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Hafodyrynys Colliery
Situated about half a mile to the east of Hafodyrynys village down the Glyn valley towards Pontypool.
Sited on some older workings owned by E. Jones and dating back to 1878, of which the remains of the old mine Adits can be seen in the above photograph as depressions in the hillside.
Hafodrynys did not become fully operational until 1914 when it was then owned by Crumlin Valley Collieries.
By 1918 there were 574 men employed.
From a report 1923, there were 924 men employed, producing from the Meadow Vein, Black Vein and Old Coal seams.
In 1945 there were 666 men employed.
Four men were killed by a huge roof fall here in 1962.
They were:- Reginald Baker aged 39, Lyndon Nichols 30, John Owen
48 and Melvin Morgan 22.
During the 50's many millions of pounds were spent on developing new drift mines integrating Hafodrynys with Tirpentwy and Glyntillery collieries. A rosy future was forecast for this new development with many years of work in untouched coal reserves. But because of geological problems the new mine turned out to be a "White Elephant" and it was closed down in 1966, although the modern washery was still used to process coal from other collieries until sometime in the 1970's.
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Hafodyrynys Drift, 1956