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Cwmtillery Colliery, 1910.
Thomas Brown sunk the first Cwmtillery shaft to the "Elled" seam at 130 yards on a farm called Tir Nicolas in 1843. At this time it went by the name of "Tir Nicolas Colliery" later the "South Wales Colliery".
During 1852 it came under the ownership of John Russell, a
previous partner of Thomas Brown at Blaina Iron Works. Russell
extended and deepened the shafts No. 3 (240 yards) and No. 2 (185
yards).
For
more on John Russell please see the Risca Blackvein Page or click
here.
Thirteen men died in an underground explosion 27th of May, 1857.
Another shaft 261 yards deep was added in 1858.
During 1864 the South Wales Colliery Company was formed to purchase Cwmtillery colliery.
An explosion occurred here in 1866 after an air door had been left open, killing three men.
Six lives were lost as a result of another explosion, which occurred here on the 5th of April, 1873.
A further disastrous explosion occurred on the 18th of December 1876. Sixteen men and boys were killed instantly, two others died of their injuries two days later. There were also another 21 injured 11 seriously. Most of the deaths and injuries were the result of serious burns.
It is thought that over the following years the final death toll of this explosion reached 23 as others succumbed to their injuries
The explosion happened in the three-quarter seam at around 6am and the rescue was launched from the adjoining Rose Heyworth colliery.
In 1888 Lancaster, Spier & Co. (later Lancaster’s Steam Coal Company) took over the lease.
From the Inspector of Mines list 1896, South Wales Cwmtillery Colliery and Rose Heyworth, a workforce of 1615 men were producing coal from the Old Coal, Big Vein, Elled and Three Quarter seams.
By 1908 the workforce at these two pits had risen to 2,664.
In 1918 there were 2,760. men employed.
From a report 1923, there were 882 men working at Cwmtillery No. 1 pit, producing from the Old Coal and Black Vein seams. At No. 2 pit there were 772 employed, working the Big Vein, Three Quarters and Black Vein seams.
The workforce numbered at 1243 at Cwmtillery in 1945.
In its first 100 years an estimated 32 million tons of coal was produced at this colliery.
It was integrated with Rose Heyworth in 1959 after a new drift mine (Abertillery New Mine) was driven 1,200 yards at a 1 in 5 gradient to raise the coal from the two pits.
Cwmtillery was one of the first collieries in South Wales to use the Meco-Moore Power Loader; it also had the longest man-riding system in South Wales, which carried men, some 3000 metres into the Garw Seam.
It closed in 1982
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Cwmtillery's Manrider, 1970's.