'historic' Tower Colliery Still In Business

[mikey4444]

I apologise in advance for including this under NEWS but it seemed the best place. A really good news story from my part of the world, that is still successful in 2015, 20 years after the workers buy-out. If it had been up the Tory government of the time, this mine would have flooded years ago and 100's of much needed jobs would have been lost, to say nothing of its very valuable coal. If anybody wants to know why the Tories are so unpopular in Wales, you need look no further than Tower Colliery. See what ordinary people can do, given the chance ::::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-30662166

[anotheoldgit]

I suppose it was the Tory government of the time that closed Wale's Lead mines, Gold mines, Silver mines. Copper mines, and Iron mines?

Shocking they should be ashamed of themselves.

[paddywak]

Everybody in the industry knew pits had to closed no matter which government was in charge ,it's the nature of the game that you start closing a pit as soon as the first ton of coal comes up the shaft,what made people so bitter was that pits were just closed irrespective of reserves or profitability. The pit I worked at had 30-40 years proven reserves plus access to the Witham Seam which ran to the east coast and which boreholes proved to average out at 5metres of high quality coal but we had the technology and the men to get it in a slimmed down efficiently ran industry.They were even researching on ways to producing "Clean Burn" systems which could have produced all the electricity we needed in new generation power stations.
I noticed one post mentioned people "wanting" to work U/G but I don't know any ex-miner who'd go back,yes the money was good and I've never known better workmates but the real price of coal was paid in blood,I know from personal experience. My grandfather was killed under ground and in the 30 years I worked in the pits I had five friends,boys I went to school with,who lost their lives underground and I myself received the Last Rites of the RC Church after a accident on the coal face.I'm not one who wants to return to the "Good Old Days" because they weren't all good but if the pit closure program had been carried out in a less brutal fashion we could stlll have had a viable coal industry with out being hostage to any crackpot with his hand on the Gas/Oil valve.

[mikey4444]

Paddywack...very interesting...thanks you. The Witham Seam was in Notts, if my memory is correct ?

[Sycamore3House]

Paddywak, both side of my family worked in lancashire coal mines. My Grandfather first went down the mine before the WW1. After the war he returned to the mine and was buried alive 3 times but survived blue scars all over his bald head. My father also went down the mine in the 1950's but when the miners strike started in the 80's I remember my Grandfather telling me that one of the best days of his life was when my father got his apprenticeship as a carpenter and how lucky he was and how grateful my Grandfather was that he would not have a working life underground. Also I agree that the closures should not have been as brutal.

[mikey4444]

There will be people on here that will disagree with me on this ( so whats new ! ) but Tower Colliery was closed by British Coal in 1994 because they said it wasn't economical anymore. But this was proved wrong by Tyrone Sullivan and the newly redundant miners, and they went on to produce deep coal for another 13 years. So the original decision was incorrect !

Again, to repeat...see what ordinary people can do, given the chance. To quote from the wiki link :::

"The shareholders are still debating the future of the site, which they eventually wish to have developed to leave a legacy for the area which provides employment. Eventually there are plans to develop the site, with combinations of housing, industrial estate, industrial heritage museum or tourism resort being debated with several potential partners"

Coal not dole. All the snide comments from some on here today is never going to alter the fact that this has been a great success.

A special thanks should go to Ann Clwyd MP, without whose heroic help the buyout may never have gone ahead. I met her at the first performance of Alun Hoddinott's Opera, The Tower.

[mushroom25]

//Again, to repeat...see what ordinary people can do, given the chance. To quote from the wiki link :::

"The shareholders are still debating the future of the site, //

.....which quietly ignores the socking great hole that the shareholders' business partners (Hargreaves) have dug on the site - 200 acres and over 100m deep. how do they propose to develop that?

[paddywak]

The Witham Seam was in Notts and Lincs mikey, as I said good thick seams of high quality coal running as far as the east coast.
The lads at the Tower should feel really proud of what they did,really showing the powers that be what could be achieved by a good,dedicated work force and a written off pit.

[mikey4444]

Well said Paddy !

[mikey4444]

Mush...if you lived in a coal mining area, you will know that Hargreaves will reconstitute the open cast site and in a few years time, it will be difficult to see where the original workings were. Its been done all over South Wales and similar areas for many years. There are now many housing estates and industrial estates all over the area, that have been built on former industrial land and workings. Its the way of the world. Gone are the days of ugly dangerous tips and Aberfan, thank goodness.

[mushroom25]

I do live in a mining area (north Warwickshire) and although my house isn't built on a landscaped tip (the adjoining estate is), my house deeds stipulate that I have no mineral rights, these being vested in the coal authority pertaining at the time. yes, former mine areas are generally cleaned up, and if you didn't know coal was once mined here you'd never guess. open cast strip mining is a whole different ball game though - it's difficult to disguise the resulting scars.

[paddywak]

All the local pit tips have been landscaped with walks,ponds etc and any new comer to the area walking a dog would find it hard to believe they were actually on an old tip.One of the best looking bits of the nearest tip is the oldest part and has never had any work done to it at all just natural tree and grass regrowth that looked that good the landscapers decided they couldn't do any better so they left it.