Hi,
New member here, posting my first report on somewhere that has seen a lot of Traffic over the years, but none the less is still very impressive in terms of size and engineering: Cwm Coke Works in Beddau, Wales. As this place was only posted recently I will keep the history brief but sweet.
History
The Place was originally a colliery named "Cwm Colliery" situated in Beddau, just south of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf. It was sunk in 1909 but no coal was actually extracted until 1914, which was extracted from two shafts, Margaret and Mildred. The shafts were over 750 yards deep. In 1928 the colliery was taken over by Powell Duffryn Associated Colleries Limited, and at this point it employed over 1000 men. It operated under their name until 1948 when the National Coal Board (NCB) was established to manage the nationalised coal industry in the UK. The NCB updated the colliery in a massive £9 million redevelopment between 1952 and 1960. This included connection Cwm (pronounced "Coomb") to Coedely Tonyrefail, and of course building a massive Cokeworks, Cwm Coke.
In the 70s, the cokeworks alone employed 1,500 men and produced some 515,000 tonnes of coke each year. It continued to do so until 1986, when the NCB was privatised. The colliery ceased production at this point, but the cokeworks were bought buy CPL Industries and continued producing coke right up until 2002. It would have remained open had it not been for the fact it was extremely outdated, in desperate need of modernisation and no one was willing to invest in new technologies.
The report is split over 2 separate visits, start of April and more recently few days back. First visit was just taken with a basic phone, second was with a newly purchased camera off the back of a failed visit elsewhere. Both times visited with a non member.
Now for the pics
Got to get at least one funnel pic in
I can't get enough of this place and another visit is definitely on the cards. I could post so many more pictures but didn't want to bore anyone, seeing as it has been done a lot.
More over on Photobucket: http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Wandering-LilLegs/slideshow/Cwm Coke Works - Beddau Wales April 2016
Hope you enjoyed!
Comments and Critiques always welcome.
Lillegs
I was going to post more as really like this place. So much to explore. Need to get to the top building but both times there's been truck just outside the site. A return visit evening time is definitely on the cards.
