South Wales Coalfield
The South Wales Coalfield (Welsh: Maes glo De Cymru) extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen.
The availability of coal and nearby limestone (as a flux) gave rise to a substantial local iron and steel industry which was perpetuated in the 20th century by the location of modern steelworks at Ebbw Vale, Newport and Cardiff and Port Talbot.
[2][3] Oil, having higher energy density than coal, allowed larger and faster warships, and being easily piped, was easier to supply to ships at sea.
By the start of World War I, both the Queen Elizabeth-class and the Revenge-class battleships were partly oil-fired: oil was used mainly for both quick-start steaming, and sprayed on burning coal to extend their range.
Further, that summer the British suffered a number of losses of oil tankers, and had to instruct oil-fired ships to restrict their fuel consumption and hence speed.
However, after WWI, the move to oil-firing was quickly extended to other areas, including the railways, which was a key strategic factor in the economic hardship which struck the coalfield after the war.
The 1937 novel The Citadel and the 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley (later filmed, with a wildly inaccurate "colliery village") describe such hardship, as do the poems of Idris Davies the miner, teacher and poet of Rhymney.
Following the general collapse of the UK coal industry, most pits closed during the 1980s, with factors such as exhaustion of reserves and geological complexity adding to their problems.
Following the Aberfan disaster of 1966, when a coal-tip slurry flow buried a school, mine-waste tips, which had been piled precariously on hilltops in many cases, were extensively regraded and reclaimed.
[6] The mine produced high quality anthracite, and was sold primarily to Aberthaw power station and Port Talbot Steelworks and into the wholesale and retail sized coal markets.
[7] In the first half of the nineteenth century, the development of ironworks saw the population of Merthyr Tydfil, in the northern part of the coalfield, increase from 7,700 in 1801 to 49,794 in 1861, making it the largest town in Wales.
[7] As Cardiff and other ports in South Wales grew to meet the demands for exporting iron, steel and coal in the later part of the nineteenth century, valleys that had previously been sparsely inhabited suddenly increased in population.
[15] Between 1849 and 1853, miners over the age of 25 in the Merthyr Tydfil district were found to have a life expectancy of around 20 years lower than in other mining areas of England and Wales.
[16] In the 1930s, mine owners became concerned about the adverse health effects of coal dust and the amount it was costing them to compensate miners working at the coalface.
