Coal Mining in the South Wales Valleys
In 1913 the South Wales coalfield sent out 56 million tons of coal, and Cardiff's Coal Exchange was where the world's price was set. Then the valleys went almost silent.
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Quick Facts
- What happened
- Deep coal mining turned a patch of quiet farmland into one of the world's great industrial regions, and most of its big collieries vanished within about a century and a half.
- Peak year
- 1913, with around 56 million tons raised and roughly 230,000 men employed in the coalfield
- Famous coal type
- Steam coal, prized by the Royal Navy and merchant fleets for burning hot with little smoke
- Worst disaster
- Senghenydd, 1913, where 439 miners and a rescuer died, the worst mining disaster in British history
- Aberfan
- 21 October 1966, when a colliery tip slid onto a school and houses, killing 116 children and 28 adults
- Great strike
- The 1984–85 miners' strike, which lasted a year and divided communities
- Workers' pit
- Tower Colliery near Hirwaun, bought by its workforce in 1994 and closed in 2008; deep mining carried on at Aberpergwm near Glynneath
- Port connection
- Coal was shipped from Cardiff, Barry and Penarth, making Cardiff a global coal port
The valleys that fed the world's navies
Until the early 1800s, the valleys of the Rhondda, Cynon, Taff and their neighbours were largely sheep-farming country. Beneath them lay seams of coal so good that, by the Victorian era, ships all over the globe were burning it. The prize was steam coal, which burned hot and clean. The Royal Navy wanted it, and so did shipping lines everywhere. Pits spread up the valleys, railways snaked down to the docks, and the population of the Rhondda leapt from under a thousand in the 1850s to well over 100,000 by the early twentieth century. Cardiff, Barry and Penarth grew rich on the trade. The Coal Exchange in Cardiff's docks became a place where deals worth huge sums were struck, and it is often said that the first £1 million cheque was signed there. It's a famous story, though it has been told so often that it's best enjoyed as a legend of the age.
Life above and below ground
Towns grew in long, narrow rows of terraced houses squeezed along the valley floors and clinging to the hillsides. Chapels, workmen's institutes, brass bands, choirs and rugby clubs became the glue of these communities. Miners' institutes often had libraries, a remarkable thing at the time, paid for by deductions from wages. The Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society, founded in 1890, provided care for its members and later helped inspire Aneurin Bevan's approach to the NHS. Bevan, born in Tredegar and a former miner, launched the NHS in 1948. Underground, the work was brutal. Men cut coal by hand in cramped, dark, dusty seams, with the constant risk of roof falls, flooding and explosions. Pit ponies hauled the trucks. Dust diseases such as pneumoconiosis, known as black lung, killed or disabled many who survived the accidents.
Disaster and defiance
The valleys' history is marked by terrible days. At Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, an explosion on 14 October 1913 killed 439 miners and a rescuer. It remains the worst mining disaster in Britain's history, and it happened in the very year the coalfield hit its peak output. On 21 October 1966, a tip of colliery waste above Aberfan collapsed after heavy rain and slid down onto Pantglas Junior School. 116 children and 28 adults died. The disaster led to new laws on the safety of tips and left a mark on Wales that has never faded. Politics ran as deep as the seams. The South Wales Miners' Federation, known as the 'Fed', was among Britain's most powerful unions. The Tonypandy riots of 1910 and the General Strike of 1926 shaped how the valleys saw themselves, and how others saw them. In the 1984–85 strike, support groups kept communities going for a year.
Why the pits closed
The decline began after the First World War, as oil replaced coal on ships and foreign competition grew. The Depression of the 1930s hit hard, and thousands left the valleys to look for work in England. Nationalisation in 1947 brought brief optimism, but closures ran through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and then accelerated after the 1984–85 strike. The final chapter had a twist. When British Coal planned to close Tower Colliery in 1994, the miners clubbed together, putting in redundancy money, and bought it themselves. It ran as a workers' cooperative until 2008, long after most people assumed deep mining in Wales was finished. Even then, underground mining carried on at Aberpergwm near Glynneath.
Myths, reality and what you can still see
One myth is that the valleys were grimy all the way through. Many were, but they were also places of fierce culture, with singing, brass bands, eisteddfodau and political debate. Another is that mining ended simply because the coal ran out. In fact, plenty remained underground; it was economics and policy that ended the work. Today the hillsides are green again. Big Pit National Coal Museum at Blaenavon lets visitors go underground with former miners as guides, and the surrounding landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Rhondda Heritage Park at Trehafod, Cardiff's Coal Exchange building and the Senghenydd memorial garden all tell parts of the story. Aberfan's memorial garden sits where the school stood. The legacy lives on in the Welsh male voice choirs, the rugby clubs, the sense of solidarity and the NHS. The valleys' coal fuelled an empire, but its people left something that has lasted longer.
Notable people
- Aneurin Bevan
- Keir Hardie
- Arthur Horner
- Noah Ablett
- Tyrone O'Sullivan
- Lord Merthyr
- David Davies of Llandinam
- Winston Churchill
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