Bwllfa Colliery

Bwllfa Colliery was a coal mine located in the Dare valley near Cwmdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales.

In 1853, Sam and Joseph Thomas began sinking a pit shaft within the remote farming community at the top of the Dare Valley.

After a series of accidents criticised by the HM Inspectorate of Mines, seeking new investment the company reformed as the Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare Steam Collieries (1891) Ltd., allowing opening of the Gorllwyn level in 1891.

Due to its ease of access, in 1922 the first electric powered coal cutting machines to be used in the South Wales coalfield were installed at Bwllfa No.3.

[1] Post World War II, by the time of nationalisation under the National Coal Board, Powell Duffryn had also ceased production at No.1, equipping it as a ventilation shaft and pumping station.

In 1949 the NCB had made a £7-million investment in Mardy Colliery, creating capacity for No.3 and No.4 shafts to access 100 million tons of coal in the 5 ft seam, estimated sufficient to last for one hundred years.

[3] It had been transformed into one of the most modern pits in the United Kingdom, with fully electric winding, new extended railway sidings and a coal washing plant on the surface.

Sometimes courts and tribunals need to speculate on what might have happened when making a determination of damages or compensation due in response to the loss of some facility.