Penallta Colliery, South Wales Nov 2016

[mookster]

Final stop on mine and Landie Man's whistlestop South Wales excursion before a string of fails and no-gos resulted in us hitting the M4 homeward bound.

Penallta Colliery is one of those locations like Cwm Coke which has been around seemingly forever, much of the site has now been cleared or converted into an industrial park but the two headstocks, power house and huge bath house remain derelict. I was pleasantly surprised here as I wasn't expecting too much, so little in fact I didn't bring my tripod with me from the car so had to settle for dodgy handheld shots.

After exploring the base of the headstocks and the vast empty power house I took one look at the steep incline leading up to the bath house and decided against it, as I was limping like a cripple still nursing a very fragile and painful ankle from the accident the day before. One little slip and I'd be in a much worse state. Whether it's actually accessible or not I don't know, all the windows looked thoroughly bricked up from the roadside at least.

Thanks for looking, more here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157675117256612 ​

 

[smiler]

I enjoyed that Mook, nice shots of the headgear, hope your poorly leg is better soon

 

[HughieD]

Nothing dodgy about those shots Mook...

 

[Dam_01]

Really like the long shot inside the Power House.

 

[photo401]

I live approximately 10 minutes from this place, I've yet to explore the bath house, but apparently there is a way in, through a small opening in a window..

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[oldscrote]

This is how it was,and not a hard hat or hi-viz jacket in sight.These men really earned their money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI61iwEzi0A

 

[TopAbandoned]

I've been in the bath house https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFxT_0Iunds

 

[Pilot]

A tragedy. Whole communities died with their mines. I wonder why other countries can deep mine coal, yet we can't.

 

[krela]

I would imagine it has something to do with Thatcher comprehensively destroying the entire industry beyond recovery in the early 80s, followed by open cast mining in South America making deep cast mining unviable in the 90s onwards.

 

[smiler]

True,but Mr Scargill wasn't blameless, two egos that destroyed coal mining in Britain, just my opinion but I have always felt that a bit of common sense on both sides would have made the strike unnecessary.

 

[fluffy5518]

i dont think that Thatchers primary concern was common sense - there was only ever gonna be one outcome ! Lets hope we never see the likes of her again !!

 

[krela]

Well, regardless of interpretation of history and politics, ultimately it was Thatcher who shut down the collieries and made sure they would never reopen. Either way there are very few deep drift coal mines anywhere in the world any more. The economic and environmental climate makes them financially unviable. Global demnd for coal has plummeted everywhere except for China as climate change levies and pollution controls have become stricter.

 

[smiler]

I would hate to be misinterpreted, I am not, nor ever have bin an admirer of Margaret Thatcher.
I was not giving a political opinion, merely stating how I saw the events unfold, and I felt then and have not changed my mind since, It could have bin avoided.