Deep Navigation Colliery
Encyclopedia
Deep Navigation Colliery was a coal mine
in South Wales
, that operated from 1872 until 1991.
Located next to the co-developed village of Treharris
in the borough of Merthyr Tydfil
, on development it was the deepest coalmine in South Wales Coalfield
by some 200 yard. Producing the highest quality steam coal, it powered both the Cunard
passenger steamers RMS Mauretania
and RMS Lusitania
in their successful attempts at the Blue Riband
prize for the most rapid Atlantic Ocean
passage. Amongst one of the first collieries in South Wales to have shafts wound by electricity, it was the first colliery in South Wales to have pit head baths for its miners. Profitable due to the quality of its coal, but financially degraded by huge volumes of water ingress throughout its working life, it was closed by British Coal
on Good Friday
, 1991.
Today the wider local site, which was also occupied by the nearby Taff Merthyr Colliery and the Trelewis Drift Mine, has been redeveloped into the wildlife and leisure park, Parc Taff Bargoed.
With a proposed name of Harris Navigation Steam Coal Company, development commenced with the construction a row of temporary small houses, built for the families and men who were to be employed to sink the pit. Named the Twyn-y-Garreg huts, they all had wooden frames covered by whitewashed hessian
for walls. House No.1 was specially created for the Minnett family of two adults and ten children, and had four bedrooms. The remainder were classical 2up/2down room formation terraced-style houses
, with a kitchen and parlour on the ground floor, and two bedrooms upstairs. Heating came from a coal fire placed under a stone or brick chimney stack, and the huts were completed with slate roofs. All materials for the huts construction came from locally obtained resources within the bounds of the mineral lease, including the development of a firestone quarry to the north of the colliery site. The new development was called Harris Town in Welsh
, or Treharris
.
Construction of the main shafts began in October 1872, with sinking commencing in February 1873. Due to the required depth of the shafts to access the coal seams, the operation would prove to be both expensive and dangerous, and create the life long operational need to continually extract water due to high levels of ingress. The 167 men of the construction crew were not paid on time on a number of occasions, with final construction costs in May 1878 running to over £300,000, and seven men having lost their lives. The two shafts were built 180 feet (54.9 m) apart: North to a depth of 649 yard; South to 760 yard. This was 200 yard deeper than any other colliery in the South Wales Coalfield
at the time, to allow access the Nine Feet Seam.
Before coal could be extracted commercially, surface buildings were required to be completed. This included the installation of two John Fowler & Co.
winding machines, and the forest fully cleared, with wood stored for pit prop
s. Finally the River Taff Bargeod was enclosed in a 0.3 mile (0.482802 km) tunnel constructed of bricks made from the collieries quarry, enabling water ingress to the mine to be significantly reduced, and slag heap
s to be placed on the resultant new land.
The first commercial coal was raised at North pit from 1879, and by 1881 both shafts were raising coal. But by this point the colliery company was deep in debt. The only reason that funding had been forth coming from the shareholders, commercial backers and banks was due to the potential high quality of the coal that could be extracted, and so it proved. The depth of the shafts and the quality of the steam coal extracted hence earned the colliery two nicknames in the South Wales coalfield: "Deep Navigation" and "Ocean Colliery".
After the first commercial coal was extracted in 1879, the colliery started construction of Cornish
Beam engine
, capable of extracting over 200 gallons (909.2 l) a stroke. Supplied by the Perran Foundry of Truro
, water was lifted in stages to different levels, until it reached the surface and was dispersed into pit pond located north of the colliery.
Later, mine engineer Castell created the famous Deep Navigation “Castle.” A made-made cavern hewn by hand from solid rock, it was built to store water for removal. Located adjacent to the North pit shaft, it was 70 yard long, 30 yard wide and 5 yard high. Inside was installed an electric sump pump
, which connected to a surface pipe that spilled into the same pit pond as the beam engine.
of Llandinam
, became interested in the Harris mine as early as 1890. By this time, almost 1million tonnes of coal had been raised, but by 1892 there was a dip in production. With debts rising, Harris allowed an inspection of the mine by Davies, whose engineers reported that were good reserves of coal in a mine that required relatively little additional investment.
Davies's Ocean Coal Company took ownership of the colliery on 17 January 1893, and renamed it Ocean Colliery. There was great competition at the time between colliery owners, with most trying to prove to potential purchasers that their coal was of the best quality. At the time this was signified by being selected by the Royal Navy
, and the various transatlantic ocean liner
s, including the Cunard Line
; hence the choice of the renaming.
Davies invested in the colliery, including repairing the bases of the shafts. From 1897 onwards, the colliery was producing over 590,000 tons per year with a workforce of 2,500 miners. Ocean Company invested a further £500,000 in 1900 to make the collieries production more economic, so that by 1902, annual output was 327,000 tons by 2,000 men. The steam coal produced during this period was purchased for use by the Cunard steamers RMS Mauretania
and RMS Lusitania
, used in their successful attempts for the Blue Riband
for the most rapid Atlantic passage.
The South Wales Miners' Federation
had been formed in 1894, and in 1910 and 1911 the Tonypandy Riots had occurred to improve miners incomes and working conditions. By 1913, the workforce had shrunk to 1,846 men and boys. At this time Deep Navigation had an extensive underground mine railway
, with 10 miles (16.1 km) of underground railways. Over 100 pit ponies were being used at the colliery, mostly underground, but some on the surface.
, that could accommodate 1,824 men at a time, who were each provided with two lockers: one for clean and the other for dirt clothes. Officially opened on 1 November 1933 by Ocean Coal Company director Thomas Evans O.B.E. of Pentyrch
, the baths were the first such facility in South Wales.
Having constructed a new power house, which was also supplying Lady Windsor Colliery
, the facility was electrically lit, and included an early electric shoe cleaner. The baths were reconstructed in 1933, by which time Ocean had provided baths at Risca, Wattstown, Lady Windsor, Garw, Nantymeol and Nine mile point collieries.
. From a 1923 report by HM Inspectorate of Mines, there were 2,328 men employed, working the Seven Feet, Yard and Nine Feet seams. But by the time of the 1926 General Strike, industrial relations had again broken down. The village of Treharris was staunchly socialist, and was innovative in using the colliery band and local jazz music Treharris Zulus group to raise funds. But by the new year the families were running short of funds, food and fuel, and the workers quickly returned to work. By 1935, the colliery employed 363 men on the surface and 1,875 underground.
At the start of World War II
, Ernest Bevin
introduced a new law that tied the miners to their reserved occupation. Bevin also ordered one in ten young men of eighteen years of age to be employed in the coal industry, with some of the Bevin boys
coming to the Treharris area.
.
The NCB made various investments in the colliery, and the fact that the Westminster government was a Clement Attlee
-led Labour
government, made industrial relations smoother. Investments included the demolition in the mid-1950s of the original 1870 Twyn-y-Garreg huts, but the site remained dormant almost until the colliery closed, when the new Navigation Street was built. By 1960, this investment had resulted in the workforce dropping to just over 1,000 miners.
Being located close, the colliery stopped working on announcement of the Aberfan disaster on Friday 21 October 1966, sending all available manpower to the recovery effort. As a result, a few children were pulled out alive in the first hour, but no survivors were found after 11 a.m. that day.
The last pit pony
was retired in 1973, at the time when the colliery won the first of its contracts to supply Aberthaw power station
. The centenary celebrations of 1979 saw over 2,000 people descend to pit bottom, with weekly production at around 8,500 tonnes/week.
At the end of the dispute, reform was the agenda of the Conservative
government. But the miners still hoped that the 1983 report that concluded there were at least 11 million tons of coal reserves were accessible to colliery, would keep them open. The report further suggested that development of the new “Gellideg” seams at a depth of 2500 feet (762 m), would guarantee that the colliery could operate in profit for at least another 20 years.
The NCB became the privatised British Coal
in 1987, but this was on the back of £2 million investment in the colliery in new machinery. But an industrial dispute over required new work practices, resulted in a single pit strike that cost the company £150,000. Production resumed, but faltered again in November, a week long strike which lost 100,000 tonnes of production.
Now British Coal were warned that output was at least 5,000 tonnes below target, and that further disputes would financially jeopardise the future of the colliery. By 1989, Deep Navigation stood alone in the Taff Bargeod valley, making a profit and with coal production was rising. But closure that year occurred of both the Taff Merthyr Colliery and the Trelewis Drift Mine, amongst of host of closures in the South Wales Coalfield. The colliery probably survived, as despite the 1984 Miners Strike, average output that decade had reached 375,000 tons per year.
roadheader
in March that year.
However, a geological report issued that autumn concluded that due to structural problems in the surrounding substrata, coal reserves would only last until 1994. After a period of consultation with the greatly weakened National Union of Mineworkers
, in January 1991, British Coal announced the closure of Deep Navigation from Good Friday
, 29 March 1991.
The Dosco machine was one of the few items retrieved from pit bottom to the surface. On Sunday 23 March, each miner was allowed to take two guests for a tour of the pit bottom circuit, where they were all presented with a commemorative medal. Deep Navigation NUM lodge provided each working and recently retired miner with a presentation Davy lamp
, with over 800 lamps distributed.
On the last working day, the Salvation Army band under the direction of Bandmaster Thomas Fredrick Willetts marched with the last shift to the town hall, accompanied by the MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
, Ted Rowlands; and the MP for Pontypridd
, Dr Kim Howells
, formally NUM South Wales research officer. Deep Navigation closed with 766 men on the books.
The site was cleared from 1993 onwards, but the associated coal washery stayed open for another nine months, so that a stockpile of 370,000 tonnes could be prepared for market. In 1995 it took a week, working 12 hours a day, to fill the three shafts with rubble from the demolished pit head buildings.
, the colliery had access to Cardiff Docks
via both the Great Western's
Taff Vale Railway
, and the Midland Railway's
Rhymney Railway
. The Rhymney Railway also gave access north to Brecon
via the Brecon and Merthyr Railway
, and onwards to the Midlands via the Mid Wales Railway.
Harris had a series of private owner wagons built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
, which considerably reduced transport costs. In later years, British Railways Class 37
locomotives rostered from Cardiff Canton and Barry
depots, were placed in charge of coal hoppers
on a Merry-go-round train
, to transport coal to Aberthaw power station
.
in 1914.
On 12 December 1884, five men descended the No.2 South shaft in a bowk
to replace some byats
. Just after the winding engine commenced, the 3.5 inch wide braided steel flat rope broke, sending four to their deaths at the bottom of the shaft 700 yard below. Thomas John Dobbs, who had been guiding the bowk down a guide rope, managed to slowly lowered himself to within hailing distance of pit bottom, and was rescued with nothing more than cuts and bruises. Following an accident investigation by HM Inspectorate of Mines, it was found that the rope had corroded, where it had been in contact with the Headframe
sheave wheel
. But as the rope was covered with a protective coating of tar
, the corrosion had gone undetected. The sheave wheels on both the No.1 and No.2 shafts at Deep Navigation were unusual, in that they were constructed of different parts that had been rivet
ed together, not a singular wheel that had been cast. The sheaves were not replaced at Deep Navigation until 1961 (No.2 South), and 1963 (No.1 North).
On 11 November 1902, five men lost their lives and two others were injured in No.2 South pit. A water extraction pipe fell away from the shaft wall, crashing onto an ascending double-decker mine cage. Carrying 32 men at the time of the accident, the dead and injured were travelling in the upper deck of the cage.
created either side of two new lakes. Opened in time for the Millenium, the park was named Parc Taff Bargoed, now home to many local rugby
and football teams.
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in South Wales
South Wales
South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...
, that operated from 1872 until 1991.
Located next to the co-developed village of Treharris
Treharris
Treharris is a small town and community in the Taff Bargoed Valley in the south of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. It is located around 1 km west of Trelewis, from which it is separated by the Taff Bargoed river, and 1.5 km from Nelson in Caerphilly county borough and...
in the borough of Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil is a town in Wales, with a population of about 30,000. Although once the largest town in Wales, it is now ranked as the 15th largest urban area in Wales. It also gives its name to a county borough, which has a population of around 55,000. It is located in the historic county of...
, on development it was the deepest coalmine in South Wales Coalfield
South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...
by some 200 yard. Producing the highest quality steam coal, it powered both the Cunard
Cunard
Cunard may refer to:* Grace Cunard , American silent film actress* Nancy Cunard , English writer, editor, and publisher* Samuel Cunard , British shipping magnate-Other:...
passenger steamers RMS Mauretania
RMS Mauretania (1906)
RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Mauretania became a favourite among...
and RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
in their successful attempts at the Blue Riband
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...
prize for the most rapid Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
passage. Amongst one of the first collieries in South Wales to have shafts wound by electricity, it was the first colliery in South Wales to have pit head baths for its miners. Profitable due to the quality of its coal, but financially degraded by huge volumes of water ingress throughout its working life, it was closed by British Coal
British Coal
thumb|right|British Coal company logoThe British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation in the United Kingdom responsible for the extraction of coal...
on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, 1991.
Today the wider local site, which was also occupied by the nearby Taff Merthyr Colliery and the Trelewis Drift Mine, has been redeveloped into the wildlife and leisure park, Parc Taff Bargoed.
Harris Navigation: 1872-1893
In the early 1800s, a mineral lease was granted over 3000 acres (1,214.1 ha) of land, owned by three farms: Twyn-y Garreg; Pantanas; Cefn Forest. A group of businessmen, lead by Frederick W. Harris, began negotiations for the rights to the mineral lease, which was eventually acquired in 1872. Nothing existed in the area at the time, except for the three farms and their outbuildings, plus the quiet River Taff Bargeod and a small forest on the slopes above the valley.With a proposed name of Harris Navigation Steam Coal Company, development commenced with the construction a row of temporary small houses, built for the families and men who were to be employed to sink the pit. Named the Twyn-y-Garreg huts, they all had wooden frames covered by whitewashed hessian
Hessian
The Hessians were 18-century German regiments hired through their rulers by the British Empire. Despite their name, they were not all from Hesse. They were not mercenaries, although their German rulers profited from their use. Though used in several conflicts including in Ireland, they are most...
for walls. House No.1 was specially created for the Minnett family of two adults and ten children, and had four bedrooms. The remainder were classical 2up/2down room formation terraced-style houses
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
, with a kitchen and parlour on the ground floor, and two bedrooms upstairs. Heating came from a coal fire placed under a stone or brick chimney stack, and the huts were completed with slate roofs. All materials for the huts construction came from locally obtained resources within the bounds of the mineral lease, including the development of a firestone quarry to the north of the colliery site. The new development was called Harris Town in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, or Treharris
Treharris
Treharris is a small town and community in the Taff Bargoed Valley in the south of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. It is located around 1 km west of Trelewis, from which it is separated by the Taff Bargoed river, and 1.5 km from Nelson in Caerphilly county borough and...
.
Construction of the main shafts began in October 1872, with sinking commencing in February 1873. Due to the required depth of the shafts to access the coal seams, the operation would prove to be both expensive and dangerous, and create the life long operational need to continually extract water due to high levels of ingress. The 167 men of the construction crew were not paid on time on a number of occasions, with final construction costs in May 1878 running to over £300,000, and seven men having lost their lives. The two shafts were built 180 feet (54.9 m) apart: North to a depth of 649 yard; South to 760 yard. This was 200 yard deeper than any other colliery in the South Wales Coalfield
South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...
at the time, to allow access the Nine Feet Seam.
Before coal could be extracted commercially, surface buildings were required to be completed. This included the installation of two John Fowler & Co.
John Fowler & Co.
thumb|right|John Fowler & Co. [[steam roller]] of 1923John Fowler & Co Engineers of Leathley Road, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England produced traction engines and ploughing implements and equipment, as well as railway equipment. Fowler also produced the Track Marshall tractor which was a...
winding machines, and the forest fully cleared, with wood stored for pit prop
Pit prop
A pit prop or mine prop is a length of lumber used to prop up the roofs of tunnels in coal mines.Canada traditionally supplied pit props to the British market...
s. Finally the River Taff Bargeod was enclosed in a 0.3 mile (0.482802 km) tunnel constructed of bricks made from the collieries quarry, enabling water ingress to the mine to be significantly reduced, and slag heap
Slag heap
A spoil tip is a pile built of accumulated spoil - the overburden removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are generally composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone and various other residues...
s to be placed on the resultant new land.
The first commercial coal was raised at North pit from 1879, and by 1881 both shafts were raising coal. But by this point the colliery company was deep in debt. The only reason that funding had been forth coming from the shareholders, commercial backers and banks was due to the potential high quality of the coal that could be extracted, and so it proved. The depth of the shafts and the quality of the steam coal extracted hence earned the colliery two nicknames in the South Wales coalfield: "Deep Navigation" and "Ocean Colliery".
Water ingress
Due to shaft depth, the major problem with the mine throughout its life was water ingress, with a reported maximum ingress during its operational life of 1000 gallons (4,546.1 l) entering the pit every minute.After the first commercial coal was extracted in 1879, the colliery started construction of Cornish
Cornish engine
A Cornish engine is a type of steam engine developed in Cornwall, England, mainly for pumping water from a mine. It is a form of beam engine that uses steam at a higher pressure than the earlier engines designed by James Watt...
Beam engine
Beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
, capable of extracting over 200 gallons (909.2 l) a stroke. Supplied by the Perran Foundry of Truro
Truro
Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
, water was lifted in stages to different levels, until it reached the surface and was dispersed into pit pond located north of the colliery.
Later, mine engineer Castell created the famous Deep Navigation “Castle.” A made-made cavern hewn by hand from solid rock, it was built to store water for removal. Located adjacent to the North pit shaft, it was 70 yard long, 30 yard wide and 5 yard high. Inside was installed an electric sump pump
Sump pump
A sump pump is a pump used to remove water that has accumulated in a water collecting sump basin, commonly found in the basement of homes. The water may enter via the perimeter drains of a basement waterproofing system, funneling into the basin or because of rain or natural ground water, if the...
, which connected to a surface pipe that spilled into the same pit pond as the beam engine.
Ocean Colliery: 1893-1947
Industrialist businessman David DaviesDavid Davies (industrialist)
David Davies was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1874 and 1886. Davies was often known as David Davies Llandinam , in order to differentiate him from others of the same name.Davies was the son of David Davies and his wife Elizabeth...
of Llandinam
Llandinam
Llandinam is village in Powys, central Wales, between Newtown and Llanidloes, located on the A470.Llandinam was the family home of David Davies who was responsible for much of the development of the South Wales Valleys and the export of coal in the 19th century...
, became interested in the Harris mine as early as 1890. By this time, almost 1million tonnes of coal had been raised, but by 1892 there was a dip in production. With debts rising, Harris allowed an inspection of the mine by Davies, whose engineers reported that were good reserves of coal in a mine that required relatively little additional investment.
Davies's Ocean Coal Company took ownership of the colliery on 17 January 1893, and renamed it Ocean Colliery. There was great competition at the time between colliery owners, with most trying to prove to potential purchasers that their coal was of the best quality. At the time this was signified by being selected by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, and the various transatlantic ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
s, including the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
; hence the choice of the renaming.
Davies invested in the colliery, including repairing the bases of the shafts. From 1897 onwards, the colliery was producing over 590,000 tons per year with a workforce of 2,500 miners. Ocean Company invested a further £500,000 in 1900 to make the collieries production more economic, so that by 1902, annual output was 327,000 tons by 2,000 men. The steam coal produced during this period was purchased for use by the Cunard steamers RMS Mauretania
RMS Mauretania (1906)
RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear for the British Cunard Line, and launched on 20 September 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Mauretania became a favourite among...
and RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
, used in their successful attempts for the Blue Riband
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...
for the most rapid Atlantic passage.
The South Wales Miners' Federation
South Wales Miners' Federation
The South Wales Miners' Federation , nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for miners in South Wales.The union was founded on 24 October 1898, following the defeat of the South Wales miners' strike of 1898...
had been formed in 1894, and in 1910 and 1911 the Tonypandy Riots had occurred to improve miners incomes and working conditions. By 1913, the workforce had shrunk to 1,846 men and boys. At this time Deep Navigation had an extensive underground mine railway
Mine railway
A mine railway is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mine. Materials transported typically include ore, coal and spoil. Today most mine railways are electrically powered; in former times pit ponies, such as Shetland ponies, were used to haul the trains...
, with 10 miles (16.1 km) of underground railways. Over 100 pit ponies were being used at the colliery, mostly underground, but some on the surface.
Pit head baths
In 1913, Davies sent a party of 15 men to the continent to investigate European systems of working practice. As a result of their report, a sum of £8,000 was authorised to build a new baths for the miners. The new Treharris baths were constructed by Nicholls & Nicholls of GloucesterGloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
, that could accommodate 1,824 men at a time, who were each provided with two lockers: one for clean and the other for dirt clothes. Officially opened on 1 November 1933 by Ocean Coal Company director Thomas Evans O.B.E. of Pentyrch
Pentyrch
Pentyrch is a suburban community located on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The village gives its name to a Cardiff local authority electoral ward, which covers the village and surrounding area.-Geography:...
, the baths were the first such facility in South Wales.
Having constructed a new power house, which was also supplying Lady Windsor Colliery
Lady Windsor Colliery
Lady Windsor Colliery was a coal mine located in the village of Ynysybwl in South Wales. Opened in 1884, it closed in 1988, 104 years later.-Development:...
, the facility was electrically lit, and included an early electric shoe cleaner. The baths were reconstructed in 1933, by which time Ocean had provided baths at Risca, Wattstown, Lady Windsor, Garw, Nantymeol and Nine mile point collieries.
After World War I
After supplying the Royal Navy during World War I, by 1920 the colliery was using the “Barry of Nottingham” system of coal cutting, a forerunner of longwall miningLongwall mining
Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice . The longwall panel is typically 3–4 km long and 250–400 m wide....
. From a 1923 report by HM Inspectorate of Mines, there were 2,328 men employed, working the Seven Feet, Yard and Nine Feet seams. But by the time of the 1926 General Strike, industrial relations had again broken down. The village of Treharris was staunchly socialist, and was innovative in using the colliery band and local jazz music Treharris Zulus group to raise funds. But by the new year the families were running short of funds, food and fuel, and the workers quickly returned to work. By 1935, the colliery employed 363 men on the surface and 1,875 underground.
At the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader and Labour politician. He served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1945, as Minister of Labour in the war-time coalition government, and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government.-Early...
introduced a new law that tied the miners to their reserved occupation. Bevin also ordered one in ten young men of eighteen years of age to be employed in the coal industry, with some of the Bevin boys
Bevin Boys
Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...
coming to the Treharris area.
Deep Navigation: 1947-1991
By 1945 there were 1,826 men working at the complex. After nationalisation in 1947, the colliery was finally named Deep Navigation by the National Coal BoardNational Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
.
The NCB made various investments in the colliery, and the fact that the Westminster government was a Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
-led Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government, made industrial relations smoother. Investments included the demolition in the mid-1950s of the original 1870 Twyn-y-Garreg huts, but the site remained dormant almost until the colliery closed, when the new Navigation Street was built. By 1960, this investment had resulted in the workforce dropping to just over 1,000 miners.
Being located close, the colliery stopped working on announcement of the Aberfan disaster on Friday 21 October 1966, sending all available manpower to the recovery effort. As a result, a few children were pulled out alive in the first hour, but no survivors were found after 11 a.m. that day.
The last pit pony
Pit pony
A pit pony was a type of pony commonly used underground in coal mines from the mid 18th up until the mid 20th century.-History:Ponies began to be used underground, often replacing child or female labour, as distances from pit head to coal face became greater...
was retired in 1973, at the time when the colliery won the first of its contracts to supply Aberthaw power station
Aberthaw Power Station
Aberthaw Power Station refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations situated on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is actually located on the waterfront of the nearby villages of Gileston and West Aberthaw on Limpert Bay...
. The centenary celebrations of 1979 saw over 2,000 people descend to pit bottom, with weekly production at around 8,500 tonnes/week.
A decade of industrial decline
After an investment in a new canteen in 1982, and a confirmed £6million investment in 1983 in a new high-speed conveyor extraction system installed, the 1984 Miners’ Strike could not have been more poorly timed.At the end of the dispute, reform was the agenda of the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government. But the miners still hoped that the 1983 report that concluded there were at least 11 million tons of coal reserves were accessible to colliery, would keep them open. The report further suggested that development of the new “Gellideg” seams at a depth of 2500 feet (762 m), would guarantee that the colliery could operate in profit for at least another 20 years.
The NCB became the privatised British Coal
British Coal
thumb|right|British Coal company logoThe British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation in the United Kingdom responsible for the extraction of coal...
in 1987, but this was on the back of £2 million investment in the colliery in new machinery. But an industrial dispute over required new work practices, resulted in a single pit strike that cost the company £150,000. Production resumed, but faltered again in November, a week long strike which lost 100,000 tonnes of production.
Now British Coal were warned that output was at least 5,000 tonnes below target, and that further disputes would financially jeopardise the future of the colliery. By 1989, Deep Navigation stood alone in the Taff Bargeod valley, making a profit and with coal production was rising. But closure that year occurred of both the Taff Merthyr Colliery and the Trelewis Drift Mine, amongst of host of closures in the South Wales Coalfield. The colliery probably survived, as despite the 1984 Miners Strike, average output that decade had reached 375,000 tons per year.
Closure
In 1990, Deep Navigation was not added to British Coals list of mines for closure, with a reported profit of £1million to August 1990. The colliery received a single new DoscoDominion Steel and Coal Corporation
The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation was a Canadian coal mining and steel manufacturing company.Incorporated in 1928 and operational in 1930, DOSCO was predated by the British Empire Steel Corporation which was a merger of the Dominion Coal Company, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company and the...
roadheader
Roadheader
A roadheader, also called a boom-type roadheader, road header machine, road header or just header machine, is a piece of excavating equipment consisting of a boom-mounted cutting head, a loading device usually involving a conveyor, and a crawler travelling track to move the entire machine forward...
in March that year.
However, a geological report issued that autumn concluded that due to structural problems in the surrounding substrata, coal reserves would only last until 1994. After a period of consultation with the greatly weakened National Union of Mineworkers
National Union of Mineworkers
The National Union of Mineworkers is a trade union for coal miners in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1945 as a reorganisation of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain . For much of the 20th century the NUM was a powerful force not only in the British union movement, but also in British...
, in January 1991, British Coal announced the closure of Deep Navigation from Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, 29 March 1991.
The Dosco machine was one of the few items retrieved from pit bottom to the surface. On Sunday 23 March, each miner was allowed to take two guests for a tour of the pit bottom circuit, where they were all presented with a commemorative medal. Deep Navigation NUM lodge provided each working and recently retired miner with a presentation Davy lamp
Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp with a wick and oil vessel burning originally a heavy vegetable oil, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.Sir...
, with over 800 lamps distributed.
On the last working day, the Salvation Army band under the direction of Bandmaster Thomas Fredrick Willetts marched with the last shift to the town hall, accompanied by the MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (UK Parliament constituency)
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- Boundaries :The main towns are Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney...
, Ted Rowlands; and the MP for Pontypridd
Pontypridd (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:...
, Dr Kim Howells
Kim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
, formally NUM South Wales research officer. Deep Navigation closed with 766 men on the books.
The site was cleared from 1993 onwards, but the associated coal washery stayed open for another nine months, so that a stockpile of 370,000 tonnes could be prepared for market. In 1995 it took a week, working 12 hours a day, to fill the three shafts with rubble from the demolished pit head buildings.
Transport
Located adjacent to Quakers Yard railway stationQuakers Yard railway station
Quakers Yard railway station is a railway station serving the community of Edwardsville in the village of Edwardsville near Treharris in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It is located on the Merthyr branch of the Merthyr Line...
, the colliery had access to Cardiff Docks
Cardiff Docks
Cardiff Docks is a port in south Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost...
via both the Great Western's
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
Taff Vale Railway
Taff Vale Railway
The Taff Vale Railway is a railway in Glamorgan, South Wales, and is one of the oldest in Wales. It operated as an independent company from 1836 until 1922, when it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway...
, and the Midland Railway's
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
Rhymney Railway
Rhymney Railway
The Rhymney Railway was virtually a single stretch of main line, some fifty miles in length, by which the Rhymney Valley was connected to the docks at Cardiff in the county of Glamorgan, South Wales.-History:...
. The Rhymney Railway also gave access north to Brecon
Brecon
Brecon is a long-established market town and community in southern Powys, Mid Wales, with a population of 7,901. It was the county town of the historic county of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of Powys, it remains an important local centre...
via the Brecon and Merthyr Railway
Brecon and Merthyr Railway
The Brecon and Merthyr Junction Railway was one of several railways that served the industrial areas of South Wales and Monmouthshire. It ranked fifth amongst them in size, although hemmed in by the Taff Vale Railway and Great Western Railway...
, and onwards to the Midlands via the Mid Wales Railway.
Harris had a series of private owner wagons built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based at Gloucester, England; from 1860 until 1986....
, which considerably reduced transport costs. In later years, British Railways Class 37
British Rail Class 37
The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the Class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan....
locomotives rostered from Cardiff Canton and Barry
Barry railway station
Barry railway station is one of 3 stations in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. It is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line, which runs from Cardiff Central to Bridgend via Barry, Rhoose, and Llantwit Major...
depots, were placed in charge of coal hoppers
Hopper car
A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. The name originated from the coke manufacturing industry which is part of the steel industry ....
on a Merry-go-round train
Merry-go-round train
A Merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a block train of hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom, they are most commonly coal trains delivering to power stations...
, to transport coal to Aberthaw power station
Aberthaw Power Station
Aberthaw Power Station refers to a series of two coal-fired power stations situated on the coast of South Wales, near Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. It is actually located on the waterfront of the nearby villages of Gileston and West Aberthaw on Limpert Bay...
.
Disasters
Due to its depth, Deep Navigation suffered various fatalities from its start of construction, with seven men dying in the six years from 1873 to 1879. But these were just 7 out of over 110 miners, who died in accidents underground at Deep Navigation between 1873 and the start of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914.
On 12 December 1884, five men descended the No.2 South shaft in a bowk
Bucket (machine part)
A bucket is a specialized container attached to a machine, as compared to a bucket adapted to the form of a human being...
to replace some byats
Safety harness
A safety harness is a form of protective equipment designed to protect a person, animal, or object from injury or damage. The harness is an attachment between a stationary and non-stationary object and is usually fabricated from rope, cable or webbing and locking hardware...
. Just after the winding engine commenced, the 3.5 inch wide braided steel flat rope broke, sending four to their deaths at the bottom of the shaft 700 yard below. Thomas John Dobbs, who had been guiding the bowk down a guide rope, managed to slowly lowered himself to within hailing distance of pit bottom, and was rescued with nothing more than cuts and bruises. Following an accident investigation by HM Inspectorate of Mines, it was found that the rope had corroded, where it had been in contact with the Headframe
Headframe
A headframe is the structural frame above an underground mine shaft. Modern headframes are built out of steel, concrete or a combination of both...
sheave wheel
Sheave
A sheave is a wheel or roller with a groove along its edge for holding a belt, rope or cable. When hung between two supports and equipped with a belt, rope or cable, one or more sheaves make up a pulley. The words sheave and pulley are sometimes used interchangeably.A sheave can also refer to a...
. But as the rope was covered with a protective coating of tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...
, the corrosion had gone undetected. The sheave wheels on both the No.1 and No.2 shafts at Deep Navigation were unusual, in that they were constructed of different parts that had been rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
ed together, not a singular wheel that had been cast. The sheaves were not replaced at Deep Navigation until 1961 (No.2 South), and 1963 (No.1 North).
On 11 November 1902, five men lost their lives and two others were injured in No.2 South pit. A water extraction pipe fell away from the shaft wall, crashing onto an ascending double-decker mine cage. Carrying 32 men at the time of the accident, the dead and injured were travelling in the upper deck of the cage.
Today
After all three colleries closed, the combined site was extensively redeveloped, with the former slag heaps removed. As a result, the brick tunnel in which the Taff Bargoed river had been redirected in 1873 was removed, and a landscaped parklandParkland
Parkland or Parklands may refer to:* A park* Aspen parkland, a biome transitional between prairie and boreal forest * Landscaped parkland, a managed rural area associated with European country houses such as Longleat-Place names:United States...
created either side of two new lakes. Opened in time for the Millenium, the park was named Parc Taff Bargoed, now home to many local rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
and football teams.
External links
- Deep Navigation @ BBC WalesBBC WalesBBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
- Deep Navigation @ Welsh Coalmines
- Deep Navigation @ Miners Advice
- Pictures of Deep Navigation
- History and pictures of Deep Navigation