Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Coal mining in the South Wales Coalfield was a dangerous occupation with lifelong health implications. [15] Between 1849 and 1853, miners over the age of 25 in the Merthyr Tydfil district were found to have a life expectancy of around 20 years lower than in other mining areas of England and Wales. [16]
The records of the Coal Owners Association are now held by the National Library of Wales and provide a valuable source of information on the history of coal mining and industrial relations in the South Wales coalfields. Two volumes of surveys by Alexander Dalziel, an early secretary of the association, include reports and personal observations ...
The South Wales Coalfield was at its peak in 1913 and was one of the largest coalfields in the world. It remained the largest coalfield in Britain until 1925. [1] The supply of coal dwindled [citation needed], and pits closed in spite of a UK-wide strike against closures. Aberpergwm Colliery is the last deep mine in Wales. [2]
British Coal-Miners in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History (Holmes & Meier, 1980) Berger, Stefan Llafur. "Working-Class Culture and the Labour Movement in the South Wales and the Ruhr Coalfields, 1850-2000: A Comparison," Journal of Welsh Labour History/Cylchgrawn Hanes Llafur Cymru (2001) 8#2 pp 5-40. Bick, David E.
This made South Wales the most important part of Britain for ironmaking until the middle of the 19th century. Second, from 1850 until the outbreak of the First World War, the South Wales Coalfield was developed to supply steam coal and anthracite. [1] The South Wales Valleys hosted Britain's only mountainous coalfields. [2]
The strike is seen as an important landmark in Welsh history as it saw the true adoption of trade unionism in the southern coalfield which had been slow to take hold before then. The South Wales Miners' Federation was the largest trade union to have originated from this dispute.
The Welsh coal industry employed 1,500 workers in 1800; [2] as the industry expanded, the workforce rose to 30,000 by 1864, and to 250,000 by 1913. [3] [a] As employment became available, many people moved to the area of the South Wales Coalfield; between 1851 and 1911 the population increased by 320,000. [4]
The Big Pit is part of a network of coal workings established in Blaenavon in the first half of the nineteenth century by the Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company as part of the development of the Blaenavon Ironworks, [3] [a] which means it has some of the oldest large scale industrial coal mining developments in the South Wales Coalfield. [3]