Introduction
I visited this and some other places on a short exploring trip around South Wales in summer last year. The main attraction for me was the main powerhouse and the headstocks so this report focuses more on these. I would have liked to have looked at the Bathhouse nearby though but as usual I was rushing around trying to get as many places ticked off as possible!
Information & History
Penallta Coillery was one of the most significant sites for Wales’ growing coal industry at the beginning of the 20th Century. South Wales is famous for its coal industry and has a long history behind it which dates back to Roman times. At its peak, Wales was the world’s leading coal producer and as such, was a huge part of the country’s economy.
Penallta opened in 1905 by the Powell Duffryn Company. Powell Duffryn was founded in 1864 and mined coal at various sites around South Wales and was known as the largest coal company in Britain. The site opened with two pits. The No.1 pit began operating in October 1906 to a depth of 783 yards, the No.2 pit began several months later in June 1907 which was 750 yards deep initially, sinking a further 50 yards in the 1950s.
Near the two headstocks lies the Grade II Listed Powerhouse. This contained the winding engines in addition to the generators. In July 1914, one of the generators failed resulting in the halting of operations. Repair costs were £4K, which is equivalent to £590.5K in today’s money!
A tragedy occurred at the site in 1913 when a railway platelayer, aged 32, committed suicide by jumping down one of the pits. Coal mines were dangerous places to work and there were several other incidents at the site over the years, many being accidental deaths.
In the week before Christmas in December 1929, the site reported a record output of 21,396 tons of coal in a 6-day week.
In the mid to late 1940s, the colliery was nationalised which enabled the site to get better technology in the pits to improve efficiency. A Meco Moore coal-cutting machine was introduced at Penallta in 1945. These machines cut coal and loaded it up for transportation. The 1960s saw many collieries in the South Wales coalfield close thanks to attempts from the National Coal Board to make the area a smaller but more efficient producer. 86 sites closed in the area during this period and Penallta was at risk. Penallta managed to escape closure by running campaigns and hiring a PR firm to help spread these messages, which eventually went to the press, and as such Penallta was saved.
More incidents occurred during 1984 and 1985 when two more workers' deaths occurred. However, after this Penallta was given a £3.5m investment fund to further enhance the technology at the colliery, by March 1991 the site was producing nearly 600K tonnes a year of saleable coal. The future certainly looked bright for Penallta, but not for long. The site closed in November 1991 as it failed to escape the struggling industry and the threat of nationalisation. Before its closure, it was the last deep mine operating in the Rhymney Valley.
The above is essentially just a potted history of Penallta and the South Wales coal industry as a whole, there are many online resources that provide more in-depth details. I recommend the following:
Output over the years
I thought it would be useful to make some quick charts to show the number of miners and the output (in tons) year by year at the site. The source of the figures is from this page and the graphs were created in Google Sheets. The data is mostly complete, but there are a few missing entries:
The Site Today & The Explore
The site has sat disused since its closure, one of the buildings has been converted but the Bathhouse, Headstocks, and the main Powerhouse building still remain today. The Powerhouse is Grade II listed and was sold at auction in 2015 to a developer. Planning was granted a few years back to convert the Powerhouse into 48 apartments but this never materialised. More recently, Penallta appeared on the news as string winds from Storm Franklin got the winding wheels turning on the headstocks. The visit was chilled out, everything was easy to access and despite onlookers on a nearby balcony, we were not interrupted.
Onto the photos, starting with an old shot I found of the site, the date for this is unknown:
An overview of the site now:
A couple of externals of the Powerhouse, including the PD sign which stands for Powell Duffryn. Although Penallta was known as a 'star performer' in the coal industry, the company had a reputation of being a poor employer with low pay and unsafe working conditions, therefore a lot of workers referred to the PD signs around the site as standing for 'Poverty and Dole'
One of the buildings that has been saved and is now converted:
Inside the Powerhouse, this has now been completely stripped with the last pieces of machinery being removed over a decade ago:
I found a great photo taken by freelance photographer John Cornwell of the Powerhouse in 1981. Source.
Some other sections of the building:
I then found a way into one of the Headstocks, the lighting was beautiful in here with the sun shining through:
And that's all, if I am ever in the area in the future and have time, I'll be sure to check out the Bathhouse. Thanks for looking.
I visited this and some other places on a short exploring trip around South Wales in summer last year. The main attraction for me was the main powerhouse and the headstocks so this report focuses more on these. I would have liked to have looked at the Bathhouse nearby though but as usual I was rushing around trying to get as many places ticked off as possible!
Information & History
Penallta Coillery was one of the most significant sites for Wales’ growing coal industry at the beginning of the 20th Century. South Wales is famous for its coal industry and has a long history behind it which dates back to Roman times. At its peak, Wales was the world’s leading coal producer and as such, was a huge part of the country’s economy.
Penallta opened in 1905 by the Powell Duffryn Company. Powell Duffryn was founded in 1864 and mined coal at various sites around South Wales and was known as the largest coal company in Britain. The site opened with two pits. The No.1 pit began operating in October 1906 to a depth of 783 yards, the No.2 pit began several months later in June 1907 which was 750 yards deep initially, sinking a further 50 yards in the 1950s.
Near the two headstocks lies the Grade II Listed Powerhouse. This contained the winding engines in addition to the generators. In July 1914, one of the generators failed resulting in the halting of operations. Repair costs were £4K, which is equivalent to £590.5K in today’s money!
A tragedy occurred at the site in 1913 when a railway platelayer, aged 32, committed suicide by jumping down one of the pits. Coal mines were dangerous places to work and there were several other incidents at the site over the years, many being accidental deaths.
In the week before Christmas in December 1929, the site reported a record output of 21,396 tons of coal in a 6-day week.
In the mid to late 1940s, the colliery was nationalised which enabled the site to get better technology in the pits to improve efficiency. A Meco Moore coal-cutting machine was introduced at Penallta in 1945. These machines cut coal and loaded it up for transportation. The 1960s saw many collieries in the South Wales coalfield close thanks to attempts from the National Coal Board to make the area a smaller but more efficient producer. 86 sites closed in the area during this period and Penallta was at risk. Penallta managed to escape closure by running campaigns and hiring a PR firm to help spread these messages, which eventually went to the press, and as such Penallta was saved.
More incidents occurred during 1984 and 1985 when two more workers' deaths occurred. However, after this Penallta was given a £3.5m investment fund to further enhance the technology at the colliery, by March 1991 the site was producing nearly 600K tonnes a year of saleable coal. The future certainly looked bright for Penallta, but not for long. The site closed in November 1991 as it failed to escape the struggling industry and the threat of nationalisation. Before its closure, it was the last deep mine operating in the Rhymney Valley.
The above is essentially just a potted history of Penallta and the South Wales coal industry as a whole, there are many online resources that provide more in-depth details. I recommend the following:
Output over the years
I thought it would be useful to make some quick charts to show the number of miners and the output (in tons) year by year at the site. The source of the figures is from this page and the graphs were created in Google Sheets. The data is mostly complete, but there are a few missing entries:
The Site Today & The Explore
The site has sat disused since its closure, one of the buildings has been converted but the Bathhouse, Headstocks, and the main Powerhouse building still remain today. The Powerhouse is Grade II listed and was sold at auction in 2015 to a developer. Planning was granted a few years back to convert the Powerhouse into 48 apartments but this never materialised. More recently, Penallta appeared on the news as string winds from Storm Franklin got the winding wheels turning on the headstocks. The visit was chilled out, everything was easy to access and despite onlookers on a nearby balcony, we were not interrupted.
Onto the photos, starting with an old shot I found of the site, the date for this is unknown:
An overview of the site now:
A couple of externals of the Powerhouse, including the PD sign which stands for Powell Duffryn. Although Penallta was known as a 'star performer' in the coal industry, the company had a reputation of being a poor employer with low pay and unsafe working conditions, therefore a lot of workers referred to the PD signs around the site as standing for 'Poverty and Dole'
One of the buildings that has been saved and is now converted:
Inside the Powerhouse, this has now been completely stripped with the last pieces of machinery being removed over a decade ago:
I found a great photo taken by freelance photographer John Cornwell of the Powerhouse in 1981. Source.
Some other sections of the building:
I then found a way into one of the Headstocks, the lighting was beautiful in here with the sun shining through:
And that's all, if I am ever in the area in the future and have time, I'll be sure to check out the Bathhouse. Thanks for looking.
