Mardy Colliery Remembered.

Subscribe to my you tube channel for 200+ more coal mine tributes and counting. Maerdy/Mardy Colliery Wales, The last coal mine in the Rhondda,was a coal mine located in the South Wales village of Maerdy (Welsh: Y Maerdy), in the Rhondda Valley, located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened in 1875, it closed in December 1990. Maerdy derives its name from a large farmhouse on a bank of the Rhondda Fach, which became the local meeting place for both court matters and worship. Maerdy is the Welsh word for mayor's house.
While other areas of the South Wales coalfield had been exploited up to 50 years earlier, due to the scarcity and difficult access conditions of Rhondda Fach, it remained largely undeveloped. But the demand for steam coal drove development and, in 1874, Mordecai Jones of Brecon and Nantmelyn purchased the mineral rights around the farmhouse and its surrounding lands from the estate of the late Crawshay Bailey for £122,000. Additional capital was provided by a partner, J. R. Cobb, and a trial pit was sunk in 1875.
In 1876, this No. 1 Pit struck the Abergorky vein of coal. Proving the mine viable by increasing production to 100 tons per day, Maerdy No. 2 Pit was sunk in 1876. After connecting the mine to the Taff Vale Railway's Maerdy Branch, they transported the first coal to Cardiff Docks in 1877. After the death of Mordecai Jones in 1880, the mine was leased to Locket's Merthyr Company. They invested to increase production, which expanded from 30,000 tons p.a. in 1879 to over 160,000 tons p.a. by 1884, and sank Maerdy No. 3 Pit in 1893. The mine was now divided into two separate districts: the East, known as "Rhondda", and the West, known as "Aberdare". By this time the mine's link to the Taff Vale Railway had become the mainline to Porth and onwards to Cardiff. Maerdy No. 4 Pit was completed in 1914.
In 1932 Bwllfa and Cwmaman Collieries, part of the Welsh Associated Collieries, took control of Mardy. After WAC merged with the coal interests of Powell Duffryn in 1935 to form Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited, the colliery was completely closed, with the loss of 1,000 jobs: 120 on the surface, 880 underground. Reopening in 1938, it was greatly affected by the suspension of coal exports to Europe at the start of World War II, and hence closed in 1940.1990.Nationalised in 1947, the mine was redeveloped by the National Coal Board with a £7 million investment announced in 1949, creating capacity for No. 3 and No. 4 shafts to access 100 million tons of coal in the 5 ft seam, estimated sufficient to last for one hundred years. It was transformed into one of the most modern pits in the United Kingdom, with fully electric winding, new extended railway sidings and a coal washing plant on the surface, built on the site of the former No. 1 and No. 2 shafts, and new underground roads linking the mine to Bwllfa Colliery in the Cynon Valley. After the colliery band was disbanded, in 1978 the mine adopted the local Tylorstown silver band, which was renamed the "Tylorstown and Mardy Colliery Band.from 30 June 1986, with all coal being raised at Tower Colliery the two mines were effectively working as one coalfield system. The last miners' shift descended to pit bottom on 21 December 1990, after which friends were allowed down to collect souvenir pieces of the 5 ft seam, and then return to sing carols in the surface canteen. The Tylorstown silver band then followed a procession, playing The Internationale, to Maerdy Welfare Hall, where a "wake" was held. Of the remaining 300 workers at the pit, only 17 chose to transfer to other collieries.

[@boyfromblackstuff7859]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

[@MakeAllThingsBeautiful]

seems Maerdy Colliery was the last of 53 major pits in the Rhonda .. from a plaque in the film. That lake and dam just top side of the mine would of made me a little uneasy if I was half a mile down.