Attending: Myself & Total404
This was an arranged visit with a very interesting guided tour led by Dai who had worked there for the past 35 years.. 25 of which he was the NUM Lodge Chairman.
No 4. Colliery opened in 1864 and a total of 14 seems were mined until British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22 April 1994 on the grounds that it would be uneconomic in current market conditions to continue production.
Led NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O'Sullivan, 239 miners each pledged £8,000 from their redundancy payouts to buy back Tower and after securing the deal the miners marched back to the pit on January 2, 1995.
Dai went on to tell us that in the 1st 3 years they had after the buyout were the best 3 years where they managed to earn enough to payback the £8,000 and give each worker a nice salary to go with it.. but from there it went down hill but they kept going through the years to provide the miners with an income to support their families even though the mine was only breaking even.. he told us that comradeship between the men was built on "hardship and laughter" no matter how tough it got down there someone had always managed to crack a joke.
Having mined out the remaining coal extracts and with the remaining coal becoming too costly to extract the colliery was last worked on 18 January, 2008 and the official closure of the colliery occurred on 25 January.
On with the Pics..
What a morning.. I have alot of respect for what they did at Tower it took balls to stand up to the government and coal board and do what these men did.
Thanks for looking
This was an arranged visit with a very interesting guided tour led by Dai who had worked there for the past 35 years.. 25 of which he was the NUM Lodge Chairman.
No 4. Colliery opened in 1864 and a total of 14 seems were mined until British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22 April 1994 on the grounds that it would be uneconomic in current market conditions to continue production.
Led NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O'Sullivan, 239 miners each pledged £8,000 from their redundancy payouts to buy back Tower and after securing the deal the miners marched back to the pit on January 2, 1995.
Dai went on to tell us that in the 1st 3 years they had after the buyout were the best 3 years where they managed to earn enough to payback the £8,000 and give each worker a nice salary to go with it.. but from there it went down hill but they kept going through the years to provide the miners with an income to support their families even though the mine was only breaking even.. he told us that comradeship between the men was built on "hardship and laughter" no matter how tough it got down there someone had always managed to crack a joke.
Having mined out the remaining coal extracts and with the remaining coal becoming too costly to extract the colliery was last worked on 18 January, 2008 and the official closure of the colliery occurred on 25 January.
On with the Pics..
Onto the Pit Head Building.
Where the lockers once stood..
Lamproom..
Emergency Maps on the Mortuary wall..
1 of 2 Pit Head Building Boilers..
The Last core samples taken from the pit face's..
Onto the Workshops..
One of the cutting face transformers..
Onto the Winding House..
Dai holding one of the original fuse's to show its scale..
Winding Drum..
Winders Cabin..
The Original Vent fan..
The New Methane Vent.. (they used the 4,200l of methane pumped from the mine per second to power generators to generate around 2/3 of the £1 million electric bill each month.)
Onto the Head Gear and Cage House..
Vent at the top of the now capped shaft.
Looking back on our way out..
Where the lockers once stood..
Lamproom..
Emergency Maps on the Mortuary wall..
1 of 2 Pit Head Building Boilers..
The Last core samples taken from the pit face's..
Onto the Workshops..
One of the cutting face transformers..
Onto the Winding House..
Dai holding one of the original fuse's to show its scale..
Winding Drum..
Winders Cabin..
The Original Vent fan..
The New Methane Vent.. (they used the 4,200l of methane pumped from the mine per second to power generators to generate around 2/3 of the £1 million electric bill each month.)
Onto the Head Gear and Cage House..
Vent at the top of the now capped shaft.
Looking back on our way out..
What a morning.. I have alot of respect for what they did at Tower it took balls to stand up to the government and coal board and do what these men did.
Thanks for looking
