Retaining Wall, Cwmbran Colliery, Springvale, Cwmbran 10 January 2018
In the 1960s, at the foot of this wall, a local family kept an allotment/smallholding here, known to locals as "Bugs' Prop". On top of the wall were foundations, probably for the colliery electricity sub station which have been absorbed into Greenmeadow Community Farm with all traces eradicated. It was a wonderful adventure playground in my childhood.
Cwmbran Colliery opened in 1837 at the Porthmawr Adit in Upper Cwmbran, also known as the Clay Level because of the excellent grade fireclay discovered there, causing an adjacent brickworks to be opened in 1839 to exploit it. In 1854 another adit, the Mineslope Adit was opened a little further up the mountain and in 1879 the Main Adit was opened in Springvale near the Cwmbran Iron Works (later GKN). The colliery closed in 1927 with the sealing of the Main Adit. The previous shift's entire output of coal was sealed in after the miners left the adit for the last time. A tramway system ran from the Mineslope Adit to Old Cwmbran where it linked up with the Cwmbran-Caerleon tramway which finished at the wharf on the River Usk.
Colliery map:
www.flickr.com/photos/16498755@N07/39385325611/in/datepos...
Retaining Wall, Cwmbran Colliery, Springvale, Cwmbran 10 January 2018
In the 1960s, at the foot of this wall, a local family kept an allotment/smallholding here, known to locals as "Bugs' Prop". On top of the wall were foundations, probably for the colliery electricity sub station which have been absorbed into Greenmeadow Community Farm with all traces eradicated. It was a wonderful adventure playground in my childhood.
Cwmbran Colliery opened in 1837 at the Porthmawr Adit in Upper Cwmbran, also known as the Clay Level because of the excellent grade fireclay discovered there, causing an adjacent brickworks to be opened in 1839 to exploit it. In 1854 another adit, the Mineslope Adit was opened a little further up the mountain and in 1879 the Main Adit was opened in Springvale near the Cwmbran Iron Works (later GKN). The colliery closed in 1927 with the sealing of the Main Adit. The previous shift's entire output of coal was sealed in after the miners left the adit for the last time. A tramway system ran from the Mineslope Adit to Old Cwmbran where it linked up with the Cwmbran-Caerleon tramway which finished at the wharf on the River Usk.
Colliery map:
www.flickr.com/photos/16498755@N07/39385325611/in/datepos...