Bedwas Navigation Colliery
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Bedwas Navigation Colliery was a
coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
in the small Welsh village of
Bedwas Bedwas is a town situated two miles north-east of Caerphilly, south Wales, situated in the Caerphilly county borough, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. Bedwas neighbours Trethomas, Graig-y-Rhacca and Machen, and forms a council ...
, north of
Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...
. The colliery opened in 1913, and closed after the miners' strike of 1984-85.


Development

In 1909 the Bedwas Colliery Company leased 1,475
acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...
of land, on the slopes of
Mynydd y Grug Mynydd y Grug is a hill lying just west of the village of Cwmfelinfach and about 4 km to the northeast of Caerphilly in Caerphilly county borough in South Wales. Its summit was formerly at a height of around 358 m, but since the top has been ...
just outside the village of
Trethomas Trethomas ( en, Thomastown) is a small village northeast of Caerphilly, southeast Wales, situated in the Caerphilly county borough, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It neighbours Bedwas and Machen, and forms a council ward in co ...
. As the best and easiest mineral rights had already been taken, Bedwas was forced to go deep, and called on the proven continental experience of
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n Edmund L. Hann (cousin of
meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
Julius von Hann Julius Ferdinand von Hann (23 March 1839 in Wartberg ob der Aist near Linz – 1 October 1921 in Vienna) was an Austrian meteorologist. He is seen as a father of modern meteorology. Biography He was educated at the gymnasium of Kremsmünster an ...
), to design the colliery, having previously designed
Penallta Colliery Penallta Colliery was a coal mine, located close to Hengoed in the Rhymney Valley in the South Wales Valleys. A coal mine which in 1935 held the European record for coal wound in a 24-hour period, it is now the site of an original redevelopment ...
. To sink the shaft the company used the same experience formula, engaging mining contractor Fred Piggott from Caerphilly (the former owner of a mansion that was The
Caerphilly District Miners Hospital Caerphilly District Miners’ Hospital ( cy, Ysbyty'r Glowyr Caerffili) was a community hospital in Caerphilly, Wales. It was managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. History The hospital was established in a private house known as " ...
), to be responsible for the entire sinking. Two shafts were sunk through the Mynyddislwyn seam, down to the Rhas Las (English - Black Vein) and thence, by a cross-measure, to the lowest coal seam then known in the Caerphilly area, the Hard Vein, known later as the Lower Black Vein. The two shafts (North and South) were 768 and 802 yards deep respectively (more than twice the height from ground to the roof of the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
), both with a diameter of 21 ft. Due to its depth, Bedwas was one of the first collieries in South Wales to employ double-deck winding to improve efficiency. The purposeful insertion of the word "navigation" was undertaken to entice orders from marine shipping customers, including the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...
. The
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
liked coal from Rhas Las, and hence many of the mines which extracted coal from this seam added "navigation" to their name.


Operations

The first coal rose in 1912, which proved to be high quality
steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
coal. Sir Samuel Instone, founder of
Instone Air Line Instone Air Line was an early British airline from 1919 to 1924. Along with other private airlines of the time, it was absorbed into Imperial Airways. This airline is not to be confused with Instone Air Line (1981) of Stansted, which operated ...
which would merge into
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and later become part of
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, became the controlling shareholder in the colliery in 1921. By 1923, 2,578 men were producing half a million
tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United States ...
annually from the Black Vein, Lower Black Vein and Rock Vein seams. However, due to the disturb nature of the geology at the depth it was forced to mine at, Bedwas was always beset by geological problems, and as a result made and lost money in cycles. In order to keep the mine profitable, the owners asked the men to take a 20% pay cut in the mid-1920s which led to the banning of the
South Wales Miners' Federation The South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF), nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for coal miners in South Wales. It survives as the South Wales Area of the National Union of Mineworkers. Forerunners The Amalgamated Association of Miners (AA ...
(the main
Trade Union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
), following
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s. After a two-month stop in production, non-Unionised "scab" labour restarted production and by 1933 1,300 were employed; the SWMF was not recognised again by the owners until 1936 after a sit-in. By the outbreak of the
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, 1,850 men produced 675,000 tons, which was its best ever figure. On 1 January 1947, along with all other working collieries, Bedwas Navigation Colliery was
Nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
, controlled by the
National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
. In the late 1950s NCB approved a major £4 million reorganisation at the colliery, which: electrified the winding; provided a new pit bottom area; an underground loco roadway; a new coal preparation plant was built on the surface. During the mid-1970s circa 650 men were producing 230,000 tons of coal yearly from the Black and Meadow vein seams.


Closure

Despite having claimed reserves equivalent to 60 years, by 1980 geological problems had restricted production to coming only from the Meadow Vein underneath
Machen Machen (from Welsh language, Welsh ' "place (of)" + ', a personal name) is a large village three miles east of Caerphilly, south Wales. It is situated in the Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly borough within the Historic counties of Wales, ...
, and Big Vein. Most of this coal was transported by rail along the former
Rumney Railway The Rumney Railway in Wales was a plateway built to connect the ironworks at Rhymney to the Monmouthshire Canal Company's tramroad near Newport, Wales providing a connection the wharves at the Newport Docks. The line was opened in 1826. I ...
to the
British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
steel mill in
Llanwern Llanwern is a community in the eastern part of the City of Newport, South East Wales. Llanwern is bounded by the M4 and Langstone to the north, Ringland, Lliswerry and the River Usk to the west, the River Severn to the south and the city bou ...
, while the residual was sent to the
coking Coking is the heating of coal in the absence of oxygen to a temperature above 600 °C to drive off the volatile components of the raw coal, leaving a hard, strong, porous material of high carbon content called coke. Coke consists almost ent ...
plant at Trethomas, adjacent to the colliery site, which had been leased to the British Benzol and Coal Distillation Co. Ltd, who had a coal by-products plant. During the UK Miners' Strike of 1984/5, vital maintenance was not undertaken, and when the strike ended on 9 March 1985, the NCB declared the pit closed due to geological problems. Although both the '' Western Mail'' and ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' reported in March and April 1985 that closure had been accepted by the work force, the National Union of Mineworkers told the miners to press for an independent colliery review as outlined in the national agreement of October 1984. As a result, the NCB offered every worker at Bedwas alternative work in other pits. Those who did not take voluntary redundancy accepted the decision, with the closure finally announced in May 1985 attributed to geological problems. At its closure, Bedwas had amongst the largest claimed reserves of coal of any South Wales mine.


Incidents

*27 March 1912 - sparks from an electric bell caused an explosion underground which killed 3 miners and seriously injured 9 others *10 October 1952 - an explosion of
firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...
in the Lower Black Vein seam, resulted in the death of 1 and injuries to 19 others.


The site today

Following closure in 1985, the colliery was demolished quickly and the shafts filled with rubble, possibly to prevent any chance of it reopening in the future. The above ground structures including the co-located coking plant were demolished, but foundations and below ground installations not removed. The main railway line was removed from Trethomas railway station to Newport in 1967, a single track remained until after the Benzol plant was closed, the track then being taken up as far as Machen. Where is it still in use by Machen quarry where a single line carries minerals down through Rwiwderen and onto Bassaleg where it joins the mainline. The site has since been inherited by
Caerphilly County Borough Council Caerphilly County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili) is the governing body for Caerphilly County Borough, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. The last full council elections took place 5 May 2022. Political control The ...
, with a majority of the former railway line upgraded to become an extension of the
Taff Trail The Taff Trail ( cy, Taith Taf) is a popular walking and cycle path that runs for between Cardiff Bay and Brecon in Wales. It is so named because it follows the course of the River Taff. Along much of its length, it follows the National Cycle ...
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. It was proposed that removal of the residual historical remains from the rest of the site would outweigh any economic gain from redevelopment. However, in light of central government guidelines to first develop brownfield sites, in early 2010 the council proposed the site as the medium term location of up to 650 new houses and a primary school. This was met with opposition from local residents who wished to see the area developed into something employment or leisure related for the community. However, as of 2020 the site has yet to be built on.


References

{{Authority control Collieries in South Wales Buildings and structures in Caerphilly County Borough Underground mines in Wales