Llanharry Iron Mine

[cardiffrail]

Llanharry Iron, mine, closed 1971 is located near the small village of Llanharry, to the south of Llantrisant. It occupies a fairly large site, however, much of the complex has been demolished. Three main buildings remain together with other smaller remains.

The largest is the winding house and tooling shop. This brick and corrugated iron building is pretty much empty and has seen better days. It creaks in the wind and the roof lets the rain in.

The second building is the pithead baths building. This building almost certainly had other functions but it is unclear what these were. It is extensively blackened inside, suggesting that there may have been a fire at some point. The building survived as it is built from brick and concrete.

The third main building served as the power house and generator room. This is located away from the main site about 200m north east. Located next to this is an emptied elecric substation, with just the concrete coil supports remaining.

Lastly, by the roadside there is a former pumphouse and culvert drain that served to de-water the mine.

The shaft has been capped but there is a large gas vent pipe (about 10" diameter) that allows one to see down the shaft. The shaft is flooded at a considerable depth.

 

[Foxylady]

Enjoyed you report and pics, Cardiffrail. That first photo of the winding house makes it look very dark and brooding; quite spooky, in fact. Like the old brickwork on the smaller building.
Thanks for that.
Foxy

 

[Reaperman]

Interesting, Its a shame its all so buggered really. Were there many Iorn mines in south wales? I'm only really familiar with collierys in that area.

 

[King Al]

Nice one Cardiffrail, great tour there that place looks really interesting from the pictures. Were all the buildings gutted? How long has it been abandoned?

 

[cardiffrail]

Llanharry was one of the few shaft type iron mines in south Wales. A peculiar quirk of the geology of the area (and also in Yorkshore) is that the Carboniferous era sediments that contain coal also contain iron ore. At the start of the industrial revolution, most of the mining in south Wales was for iron, with coal as a 'side' to fire the furnaces. Most of the iron was mined at the northern end of the valleys, where the former large steelworks were (Cyrfartha, closed 1922, Dowlais, Rhymney, Tredegar and Ebbw Vale, closed 1990's). It was only later on that coal became the main export, and iron was imported, hence few large iron mines in the area. In addition, for steelmaking, the third required mineral - limestone is also in ready abundance in the area.

I have seen a colliery shaft log for a mine in Derbyshire (where the geology is similar) and the mine encountered coal seams and ironstone beds, both mateials were extracted. A shaft-based iron mine was located nearby.

Llanharrry mine closed 1971, along with the last remaining section of the Llantrisant to Aberthaw railway betwen Llanharry and Llantrisant.

 

[sinnerman]

That is a good site to visit but the large building is not the winding house, the dram rails leading in to it suggest its some kind of workshop, The winding house sat in between the two shafts opposite the office building. it was demolished in the late 80's early 90's at the same time as the headgears came down.

 

[surfer2201]

Went there today and someone's put a dozer through most of it, I'm not sure if the land has been sold, there's new padlocks on the gates and the winding house has been partly dismantled with a new roof (or at least the steels) have been erected

 

[BikinGlynn]

Went there today and someone's put a dozer through most of it, I'm not sure if the land has been sold, there's new padlocks on the gates and the winding house has been partly dismantled with a new roof (or at least the steels) have been erected

Not surprised as this report is from 2007 & cant recall anything from this since