who: Dave G
where: South Wales
when: 1st June 2013

A link to the photo album

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=77d1594ed8806127#cid=77D1594ED8806127&id=77D1594ED8806127 !26288

Steve G's grand tour of south wales collieries - 1st June 2013

Well industrial archaeology of the south wales coalfield is not really my thing as I have always regarded coal mines as off limits because of bad air and so there was no chance of getting underground. No worries on this trip as it was a series of surface visits to south wales collieries. I went along as the weather was good, the enthusiasm of Steve was great, and I reasoned that I would visit places that I would never have dreamt of visiting. I was not disappointed, it was a fantastic day out but it did turn into something of an urban exploration trip with a little light history thrown in.

Steve G list eventually caused us to visit

* British Engine House at Abersychan
* Glyn Pits
* Crumlin Navigation Colliery
* Penallta Colliery
* Elliot Colliery Winding House
* GelliFedi Farm Brynna

With only one location beating our convoy of cars which took us up winding single lane tracks up Welsh mountains causing havoc with the local traffic.

British Engine House at Abersychan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abersychan 
was a large site just outside PontyPool and we could or should have spent the whole day here. It was a fantastic day and the mountains were great and there was a disused railway to follow.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iron_Company  with a complex of large and small collieries surrounding it. ( you might want to google "ernies railway archive talywain" so see what the railway route we will follow looked like 40 years ago!)

Steve explained that this site was once responsible for 70 percent of the iron produced in Britain at the time and was big business. Also given the importance of coal in the area - the iron works came first and coal was developed later.




Some tantalising remains: our guess was this was means of tightening a couple of cables.


We went urbex and explored the old head quarters of the British Iron Company.

Sadly just derelict


We then got back in our cars and headed up the valley getting very lost. But we did visit several other sites at Abersychan


Inside looks very urban


Some interesting original features in the engine house


Steve was determined to find some of the earliest features


and even got excited about some bricks


After many adventures in the car we found ourselves looking down upon this chimney and the valley above Abersychan


A capped shaft with a tree growing out of it. This is quite common in corsham way too - the shaft was capped and then trees planted to
bind the earth together.


Glyn pits

http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Gwent/GlynPits.htm  is very famous and is a national monument.

http://anarchadia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/cornish-engine-in-wales-glyn-pits-near.html 

A Cornish style beam engine driving a water pump built by the Neath Abbey Ironworks that's been in its engine house since 1845.
The construction of the iron work joints follow wood work practice that was familiar at the time. The engine is actually an integral part of the building and cannot be separated. So we are left with an engine house and the original engine. Fantastic


plenty of other photos
http://quercus.livejournal.com/122977.html#beam_engine 

But here are some photos of the engine inside








The vertical winding house is also unusual










Crumlin Navigation Colliery

A complete pit was around 1910 minus its head gear.











Nature reclaiming


Some interesting artefacts






Penallta Colliery

The view as you approach this site is awesome. The two enormous winding engines dominate the scene. The site is now
being developed with new houses and new businesses giving the area a look of prosperity.



Most of the remains from Penallta date post-nationalisation 1948+ and once the colliery provided work for 2000 men.
Behind the two winding wheels is the engine house. It is enormous.

Lots of stuff on Penalta colliery wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penallta_Colliery 

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/industrial-sites/56782-penallta-colliery-south-wales-2011-a.html 

http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/GlamEast/Penallta.htm 









Looking inside the engine house


The back of the engine house




Lamp room


Notice the arches in the engine house in line with the winding wheels


Shower block


Lamp room closer




-Elliot Colliery Winding House


The wheels still move although powered now by a electric motor







GelliFedi Farm Brynna

This colliery is now set in a rural idyll. The roads are tracks with one road following the route of the old tramway/railway
to/from the colliery. It took us ages to find this place as the post code we had was miles from its location. Eventually we
met some locals who put us right - there were two routes and they advised against the route we took (we were late and it was closer)
But we before we found the colliery we glimsed the others driving majestically along tarmac while we were picking our way pothole by pothole. We gave up and began our search for the second road. Eventually we found it only to find that the tarmac is the last few hundred yards of an equally bad track. WE eventually arrived after the others had seen the first site. The engine house and winding house complex





Mill stream dam

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Abersychan is near Pontypool,not Pontypridd Dave,
Wrong valley,Wrong county.

Some nice surface features there Dave; there is plenty more good surviving surface stuff around South Wales, even a fair bit to see around Bristol area for you to see (try looking at the map on here and tick the option for content)

Surprised no-one has not asked you to put the photos in to the photo albums on here

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penalta bath house was great till the locals removed every locker for scrap leaving nothing behind bar the boot greeser and whats left of the heating system

Abersychan is near Pontypool,not Pontypridd Dave,
Wrong valley,Wrong county.

Thanks I have corrected it

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Some nice surface features there Dave; there is plenty more good surviving surface stuff around South Wales, even a fair bit to see around Bristol area for you to see (try looking at the map on here and tick the option for content)

Surprised no-one has not asked you to put the photos in to the photo albums on here

I do take an interest in Bristol colleries

I live near the old coal mining area of coalpit heath, the trip to wales was a visit out of area. There is a 5 km adit under the area draining the coal areas to the river frome

http://davethecave.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/astrys-adit-coalpit-heath-3rd-august-2011/ 

http://sgmrg.co.uk/coal  they published a booklet about the kingswood and bedminster
Here is a kml of their kingswood colliery locations

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=77D1594ED8806127 !5604&authkey=!ACdEwVYOd1Gnjkw

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In that first photo in your collection,the mountain above,is the remains of Graigwen Colliery,a Smallmine closed late 80`s.
If you had carried on up the mountain past the engine house of the British,there were several Smallmines on the left of the road,including Blackbarn with some remains to be seen on surface.
Good photo`s,Crumlin Navigation was built with the best of materials,no expence spared,even the shafts were Blue Pennant lined.

Some nice surface features there Dave; there is plenty more good surviving surface stuff around South Wales, even a fair bit to see around Bristol area for you to see (try looking at the map on here and tick the option for content)

Surprised no-one has not asked you to put the photos in to the photo albums on here

I do take an interest in Bristol colleries

I live near the old coal mining area of coalpit heath, the trip to wales was a visit out of area. There is a 5 km adit under the area draining the coal areas to the river frome

http://davethecave.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/astrys-adit-coalpit-heath-3rd-august-2011/ 

http://sgmrg.co.uk/coal  they published a booklet about the kingswood and bedminster
Here is a kml of their kingswood colliery locations

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=77D1594ED8806127 !5604&authkey=!ACdEwVYOd1Gnjkw

Dave,

It's nice to know some folks are taking a keen interest in the Bristol area - appears to be a fairly interesting area, with a good mix of old and new collieries and mines.

From memory they are a number of old drainage adits in the area.

Unfortunately, the Bristol area (inc. down to Mendips) is not an area I have been to yet - although a visit is planned down there at some point, not sure when though.
I did start putting together a pack of maps etc, I was working my way up from the Mendips.

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From memory they are a number of old drainage adits in the area.

The digging of the adits over to another river valley was a common technique in the Bristol coalfield. There are at least three known in the records. Two have been explored and the explorers said they would only do it once.

Unfortunately, the Bristol area (inc. down to Mendips) is not an area I have been to yet - although a visit is planned down there at some point, not sure when though.
I did start putting together a pack of maps etc, I was working my way up from the Mendips.

Well if you do visit please get in touch. I might be able to help myself or by get someone who knows better to come along.

Dave

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Arghh there goes my monthly mobile data allowance.
Can you put some sort of warning in the title about the amount of pictures? Cheers.

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