Merthyr Vale Colliery

Following John Nixon’s success in the Cynon Valley he embarked on the sinking of Merthyr Vale Colliery with his partners, Messrs. Taylor and Cory; in what was then believed to be barren ground, it was to be his last sinking. John Nixon retired in 1894 and died in 1899. A line in the Bristol Mercury of the 31st of July 1899 read:

The late Mr. John Nixon, of Nixon’s Navigation Colliery Company, Limited, left an estate valued at £1,155,069.17s 6d.

When he retired in 1894 his pits were producing 1,250,000 tons of coal a year. His position as chairman of Nixon’s Navigation Colliery Company Limited was taken up by H.E. Gray.

Before the sinking of this colliery could start, the Taff River had to be diverted to provide sufficient room for the surface buildings. Messrs. Nixon, Cory and Taylor commenced the sinking on the 23rd of August 1869, but on the 23rd of March 1871 the following advertisement was placed in the Western mail:

TO CONTRACTORS – To be LET, by Messrs. Nixon, Taylor and Cory, the SINKING of TWO PITS, each Sixteen feet in diameter, inside of Walling and Tubing, to the BOTTOM of the UPPER FOUR FEET SEAM of COAL, estimated at about Four Hundred yards in Depth, more or less, from the surface. These Two Pits have already been sunk about thirty-five yards, and are now in the solid strata, walled and tubed, and the water from the surface, sand, and alluvial deposits, effectually dammed back. These pits will be let together or separately. – Specifications and particulars can be seen on the application to Mr. Brown, Manager, Navigation Colliery Offices, Mountain Ash, Aberdare; or to Mr. Walter Bell, agent, at the Merthyr Vale Colliery Offices. Nixon, Taylor, and Cory do not bind themselves to accept the lowest or any tender.

The Four-Feet seam was struck on the 1st of January 1875. Two shafts were sunk to a depth of 495 and 493 yards with the first coal being raised on the 4th of December 1875. The cost of sinking was £255,946. The downcast ventilation shaft (South Pit) was sixteen feet in diameter, with a single deck carriage holding two trams per wind. It was intended to work the Four-Feet, Six-Feet, Nine-Feet and Seven-Feet seams from this shaft with the winding level being at the Four-Feet seam. The steam winding engine had two horizontal 42-inch diameter cylinders with a 6 feet 6-inch stroke, the winding drum was spiral in shape ranging from 25 feet in diameter to 15 feet in diameter. The cages were single-decked twelve feet long and held two trams per wind. It could complete a wind in 38 seconds.

The upcast ventilation shaft (North Pit) was fifteen feet in diameter, with a double-deck carriage holding one tram per deck. The winding engine for this shaft had two horizontal 48-inch diameter cylinders with a six-foot stroke. The drum was also spiral and ranged from 25 feet in diameter to 10 feet in diameter. It was intended to work most of the Nine-Foot seam from this shaft. The shafts were 84 yards apart. The surface ventilation fan was a 40-foot-diameter Waddle fan that produced 400.000 cubic feet of air per minute.

In July 1876 Output was running at 500 tons a day, with “the quality of the coal – upper four feet smokeless – is said to be unsurpassed even by the Dowlais Company’s Rhaslas coal, considered by many persons to be the best fuel in the South Wales basin.”

The manager in 1878 was George Brown. Oil safety lamps were used underground from the start with the colliers using the locked Clanny-type lamps and the official’s Davy safety lamps. Three coal screening belts were constructed for the downcast shaft’s production, they were 58 feet long and 5 feet wide, while two screening belts were used for the upcast shaft’s production, they were 45 feet long and 5 feet wide. The main haulage engine for work in the No.1 or downcast pit was steam-driven with cylinders 26 inches in diameter and 3 feet long. It had four drums, each five feet in diameter, and 3,800 yards of rope. The other haulages in this pit were a steam-driven engine with 21-inch diameter cylinders and a three feet stroke utilising four drums, another steam-driven engine had two 4 foot 8-inch drums and 2,500 yards of rope. There were also compressed air-driven haulages with the total amount of rope used in this pit being 19 miles. In the No.2 or upcast pit the main haulage had two five-foot diameter drums, while the second haulage engine had four drums each of 5 feet diameter. There were also compressed air haulages and five winches in use. In all, there were 8 miles of rope in use in this pit. All steam for the haulages was taken down the pit in 12 inch diameter pipes with the exhaust coming back up in 15-inch diameter pipes.

The Bristol Mercury newspaper on Tuesday, 20th of May 1879, reported that Joseph Llewellyn, a haulier at this pit, was jailed for a month for leaving an air door open and thereby causing an accumulation of gas which risked the lives of everyone in the pit at that time.

Continuing with the legal theme, on the 10th of February 1880, the Western Mail newspaper reported:

SERIOUS CHARGE – Robert Thomas, haulier, of Merthyr Vale, was charged at Merthyr, on Saturday, with attempting to murder John Jones. Both men were employed at the Merthyr Vale Colliery in sinking a shaft from the 4-foot to the 6-foot seam. According to the statement of the prosecutor, he had occasion to go down to examine it. He was being let down in a tub, and the prisoner, who was one of the men at the windlass, called out to him, when about a yard down, “What about that row we had the other day? I will serve you out now.” The prisoner thereupon let the windlass ‘go wild’ and the prosecutor went down at a fearful rate, but was stopped about 4 feet from the bottom. He was much frightened and shaken but was not injured.

Thomas was committed for trial on a charge of attempting to do grievous bodily harm and received 14 days of hard labour.

In October 1883, Rees Lewis a collier and Thomas Mitton, a hitcher were charged with unlawfully attempting to obtain 1s 4d by false pretences. Mitton was hitching on pit-bottom when he noticed some full trams of coal with NC chalked on them. This indicated that they were filled by day-wage men and were the property of the company. He rubbed out the NC on one of them and chalked 532 on it, his brother’s number, so that he would be paid for that tram of coal. On the 6th of November 1883 Thomas John Williams, 16 years of age and a blacksmith’s striker was fined 10s for stealing four pieces of iron which he used to support a magpie box. Finally, in our walk on the wild side, on the 24th of February 1885, Edward Beavan, a boilerman, was summonsed because he had not provided enough water in one of the boilers and that caused £100 worth of damage. He was fined £2 2s 9d. Poor old Beaven had to attend to eighteen boilers and a donkey engine in the engine house, plus three other boilers 200 yards away.

The next article is not directly related to Merthyr Vale Colliery but gives a fascinating insight to the morality of the times; On the 18th of July 1885 a court heard that, Miss Louise Bailey daughter of the Supervising Engineer at this pit met David Morgan Llewellyn, a mining engineer in a railway carriage in early 1883 and they became friendly. Llewellyn wasn’t very happy that she worked in a shop and persuaded her to go to college. While she was away the relationship cooled and Bailey released him from his engagement with her. They again met in a railway carriage and kissed, and renewed the engagement. Again they parted, and again they renewed, and again broke up when Louise broke it off causing young David to cry, yes they then got back together and decided to marry at once and move to Abergavenny. But alas, David’s, family objected to Louise and he called it all off and started spooning with another girl. Louise was awarded £1,200 by a court for the injustices done to her.

On the 23rd of May 1885, young David Rees was only 12 years of age and a door boy when he was crushed a killed by trams, only one of the many who died at this pit. While at the other end of the scale, John Evans was 76 years of age when he was killed on the 27th of January 1890. See also Accidents at Merthyr Vale Colliery.

In 1880 the methane gas trapped underground was piped to the surface and used to fire some of the boilers and to light the offices and stock yard. In 1893 the manager was Henry E. Gray and in 1894 the manager was Major W. Bell.

This colliery was served by the Taff Vale Railway the colliery had a sidings capacity of, 315 full wagons, 246 empty wagons, and 40 other wagons. In 1908 the No.1 pit employed 1,546 men underground and the No.2 pit employed 1,315 men. There were 526 men on the surface and the manager was Thomas Williams. In 1913 the colliery was managed by B.R. Edwards and had reached its peak manpower of 3,575 men making it by far the largest single colliery in south Wales by over 700 men. Nixon’s Company at that time employed 8,994 men working in five different pits, all of them in the Cynon Valley except Merthyr Vale. In 1918 this colliery employed 2,042 men working underground and 523 men working at the surface the manager was still Mr. Edwards. In 1924 it recorded, and one of South Wales highest manpower levels at 3,685 men. In 1927 G.H. Williams was the manager.

In July 1915, the South Wales Coalfield came under the Munitions of War Act after an Area Conference called for a new wage agreement. Following a five-day strike the Government concedes the main demands. In November the South Wales Coalfield is brought under State control. Following the end of World War One, The Sankey Commission of 1919 recommended the nationalisation of the mines on a permanent basis, but the Government decided to take no action.

In December 1919 the 2,000 South Wales Miners Federation members at this pit passed a resolution protesting against the anti-nationalisation resolution that had recently been passed in the local Conservative clubs and declared themselves in favour of nationalisation.

In 1929 Sir David Rees Llewellyn took control of Nixon’s Navigation Coal Company and called the new concern Llewellyn (Nixon) Limited. In 1930 he deepened the Merthyr Vale No.1 pit to 542 yards and the No.2 pit to 538 yards which was to just below the Gellideg seam level. The Merthyr Vale Level was closed in June 1931. In 1934 Llewellyn (Nixon) Limited was based at the Navigation Offices, Mountain Ash with the directors being; Sir David R. Llewellyn, W.M. Llewellyn, H.H. Merrett, Sir John F. Beale, T.J. Callaghan and J.H. Jolly. It controlled six collieries that employed 6,280 miners who produced 2,100,000 tons of coal in that year.

The colliery became part of Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited in 1935, and in that year the No.1 pit employed 190 men on the surface and 1,360 men underground and produced 500,000 tons of coal, while the No.2 pit employed 100 men on the surface and 570 men underground and produced 300,000 tons of coal. The manager at that time was A. Williams.

In 1938 the No.1 pit employed 591 men underground and the No. pit 418, there were 231 men on the surface and the manager was T. Roderick. In 1943 the manager was T.J. Davies and the No.1 Pit was working the Gellideg, Nine-Feet, Six-Feet and Seven-Feet seams and the No.2 Pit the Seven-Feet and Gellideg seams, overall manpower for the colliery was 933 men employed underground and 246 men on the surface.

On Nationalisation in 1947 Merthyr Vale Colliery was placed in the National Coal Board’s, South Western Division’s, No.4 Area, Group No.4, and at that time employed 217 men on the surface and 843 men underground working the Gellideg, Nine-Feet and Yard seems. The manager was now T. Jones and the under-managers were R. Rees and V. Lewis. Mr. Jones was still the manager in 1949.

There was a slight increase in manpower in 1954 to 206 men on the surface and 965 men underground, at that time the colliery was working the Five-Feet, Nine-Feet, Seven-Feet and Gellideg seams with the manager now being R.N. Lewis with the under-managers being T.H & J.H. Thomas. This colliery had its own coal preparation plant (washery) and prop repair centre.

In the 1960s the NCB invested £2,000,000 into completely renovating the colliery, enabling it to survive the closure purge of that decade. Up to that time the two pits had operated as separate units; the No.1 in the Four-Feet seam and the No.2 in the Five-Feet/Gellideg. The pits were integrated and improved underground conveyors were installed as well as electric winders and a new coal preparation plant. The main winder had a 1,450 h.p. electric motor which was capable of handling 24 men or 6.5 tonnes of materials per wind.

In July 1968 the V21 Coalface in the Gellideg seam broke the 20 year old production record for the colliery producing 4,738 tons in a week.

The early 1970s brought about a feeling of optimism in the coal industry which was encapsulated in the Plan for Coal issued in 1974. Within this document, it was estimated that £1.4 billion would be invested in the National Coal Board by 1985. Merthyr Vale was placed in the loosely termed power station market which they projected would increase from 2.5 million tons in South Wales to 3 million tons. The problem was that this market was entirely dependent on Aberthaw B power station which was not performing as anticipated within the national grid. It was therefore planned to create a Taff Merthyr/Merthyr Vale/Deep Navigation concentration scheme. In this scheme, Merthyr Vale would supply the phurnacite plant and Taff Merthyr the electricity market. Winding would stop at Deep Navigation and its western ‘take’ would be brought up Merthyr Vale and its eastern ‘take’ up Taff Merthyr. Shaft capacity at Merthyr Vale was to be increased, the 36-inch wide conveyor belts replaced by 42-inch ones, bunkers and man-riding facilities installed and the washery upgraded. £9.1 million was to be invested in the three pits and output was expected to be 930,000 tons of coal annually with an output per manshift of 2.5 tons. The merger never came about.

Following these improvements, the colliery concentrated on the Seven-Feet seam which made it one of the most successful collieries in south Wales during the 1970s. In 1974 it broke the South Wales Coalfield output per manshift record and attained 2.25 tonnes per manshift. In 1975 it won awards from the NCB and the European Architecture Heritage Year Business and Industrial Panel for the tidiest pit in the UK. In 1976 it cost £500,000 to equip the B20 coalface which made it the most expensive and sophisticated coalface in the South Wales Coalfield. By 1978 it was working two coalfaces with the output per manshift being 4.3 tonnes at the coalface and 1.5 tonnes overall for the colliery. Its main market was for the manufacturing of smokeless fuels and it had an estimated 7.1 million tonnes of coal reserves. In 1979 the B31 coalface was the best performing coalface in the 180cm to 209cm seam thickness group in the South Wales Coalface. It produced 877 tonnes of coal per day.

In 1981 the colliery was working the Seven-Feet seam at a section of between 153 and 1 73cms, and the Five-Feet seam at a section of l32cms. Coalface length varied from between 60 metres to 237 metres, with coal cutting by ranging drum shearers, and coalface roof supports being the self-advancing types. The expected output per man shift on the coalfaces was 7.79 tonnes, and overall for the colliery 2.1 tonnes. The coalfaces in the Seven-Feet seam were prefixed by the letter B, with the B21 advancing at a rate of 0.74 metres per day on a single coaling shift which gave a daily coal output of 914 tonnes. In February 1981 it only had 39 metres left to run. The B31 coalface was expected to advance at a rate of 2 metres per day on two coaling shifts which gave an output of 1,016 tonnes per day. It had 418 metres left to run. The B32 coalface was expected to advance at a rate of 1.6 metres a day on two coaling shifts giving an output of 975 tonnes of coal daily. It had a life of 1,300 metres.

In the Five-Feet seam, the coalfaces were prefixed by the letter V, with the V40 coalface expected to advance 1.3 metres a day when on single-shift coaling and to advance 1.85 metres per day when it was on two shifts coaling. On two shifts coaling it was expected to produce 1,117 tonnes of coal daily. It had a life of 630 metres. The V41 coalface was expected to advance at a rate of 1.6 metres per day on two shifts coaling which would have given a daily output of 500 tonnes of coal. This face had 640 metres to advance. The saleable yield of coal was 60% of total production. Manpower deployment was; development 96, coalface 172, elsewhere below ground 225, surface 160.

In 1983 this colliery was losing £4.20 per tonne of coal produced and had a manpower of 664 men. To turn the pit around the NCB invested £1.3 million in developing new reserves known as the B50 area.

Following the 1984 miners strike the colliery made a poor recovery, only attaining 65% of normal output by the end of April. The NCB reported:

Conditions on the B51 face had been poor and some breakdowns had affected an otherwise reasonable performance on the B32; 65% of normal production was achieved.

In June it was reported by the NCB that this colliery had not made a particularly good start though the potential was there to achieve three tonnes of output per man shift. The Five-Feet and Gellideg seams would be worked together by the end of the year with £½ million being spent on the washery. At that time it was losing £5.99 on each tonne of coal it produced.

British Coal invested over £7 million in skip winding and high-tech coalface equipment and in 1988, 760 men produced 625,000 tonnes of coal from the Nine-Feet and Yard seams mostly for the Aberaman Phurnacite Plant to make smokeless fuel briquettes for the domestic market. Yet it was not enough to save it from the round of closures that came in 1989.

Merthyr Vale Colliery was closed by British Coal in August 1989.

Amongst other seams of coal, this pit worked the Five-Feet seam at a thickness of 48 inches. The Seven-Feet seam at a thickness of between 60 inches to 66 inches. The Four-Feet seam was extensively worked at a thickness of between 66 inches to 72 inches.

Some statistics:

• 1887: Output: 333,841 tons.
• 1889: Output: 469,499 tons.
• 1892: Output: 420,258 tons.
• 1893: Output: 430,309 tons.
• 1894: Output: 643,595 tons.
• 1895: Output: 555,288 tons.
• 1896: Manpower: 2,500. Output: 588,917 tons.
• 1899: Manpower: 2,606.
• 1900: Manpower: 2,883.
• 1901: Manpower: 3,047.
• 1902: Manpower: 3,064. Output: 830,000 tons.
• 1903: Manpower: 3,327.
• 1905: Manpower: 3,202.
• 1906: Output: 832,000 tons.
• 1908: Manpower: 3,252.
• 1909: Manpower: 3,387.
• 1910: Manpower: 3,421.
• 1911: Manpower: 3,421.
• 1912: Manpower: 3,300.
• 1913: Manpower: 3,575.
• 1914: Manpower: 3,424.
• 1915: Manpower: 3,294.
• 1918: Manpower: 2,745. Output: 441,968 tons.
• 1919: Manpower: 2,435. Output: 451,149 tons.
• 1920: Manpower: 2,852.
• 1922: Manpower: 2,867.
• 1923: Manpower: No.1Pit: 1,390. No.2 Pit: 1,206. Surface: 524.
• 1924: Manpower: 3,685.
• 1925: Manpower: 3,171.
• 1926: Manpower: 3,171.
• 1927: Manpower: 2,977.
• 1928: Manpower: 1,937.
• 1929: Manpower: 2,000.
• 1930: Manpower: 1,970.
• 1933: Manpower: 1,381.
• 1934: Manpower: 1,691.
• 1935: Manpower: 2,220. Output: 500,000 tons.
• 1937: Manpower: 1,328.
• 1938: Manpower: 1,240.
• 1940: Manpower: 1,234.
• 1941: Manpower: 1,203.
• 1942: Manpower: 1,317.
• 1944: Manpower: 1,574.
• 1947: Manpower: 1,060.
• 1948: Manpower: 1,082. Output: 350,000 tons.
• 1949: Manpower: 1,150. Output: 271,275 tons.
• 1950: Manpower: 1,186. Output: 294,169 tons.
• 1951: Manpower; 1,161. Output: 315,993 tons.
• 1952: Manpower: 1,196. Output: 323,697 tons.
• 1953: Manpower: 1,169. Output: 339,381 tons.
• 1954: Manpower: 1,171. Output: 343,000 tons.
• 1955: Manpower: 1,129. Output: 366,965 tons.
• 1956: Manpower: 1,174. Output: 314,346 tons.
• 1957: Manpower: 1,292. Output: 354,150 tons.
• 1958: Manpower: 1,240. Output: 336,681 tons.
• 1959: Manpower: 1,098. Output: 340,812 tons.
• 1960: Manpower: 1,134. Output: 313,000 tons.
• 1961: Manpower: 1,090. Output: 270,799 tons.
• 1962: Manpower: 1,075. Output: 258,020 tons.
• 1963: Manpower: 1,018. Output: 300,801 tons.
• 1964: Manpower: 944. Output: 300,975 tons.
• 1965: Manpower: 865. Output: 241,549 tons.
• 1966: Manpower: 831. Output: 234,368 tons.
• 1967: Manpower: 826. Output: 218,355 tons.
• 1968: Manpower: 871. Output: 307,976 tons.
• 1969: Manpower: 787. Output: 240,183 tons.
• 1970: Manpower: 710. Output: 198,760 tons.
• 1971: Manpower: 661. Output: 176,949 tons.
• 1972: Manpower: 635. Output: 226,477 tons.
• 1973: Manpower: 572. Output: 155,194 tons.
• 1974: Manpower: 677. Output: 235,159 tons.
• 1978: Manpower: 621. Output: 240,000 tons.
• 1979: Manpower: 699. Output: 246,000 tons.
• 1986: Manpower: 677.
• 1989: Manpower: 593.

 

Information supplied by Ray Lawrence and used here with his permission.

Return to previous page