Penallta Colliery, Ystrad Mynach

[sinnerman]

The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal company was one of the leading coal barons of the south wales coal feild, and would go on to become the largest coal company in Great Britain before the industry was nationalised.

In 1902 the company embarked on a expansion program aquiring a large tract of land in the Nant Cylla Valley near Ystrad Mynach where they developed Penallta Colliery.

Powell Duffryn concentrated on developing low cost collierys equiped with the latest technology and their collierys were concidered to be the best and most modern of their contemporaries. Penallta was to become Powell Duffryns Show pit and the best of their colleries if not the best in Wales.

The Downcast Headgear

Construction of the colliery commenced in June of 1905 when the first sod was cut by a Mrs Lyndsey from nearby Ystrad. The construction of the colliery was planned to avoid the use of temporary structures and engines while the shafts were sunk so the Steel headgears which still dominate the site today were erected imediately and the shafts sank beneath them, an unusual and inovatinve practice at the time. Sinking began in October 1906 on shaft No1 the down cast shaft which reached its full depth of 715m two years and 11 months later. Sinking shaft 2 the upcast began in June of 1907 and reached pit bottom at 685m 2 years and 4 months later. At the time Penallta was for a short time the deepest in South Wales.

The Upcast Headgear

While the shafts were sunk the construction of the surface buildings progressed at the same pace. Powell Duffryns vast financial resources allowed it to plan Penallta using the most modern and up to date equipment and layouts when complete it was quickly recognised as having one of the most efficient and best organised surface layouts of any collery of its day.

The Great Power House

Dominating the surface buildings was the Great Powerhouse. earlier collierys had spread their surface equipment, the winders, ventallation fan, boilers and air compressors in different buildings at Penallta they were brought together into onel common engine house 300ft long and 70ft wide with a single span roof. A design which minimised the lenght of steam pipes required to power all the equipment and made it easier to maintain and update. The powerhouse was designed in a recognisable Powell Duffryn house style with red brick detailing and a mansard style roof. Similar powerhouses could soon be found in the companies Brittania, Betws Navigation, Llantrisant and Taff Merthyr collieries, but Penallta was the best equipped.

The Fan Housing

Penallta was also one of the first collierys to be completely self contained with two engineering workshops capabel of producing anything the colliery might need. The other serface structures included the lamp house and colliery offices built in the same Powell Duffryn house style.

The Lamp House

During the 1930's the pithead buildings were joined by the Pithead Baths, during the decade the Miners Welfare Commitee started to have a major impact on improving the quality of life for miners and their families, the baths at Pennallta were constructed as part of a national bathouse programme funded through the miners welfare fund. The building contained 4,032 clothes lockers and 251 shower cubicles along with 2 first aid rooms as a canteen.

The Pithead Baths

Following the coal industries nationalisation in 1947 Penallta found itself in the heart of the South Wales Area of the National Coal Board. The Board was commited to the future of Penallta due to the high quality coal it produced, in 1957 the colliery was earmarked for a £1.4 improvement plan to modernise the underground and surface facilities which culminated in the 1965 with the installation of two huge electric winding engines reclamed from the closes Rothes Colliery in scotland.

Penallta's future was threatened in 1969 when the Rhas Las seam failed and the colliery was put on the jeopardy list for closure, 150 south wales pits had been closed following nationalisation and it now looked like Pennalta would be added to the list as the board withdrew funding for developements on the Red Vein Seam and developments on the Six foot Seam proved to be a financial disaster. The men at the pit managed to fight their way through to turn production around the colliery was removed from jeopardy 18t mths later and the following year broke its production records. Following the miners strike 1986 the colliery received its final modernisation with the upcast shaft refitted for Skip winding, the remains of the skip equipment can still be seen in the pithead today.

The Upcast Pit bank

Penallta survived the post strikes closures which hit the South Wales coal field particularly hard and continued to go from success to success in march of 1989 a record of 500,000 tonnes of coal were mined form the M16 face on the meadow vein seam and in March of 1991 590,000 saleable tonnes were mined. One month later Penallta story came to an end as the Goverment prepaired british coal for privatisation every mine in South Wales was declared un econnomic and slated for closure, surprising both the Colliery and area Management, the NUM officials and the Men. The miners eventually decided not to fight the closure and a date of December of 1991 was set for the last shift althought the management would not put that in writing, so perhapts the miners shouldnt have been surprised when the closure was unexpectedly brought forward to Nov 1st. Ending 82 years of mining at Penallta. Over the followng months 30,000 tonnes of stone and 70,000 tonnes of shale were pored down the shaft killing the colliery forever.

The Upcast Airlock Gates.

[S8]

You forgot one crucial thing....

[sinnerman]

fixed

[Tumbles]

You forgot one crucial thing....

[S8]

Some good shots there...and an interesting read too

[sinnerman]

i beleve he is

[BB]

That looks really nice! Great shots

[skin]

Im getting into these collierys after seeing your pics - thats really nice mate I love it.