Coal Mining in the South Wales Valleys

Discover 'Black Gold' in The Welsh Valleys...

Coal is a fossil fuel. It was create over a hundred million years ago, in swampy conditions. It consists of layer upon layer of what were rotting plants, which became compacted and over time became rich in hydrocarbons. Coal is found underground in bands or "seams", and each seam can represent hundreds or even thousands of years of plant growth. As such coal is a finite resource, once used it can never be replaced.

The coal seams in South Wales sit under the ground in a saucer shape, and sometimes the "rim of the saucer" touches the ground’s surface, this is known as an outcrop of coal. There is evidence that humans have used coal for fires for millennia, when they would simply have picked up the coal that the found at the outcrops. Later they dug simple bell shaped pits or dug horizontally along the seam – which is known as drift mining. However the demand for steam coal for operating machinery and transport during the Industrial Revolution led to vertical mining shafts being dug as deep as 690m underground.

The need for steam coal turned many of the valley floors in South Wales into colliery sites, whilst the workers lived in terraced houses which even today seem to cling to the hillsides. Coal mining in South Wales reached its peak in 1913, by which time it employed over a quarter of a million people at over 500 collieries.

Mining was a dangerous occupation, and South Wales saw many disasters, some due to seams collapsing, others due to flooding, and some due to the poisonous gases which collect underground. One of the biggest losses of life took place in 1913 when 439 miners died at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd.

As well as the coal, the collieries also produced tonnes of waste, which was often deposited on the tops of the hills. These tips later suffered from slippage, and in October 1966, after heavy rainfall one such tip collapsed on the village of Aberfan, destroying a school and killing 144 people, 116 of which were children. This led to a change in government policy, and the beginning of land reclamation projects across the coalfield.

Key Sites to Visit

• Aberfan Memorial Garden
• South Wales Miners' Museum
• Blaenavon World Heritage Site
• Big Pit National Mining Museum
• Cefn Coed Colliery Museum
• National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
• Parc Cwm Darren
• Parc Bryn Bach, Tredegar
• Parc Penallta
• Parc Taff Bargoed
• Rhondda Heritage Park
• Senghenydd Disaster Memorial Room
• Tower Colliery