There have been several ‘Tower’ collieries in the Hirwaun area, named after the Crawshay ironmasters’ folly built nearby in 1848. Tower Graig mine began production in 1864. Tower Colliery opened in 1878. Its No.3 Drift was driven in 1920, its No.4 shaft was sunk in 1944 and its No.3 New Drift opened in 1958–9. During the 1984–5 strike, Tower did not see a single strikebreaker. In 1994, Tower famously became the only British colliery to be owned by its workers. The last deep mine in Wales, it closed in January 2008.
Work and Technological Change
Coal mining was tough, physical work in the 1940s. Elwyn Marshall started work in 1941 and described his experiences.
Windsor Lewis started work in 1953 and witnessed significant technological change.
In the following decades, increasing mechanisation transformed every aspect of working at Tower. Wayne Thomas transferred there from Abernant Colliery in 1988.
The 1962 Disaster
Collieries always remained dangerous workplaces, despite safety improvements. An underground explosion at Tower on 13 April 1962 killed nine men and injured a further nine, the worst accident in the pit’s history. Windsor Lewis was an overman at Tower and recalled that day.
Miners and their Families
The two clips below both involve children of mining communities describing their fathers doing caring and domestic work within their families. The stories are very interesting and complicate common ideas about the strict segregation of work within mining families. They also show a feature of oral history; people are more likely to talk about what is unusual that what is normal.
Women Colliery Workers
Ever since the Coal Mines Act of 1842 prohibited female employment underground, coal mining in the UK was overwhelmingly a job done by men. Within this, though, there were several colliery jobs which were almost always done by women: particularly canteen work, but also clerical and secretarial work in the colliery offices. Jenny Williams worked in the Tower canteen.
NUM lodge committee
The NUM lodge played a key role at Tower Colliery, in day-to-day mining operations and also representing the workforce. Lyn Evans described how he saw the committee.
‘Everyone ended up at Tower’
As other pits in South Wales closed, miners transferred to Tower and it became a ‘receiver pit’. Tower miners described the dynamics of new workers arrivnig at the pit.