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Parc Slip Colliery was a coal mine near situated at Aberkenfig, near Tondu in Bridgend County Borough, Wales.
Closed in 1904, the colliery is remembered for a mining accident that occurred at 8.20 am on 26 August 1892 as 146 men and boys were working within the mine. This was the day of the annual St Mary Hill Fair and a fine day with everyone looking forward to a day of relaxation, but they all heard the explosion and knew immediately what it meant.
The
Parc Slip Colliery was a coal mine near situated at Aberkenfig, near Tondu in Bridgend County Borough, Wales.
History
Parc Slip Colliery: 1860-1904
This pit was opened in the 1860s by John Brogden and Sons. In 1872 Brogdens merged with the Llynfi Coal and Iron Company Ltd to make the Llynfi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company. This failed in 1878. Eventually the mine was taken over by North's Navigation Ltd. . They had to work the difficult geology near the southern outcrop.1892 Mining Accident
Closed in 1904, the colliery is remembered for a mining accident that occurred at 8.20 am on 26 August 1892 as 146 men and boys were working within the mine. This was the day of the annual St Mary Hill Fair and a fine day with everyone looking forward to a day of relaxation, but they all heard the explosion and knew immediately what it meant.
The explosion
An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known ...
was apparently caused by a hole in one of the workers' Davy lamp
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.National Coal Board in the 1960s as an
Welsh Coal Mines website - research this pit's historyThe Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales websiteParc Slip Nature Park
A nature park that includes the colliery site. There is a memorial to the men and boys who died.
BBC Wales – Park Slip Colliery
Coal mines in Wales Buildings and structures in Bridgend County Borough Coal mining disasters in Wales Explosions in Wales 1892 mining disasters 1892 in Wales 1904 disestablishments Underground mines in Wales 19th century in Glamorgan 1892 disasters in the United Kingdom Explosions in 1892
opencast mine
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
, the site enveloped the entire working of the former colliery, eventually covering a site size of over 300acres, when it became known as the Margam Opencast Mine.
After the privatisation of British Coal
The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...
, the site was mothballed, before being reopened in 2001 by Celtic Energy as a land reclamation scheme until 2008, when all coal extraction ceased.
Present
As part of the land reclamation agreement, Celtic Energy were responsible for the land restoration as it originally was. After mining ceased in 2008, a series of legal cases were undertaken by bothBridgend County Borough Council
Bridgend County Borough Council ( cy, Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr) is the governing body for Bridgend County Borough, one of the Principal Areas of Wales.
History
Bridgend County Borough and Bridgend County Borough Council came ...
and the Welsh Assembly Government against Celtic Energy. This culminated in 2013 with the Serious Fraud Office bringing charges against two former directors of Celtic Energy and four other individuals, who it was alleged had conspired to move the ownership of Parc Slip and five other sites to companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, to avoid the costs of land restoration. The cases were eventually dismissed by the High Court in late 2014.
In 2016, in light of the large scale flood within the former opencast workings, Celtic Energy proposed an alternative restoration scheme to Bridgend County Council. This would remove the structures and infrastructure of the former workings, reduce the size and scale of the flooded former opencast workings, and reshape some of the above ground tip mounds, together with some seeding which would then be landscaped by the Council.
Accepted by the Council, the site is now a nature reserve with a mix of habitats including grassland, woodland and wetlands, which is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.https://www.visitbridgend.co.uk/attractions/ParcSlipNatureReserve
External links
Welsh Coal Mines website - research this pit's history
A nature park that includes the colliery site. There is a memorial to the men and boys who died.
References
{{ReflistBBC Wales – Park Slip Colliery
Coal mines in Wales Buildings and structures in Bridgend County Borough Coal mining disasters in Wales Explosions in Wales 1892 mining disasters 1892 in Wales 1904 disestablishments Underground mines in Wales 19th century in Glamorgan 1892 disasters in the United Kingdom Explosions in 1892