Ogmore Vale (94909100)

Located at the head of the Cwm-y-Fuwch Valley this mine cost £18,000 to open after 1901 according to Ogmore Valley heritage. It was also called Aber No.3 or No.3, or Cwm-y-Fuwch and it was replaced by the Penllwyngwent Slant.

This mine originally consisted of two drifts 25 yards apart that produced house, manufacturing and steam coals from the No.2 Rhondda seam which it worked at a thickness of between 33 inches to 42 inches. This seam was abandoned in April 1921. The No.3 Rhondda seam was abandoned in April 1921.

It was not listed in 1878, but in 1908 the No.3 is shown to employ 12 men underground and 3 men on the surface while the Level employed 230 men underground and 54 men on the surface, the manager was D. Ferguson. In 1913 it employed 198 men, while between 1915 and 1919 manpower was constant at 303. This colliery must then have been temporarily closed because in 1923/5 the No.3 Slant and Level are listed but have no manpower, with a new drift called the Cwm Llo being driven into the No.3 Rhondda seam. This new drift was 325 yards to the west of the original drifts.

On the 20th of June 1928, John Osborne, aged 49 years, and a collier, died under a roof fall at this mine.

In 1930 the No.3 Slant employed 21 men with the Level being listed as temporarily closed. Manpower had increased to 85 men on the surface and 598 men underground in 1935 when it was worked in conjunction with the new Penllwyngwent slant which then replaced it. Mr. Ferguson was still the manager

The No.1 abandoned the No.3 Rhondda seam in 1920 and the No.2 Rhondda seam in 1921 while the No.3 abandoned the No.3 Rhondda seam in 1935.
It was owned by the Cory Brothers Limited who were members of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association. This Company employed 5,446 men in 12 pits in 1913, controlled 15 mines in 1917, and 10 mines in 1935 employing 5,702 men producing 1,600,000 tons of coal, making it one of the largest, and one of the last, of the independent colliery companies to survive until Nationalisation in 1947. The Cory influence lasted until the end of its coal producing career, with Sir Clifford I. Cory being both chairman and managing director of the company. They were also a major ship owner.  The head office of the company was at Bute Docks, Cardiff with branches at London, Glasgow, Liverpool, Paris and Genoa.
They also had 77 depots of coal in foreign countries.

Some statistics:

  • 1907: Manpower: 156.
  • 1908: Manpower: 299.
  • 1909: Manpower: 252.
  • 1910: Manpower: 193.
  • 1911: Manpower: 206.
  • 1912: Manpower: 279.
  • 1913: Manpower: 198.
  • 1919: Manpower: 303.
  • 1919: Manpower: 303.
  • 1920: Manpower: 311.
  • 1922: Manpower: 13.
  • 1923: Manpower: 2.
  • 1927: Manpower: 12.
  • 1928: Manpower: 32.
  • 1929: Manpower: 20.
  • 1930: Manpower: 21.
  • 1933: Manpower: 51.
  • 1935: Manpower: 683 with Penllwyngwent.

 

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

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