Main Adit, Cwmbran Colliery, Springvale, Cwmbran 10 January 2018
The remains of the wall are all that is left showing of the 1879 Main Adit of Cwmbran Colliery. In the 1980s, the council bulldozed it over. It seems to disappear a little bit more each year.For a picture of the adit in 1972:
www.flickr.com/photos/16498755@N07/1777497745/in/photolis...
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...
Main Adit, Cwmbran Colliery, Springvale, Cwmbran 10 January 2018
The remains of the wall are all that is left showing of the 1879 Main Adit of Cwmbran Colliery. In the 1980s, the council bulldozed it over. It seems to disappear a little bit more each year.For a picture of the adit in 1972:
www.flickr.com/photos/16498755@N07/1777497745/in/photolis...
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...