Aberdare, (02550266)
This pit was owned by the Aberdare Works and Collieries Company in 1884 and 1896 when it employed 467 men working underground and 67 men working at the surface of the mine. The downcast ventilation shaft was elliptical in shape measuring 14 feet 6 inches by 10 feet and 471 feet deep while the upcast ventilation shaft was 10 feet 3 inches in diameter and 510 feet deep. Ventilation was by a Schiele fan that was 13 feet 6 inches in diameter.
It mainly worked the Two-Feet-Nine, Four-Feet, Six-Feet and Bute seams using the long wall method of coal extraction and safety lamps in all seams bar the Bute where naked lights were used.
In 1907 it was owned by the Marquis of Bute and employed 5 men working underground and 6 men at the surface of the mine. The manager was William Thomas.
On the 27th of July 1877, on the 30th of July 1889, Enoch Jones, aged 65, years and an ostler, fell out of the shaft cage and to his death, while on the 10th of May 1894, John Harris, aged 44 years, and a collier, was killed under a fall of roof. Eleazer Ellis, aged 17 years and a collier, died under a fall of the roof on the 6th of May 1897. George Dobbs also died under a roof fall at this mine, he was only thirteen years of age.
Some statistics:
- 1896: Manpower: 534
- 1899: Manpower: 541.
- 1900: Manpower: 563.
- 1901: Manpower: 616.
- 1902: Manpower: 531.
- 1909: Manpower: 11.
Information supplied by Ray Lawrence and used here with his permission
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