Production
The high grade of coal produced was ideal for maritime uses, and was hence bought by various shipping concerns including the Admiralty and Cunard Line. This spurred Davies purchase of the rival Harris-owned Deep Navigation Colliery in 1893, which from 1914 for a period provided electricity supply to Lady Windsor.
During its peak period the colliery employed around 1500 people directly although most of the 6000-7000 village community relied upon the pit in one way or another. In 1935 the colliery was employing 142 men on the surface and 949 underground. In 1931, Lady Windsor was among the first collieries in Wales to provide a pithead baths and first aid/medical treatment room, with the residents of the village were also allowed to use the baths for a small fee (3d to 6d). In 1935 the colliery was employing 142 men on the surface and 949 underground.
Post World War II, nationalisation took place on 1 January 1947, but the returning miners wanted better conditions, and many choose to commute to work at the newly developed Treforest Trading Estate. In part filled by displaced and stateless Europeans, even special allowances did not fulfil the labour needs of the mines.
By 1956 The Lady Windsor was in need of deeper exploitation with almost all the reserves in the Upper Seams being exhausted. With closed pits from County Durham providing an influx of labour, during 1964 a £4 million reorganisation put in a new pit bottom area, trunk conveyors and a diesel loco haulage system.
In March 1975 it was linked underground via two parallel tunnels with Abercynon Colliery, which was situated on the other side of the mountain, to form a single production unit at a cost of £450,000. Coal was raised at the Lady Windsor end of the unit from a depth of 687 yards, with 1,150 men were producing 318,000 tons yearly from Six feet, Lower Nine feet and Seven feet seams.
By 1981 manpower deployment broke down to 216 on development, 292 on the coalface, 342 underground and 305 on the surface.
Read more about this topic: Lady Windsor Colliery
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