Mardy Colliery

Mardy Colliery 1990
Copyright © Harald Finster and used with his kind permission

Sinking of No 1 & 2 shafts commenced in 1875 by two men from Brecon; Mordecai Jones and Wheatley Cobb. The Abergorky seam was reached by December 1875 and started production. In 1878 the shafts were deepened to 500 yards (457m) to reach the Two Foot Nine, Four Foot, and Six Foot seams.

After the death of Mordecai Jones in 1880, Locket’s Merthyr Company took over the lease of the colliery. They invested to increase production, which went from 30,000 tons a year in 1879 to over 160,000 tons a year by 1884.

In December 1885 an explosion at the pit claimed the lives of 81 miners caused by the use of open flame lamps for lighting in the roadways. These lamps were thought to be safe in the intake roadways where fresh air is drawn in, but this proved not to be the case.

By 1893 the working faces were quite a distance from the No 1 & 2 shafts, so a third, No 3 shaft, was sunk a mile further up the valley. In 1914 a fourth shaft was sunk close to No 3.

The Bwllfa and Cwmaman Collieries, part of the Welsh Associated Collieries, took control of Mardy in 1932. Welsh Associated Collieries merged with Powell Duffryn in 1935 to form Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited and mardy colliery was completely closed, with the loss of 1,000 jobs. An attempt was made to reopen it in 1938, but this failed due to the start of the second world war.

After nationalisation in 1947, the National Coal Board invested £7 million which made it into one of the most modern pits in the in the country. This allowed No 3 and No 4 shafts to access 100 million tons of coal in the Five Foot seam, estimated sufficient to last for one hundred years. New railway sidings and a coal washing plant were built on the site of the former No 1 and No 2 shafts, and new underground roads linking the mine to Bwllfa Colliery.

The 1984 Miners Strike closed the mine for a year, and from June 1986, with all coal being raised at Tower Colliery, the two mines were effectively working as one. Mardy colliery finally closed in December 1990.