Tower Colliery, South Wales Coal Field, August 2017
Introduction:
First report and indeed first bit of exploring done by me in a few month, mainly thanks to work taking over, first bit of leave however and the South Wales Coal Field and colliery action was on the agenda for @BoroLad and I. We've both been wanting to visit the South Wales Coal Field for years now, Tower in particular, so it's been great to get down there and tick Rhondda, Penalta, Big Pit, Hetty, Cefn Coed and Tower off at long last!
Tower, now is firmly placed on the tourist trail and sadly this is beginning to show, don't get me wrong, with the demise of Kellingley and Thoresby I'd say she's now the best condition derelict colliery in the country now but it's still not looking like the place has a bright future ahead of it sadly... Thoroughly enjoyed though, and was nice to have a fairly relaxed rummage about the place only having to duck down in the power house for ten when secca turned up for a quick walk about site.
First report and indeed first bit of exploring done by me in a few month, mainly thanks to work taking over, first bit of leave however and the South Wales Coal Field and colliery action was on the agenda for @BoroLad and I. We've both been wanting to visit the South Wales Coal Field for years now, Tower in particular, so it's been great to get down there and tick Rhondda, Penalta, Big Pit, Hetty, Cefn Coed and Tower off at long last!
Tower, now is firmly placed on the tourist trail and sadly this is beginning to show, don't get me wrong, with the demise of Kellingley and Thoresby I'd say she's now the best condition derelict colliery in the country now but it's still not looking like the place has a bright future ahead of it sadly... Thoroughly enjoyed though, and was nice to have a fairly relaxed rummage about the place only having to duck down in the power house for ten when secca turned up for a quick walk about site.
History:
Tower is the oldest surviving continuously worked deep colliery in the UK and perhaps even the world, the first drift at Tower having believed to have been started in 1805. Tower, as we know it today however was started with the sinking of a new shaft in 1941 at a depth of 160 metres.
The colliery survived the 1984/85 strikes and became a part of British Coal, who would go onto to close the colliery on the 22nd of April 1994. The colliery however was bought out by its workers for a cost of 2 million pounds, they would reopen the mine continue to mine until 2008 when the colliery was closed for good.
Pictures:
Tower colliery and the surrounding area as viewed from the top of a nearby hill whilst heading for Rhondda shame the weather was shit on our trip, but what can you do?
We headed straight for the bath house, always a favourite area of mine when exploring industry, colliery bath houses are just the best though, especially with a little added grime and natural decay.
Well, I say a little, this place looks as though it's been hit hard by mother nature in recent weeks.
Looking in from the clean side lockers...
Next we headed down stairs to check the lamp room and labs out, getting a shot of the urbex famous Tower wall painting along the way, such tourism, but we where doing pits before they where cool so...
Visitors book...
And the Lab, mostly used for testing Self Rescuers and preparing coal samples.
There's one or two items of interest left behind here, such as this breathing tube used by mines rescue, not worth anything but interesting to see all the same.
Plenty of clothing left behind too, as per with these places, no nice donkeys like Maltby though...
Next on the agenda was the power house, always a great place to visit, highly unique these buildings to the mining industry. No good getting any ideas now though if your reading, this and Hatfield are the last two derelict ones in any half decent nick, you'll have to go to the museums if you wish to start collecting now.
Anyway, here's the winder controls, there's still a fair few of these kicking about for the moment so it's not all doom and gloom.
And the winding engine itself.
The electrical substation, bloody tiny compared to what we where used to seeing at places like Harworth, Hatfield and Thoresby...
Compressors.
And our next and sadly due to light final target, we would have liked to have seen the workshops but sadly we had to miss them...
Absolutely abysmal weather, but another one well and truly 'headstocked'.
Tower is the oldest surviving continuously worked deep colliery in the UK and perhaps even the world, the first drift at Tower having believed to have been started in 1805. Tower, as we know it today however was started with the sinking of a new shaft in 1941 at a depth of 160 metres.
The colliery survived the 1984/85 strikes and became a part of British Coal, who would go onto to close the colliery on the 22nd of April 1994. The colliery however was bought out by its workers for a cost of 2 million pounds, they would reopen the mine continue to mine until 2008 when the colliery was closed for good.
Pictures:
Tower colliery and the surrounding area as viewed from the top of a nearby hill whilst heading for Rhondda shame the weather was shit on our trip, but what can you do?
We headed straight for the bath house, always a favourite area of mine when exploring industry, colliery bath houses are just the best though, especially with a little added grime and natural decay.
Well, I say a little, this place looks as though it's been hit hard by mother nature in recent weeks.
Looking in from the clean side lockers...
Next we headed down stairs to check the lamp room and labs out, getting a shot of the urbex famous Tower wall painting along the way, such tourism, but we where doing pits before they where cool so...
Visitors book...
And the Lab, mostly used for testing Self Rescuers and preparing coal samples.
There's one or two items of interest left behind here, such as this breathing tube used by mines rescue, not worth anything but interesting to see all the same.
Plenty of clothing left behind too, as per with these places, no nice donkeys like Maltby though...
Next on the agenda was the power house, always a great place to visit, highly unique these buildings to the mining industry. No good getting any ideas now though if your reading, this and Hatfield are the last two derelict ones in any half decent nick, you'll have to go to the museums if you wish to start collecting now.
Anyway, here's the winder controls, there's still a fair few of these kicking about for the moment so it's not all doom and gloom.
And the winding engine itself.
The electrical substation, bloody tiny compared to what we where used to seeing at places like Harworth, Hatfield and Thoresby...
Compressors.
And our next and sadly due to light final target, we would have liked to have seen the workshops but sadly we had to miss them...
Absolutely abysmal weather, but another one well and truly 'headstocked'.
And inside, where the men would have prepared to go underground...
Banksman's Cabin.
TOWER.
And one of the headstock as we departed, it was near enough pitch black by this point...
And that's all from Tower, it was a relatively short in and out visit due to the amount we had to do and see on our Wales Trip, still this was probably the highlight of the excursion.
I'll hopefully start whacking the reports back up again soon, once I start getting more time off from training.
Thanks for reading and as ever I hope you enjoyed the report!
Cheers,
TAW
Banksman's Cabin.
TOWER.
And one of the headstock as we departed, it was near enough pitch black by this point...
And that's all from Tower, it was a relatively short in and out visit due to the amount we had to do and see on our Wales Trip, still this was probably the highlight of the excursion.
I'll hopefully start whacking the reports back up again soon, once I start getting more time off from training.
Thanks for reading and as ever I hope you enjoyed the report!
Cheers,
TAW
