Penallta Colliery: Rhymney’s Last Deep Mine
1st November 1991 is a date remembered by many as an end of an era for the Rhymney Valley, with the last shift taking place at what was once one of Europe’s most productive pits. But unlike many of the hundreds of collieries that dominated South Wales during the 20th Century, Penallta still stands today. A decaying reminder of this area’s proud past.
Powell Duffryn began the skinking of the pit in 1905, with the first coal raised in 1909. The numbers of employees grew throughout this period, with an excess of 3,200 working down South Wales’ deepest shafts at the time by the 1930s.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the site held the European record for coal winding thanks to its state of the art machinery and a strong workforce with thousands of workers from the surrounding area. Villages such as Cefn Hengoed, Penybryn and Penpedairheol had many miners making up their population and Ystrad Mynach’s train lines got the coal from deep within the Rhymney Valley to Cardiff Bay to be exported all around the world.
Penallta was Powell Duffryn’s crown jewel of their many collieries. The winding house’s interior was complete with marbled green tiles, the pithead baths opened in 1938 were luxurious by a miners standard, completed with an art-deco interior during a time where most collieries didn’t feature any washing facilities whatsoever.
Mining continued during WW2 under PD’s control but their ownership would soon be handed over to the state after nationalisation in 1947.
Penallta, along with nearby Britannia and Bargoed collieries were profitable sites but following nationalisation, the National Coal Board looked to close collieries throughout the 1960s in an effort to make mining a smaller but more efficient industry.
Between 1959 and 1970, 86 of South Wales’ collieries were shut with Penallta being at risk of meeting the same fate. To avoid losing their jobs, Penallta’s miners used unorthodox strategies such as a waste minimisation campaign that caught the attention of the national press. The attention played a part in boosting morale to the point of production levels rising significantly ensuring the pits survival for the time.
The coming years would prove to be the hardest yet, not just for Penallta but most of South Wales’ coalfield.
Thatcher’s Tory government wanted to take our industry away, they eventually did but not after the miners of this area and many more up and down the country put up hell of a fight.
Penallta’s lodge fully participated in national strikes during 1926, 1972, 1974 and 1984–85 with only a small handful of strikebreakers returning in a bleak time for many families in the Rhymney Valley.
The miners marched back to Penallta after the end of the strike in March 1985, carrying their lodge banner displaying the solidarity shown by many of South Wales’ mining communities.
Following a £3.5m investment to modernise the colliery, production levels raised to their highest ever with a record of 590,000 tones of saleable coal per anum being broke in 1991. Despite this, the pit was soon to become yet another victim of an industry in crisis.
A brass band led out the final shift on November 1st 1991, ending 86 years of mining in this area and the final deep mine to cease production in the Rhymney Valley.
Unlike the majority of collieries in South Wales, Penallta didn’t meet the fate of a demolition crew when the winding wheel’s stopped spinning. Those wheels still tower over a red brick winding house, the pithead baths still stand with relics of yesteryear inside. Exactly like South Wales’ mining communities, Penallta was left to rot.
Generations have grown up with the abandoned colliery, many reading this will have no doubt played hide and seek or bulldogs in “The Lockers” to the dismay of parents and community support officers for years. It speaks volumes that such a dangerous site has housed many memories for people in this area long after it shut for work. Only in this valley will you find folk who’s childhood memories were made in an abandoned listed building and the surrounding slag heaps.
But even that has changed. Not long ago, the site was left was totally abandoned. The pit’s buildings were easily accessible and even the rail lines left going through Pottery Lane towards Ystrad Mynach. The Cwm Calon estate was built around the colliery, with some of its buildings being converted into apartments. The rail line has only recently been removed, paved over for a cycle path. More houses are going on the land next to the pithead baths. At the time of writing, plans are in place to convert what’s left of the pits into apartments (although this has been the case for many years).
It won’t be long before new-builds and flats take over the site completely, bringing essentially another era of Penallta to an end. But its legacy will still pass through generations in this area, even after 30 years of closure the pit still plays a part in this area’s identity and cultural fabric.
Penallta RFC will always be The Pitmen, Ysgol Gymraeg Penalltau will teach about the history of one of Europe’s flagship collieries, those winding wheels will still look as imposing as ever when you look over The Graig, stories will still be passed from former miners to younger generations. The industry is long gone, but we will still feel its impact for many years to come.
