modern, metropolitan image they seem to want to project, despite the fact that it's forcing a profile on the place that simply does not fit. There's also huge scope for kickbacks, property deals etc, none of which would surprise me, given the shenanigans that some of the council get up to.

---

I wondered what the large group scaling the heap at the weekend was up to!

On the other matter.... Wrexham council won't rest until everything from our past has been swept away, either by turning a blind eye, or deliberately removing funding and letting it quietly disappear.

Yes, that seems to be true. The Minera Lead Mines visitors centre seems to be closed, unloved and locked up these days... Was there a few weeks ago and was disappointed. Was really good a couple of years ago with waterwheel worked buddles and much of interest to mining historians...

---

Those Germans know how to use their slag heaps.

http://www.ruhr-tourismus.de/en/cities-in-the-ruhr-area/bottrop/tetraeder-bottrop-tetrahedron.html 

http://www.halden.ruhr/landschaftspark-hoheward.html 

Both very impressive places and well worth a visit, especially at night.

Interestingly, I've just been on the CA mapping website.
Bersham does not seem to exist on there : no shafts listed, no filling or capping of shafts, etc.

One hell of an oversight !

Is that not Bersham just south of Rhosttyllen on the north side of the railway? They show two shafts there with filling details but the date is given as 1977 - maybe the location, etc. is right but they've put the Hafod date down on there as well.

I have been convinced right from the very start that the ultimate reason for removing the tip was to build houses on cheap land.
I am not the only one with these thoughts.

i agree, you only have to compare with whats happened in south wales, major and minor tips removed/landscaped, building of housing estates super markets, industrial estates,they do leave the odd head frame wheel to commemorate, over two hundred years of labour of a self sustaining community,i just some how dont do justice to the mining communities.

on the other paw people dont want to live next to a waste coal tips, albeit they may not of been introduced to ways of keeping tips and cosmetically making them more pleasing to the eye, without destroying them,EU money seemed to flood into the valleys in the 80s for landscaping and shaft covering, alot of these shafts were treated in a shoddy manner,ave reopened, in my eyes during the 80s and ongoing there was a relentless push to obliterate any former signs of mining, even people talking on forums like this gave/give the coal authority a heads up to were missed workings still existed, and were promptly dealt with before at the very least they could be recorded,

another point is why destroy a whole infrastructure when there are mineral reserves still in the ground, filling main engine shafts and allowing the rest to flood,i belive at some point they will be scratching there heads at the damage that has been done,

im not against a pleasant environment for people to live, after all its the people who live and breath in these areas should have the final say, but the whole sale destruction of the heritage and infrastructure with cheap money from the EU was wrong, rushed and ill thought through,

In south Wales the greater proportion of colliery tips were removed in the decade following the Aberfan disaster in 1966. Tip removals / landscaping from the 1980s onwards were, in comparison, more of a mopping-up exercise. The degree of public outcry in south Wales about tips following Aberfan was, understandably, enormous.

The great majority of shafts in south Wales were filled / capped by the NCB long before EU money was available, and the decision to fill major shafts was made by the NCB. By the 1970s this was such a mainstream activity of the NCB that they produced a lengthy instruction manual on how to fill and cap shafts.

Reverting to north east Wales, it has long struck me as one of the UK coalfields whose local authorities have tried the hardest (and largely succeeded) in removing almost every trace of the former mining industry and in reinventing the area as an extension of the economically prosperous Chester / Cheshire / etc region. I suspect that the Bersham Colliery shale tip is probably widely perceived in north east Wales as the last major coal mining blot on the area's landscape waiting to be removed.

Not just coal mining. Considering that the last of the Flintshire lead mines closed in the 1970s, there is almost nothing visible in terms of surface remains.
People who don't know the history of the area are quite shocked when they find out about the amount of mining and dewatering that went on. The Milwr tunnel in particular is met with general disbelief, and an attitude of "You're pulling my leg, a tunnel from the sea to Loggerheads !"

---

In south Wales the greater proportion of colliery tips were removed in the decade following the Aberfan disaster in 1966. Tip removals / landscaping from the 1980s onwards were, in comparison, more of a mopping-up exercise. The degree of public outcry in south Wales about tips following Aberfan was, understandably, enormous.

The great majority of shafts in south Wales were filled / capped by the NCB long before EU money was available, and the decision to fill major shafts was made by the NCB. By the 1970s this was such a mainstream activity of the NCB that they produced a lengthy instruction manual on how to fill and cap shafts.

Reverting to north east Wales, it has long struck me as one of the UK coalfields whose local authorities have tried the hardest (and largely succeeded) in removing almost every trace of the former mining industry and in reinventing the area as an extension of the economically prosperous Chester / Cheshire / etc region. I suspect that the Bersham Colliery shale tip is probably widely perceived in north east Wales as the last major coal mining blot on the area's landscape waiting to be removed.

the was no onus on the then NCB to clear /make safe any tips, the legislation of the time the 1954 mines and quarries act had very little to say about HAS apart from fencing old workings, the act was amended in 69 to include waste spoil and little was done till the health and safety act of 1974, it was the thatcher government that applied and got the remaining dumps removed from aberfan, along with the then minister for wales who coughed up the cash, not on health and safety reasons, but as he put it, "that they constitute a psychological, emotional danger"dump removal was not wide spread in the 70s compared with the 80s, it was more of a case of working with the FC to plant a few trees which they also did at aberfan

comparing pit closures in the 70s to the 80s is ridiculous a hundred and thirty odd closed in the seventies and 60s for very different reasons,the 60s and 70s saw pit closures because man power was lacking, relative very good prospects in other industries, close by, and the concentration on super pits not just in south wales but across the uk, the long life pits in south wales at this time were struggling to find men, and new pits and recommissioning pits was still happening, the whole sale destruction of mining in wales in the 80s was political, the men thought for there livelihoods, and there children's livelihoods , the employment prospects had dramatically changed over a decade,they could not just jump into another industry as before,

Not just coal mining. Considering that the last of the Flintshire lead mines closed in the 1970s, there is almost nothing visible in terms of surface remains.
People who don't know the history of the area are quite shocked when they find out about the amount of mining and dewatering that went on. The Milwr tunnel in particular is met with general disbelief, and an attitude of "You're pulling my leg, a tunnel from the sea to Loggerheads !"

Absolutely, there were two proposals to have mining 'museums' 1. At Olwen Goch and 2. At North Henblas.

Olwen Goch would have been on the lines of Big Pit... :(

Regrettably neither came to fruition. The best that can be done is become friendly with someone from Grosvenor CC and get on one of their infrequent trips into the Milwr Tunnel...

---