Here goes....
The print “Fete in celebration of "winning the coal" on the Rhondda branch of the Taff Vale railway”, Wales, 1851 is by an Unknown artist and is a print from the "Illustrated London News", 23 August 1851 edition.
The exploration of the Rhondda was undertaken by the Bute Trustees who were the agents of the third Marques of Bute. The Marques not only owned large tracts of valley farmland but had a large financial interest in the Cardiff Docks which could export the coal. The trustees sank the Bute Merthyr Colliery in October 1851, at the top of the Rhondda Fawr in what would become Treherbert. The Bute Merthyr was the first working steam coal colliery in the Rhondda.
In conjunction with the sinking of the first deep colliery above, the second issue of transportation was sorted with the extension of the Taff Vale Railway line. After Royal Assent was given to construct the railway in 1836, the original line was laid from Cardiff to Abercynon, by 1841 a branch was open linking Cardiff with Dinas via Pontypridd.
In 1849 the TVR had extended into the Rhondda Fach and by 1856 the railway had reached the furthest areas of both the Fach and Fawr valleys at Maerdy and Treherbert. For the first time the Rhondda Valley was connected by a major transportation route to the rest of Wales and the exploitation of its coalfields could begin as with the sinking Bute Merthyr Colliery.
So given the above, the first steam coal winning would certainly have been celebrated in this way.
Hope that’s OK :thumbup:
Regards ICLOK
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh Creeper!!!!!