Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Raeturbo]

I’m aware of the decrease in consumption but we are still burning coal, it should be coal taken from our own country. Besides you don’t have to tell me The history of coal production I happen to live in the place which was the biggest coal exporter in the world at one time.

[Lizzie Zoom]

I’m aware of the decrease in consumption but we are still burning coal, it should be coal taken from our own country. Besides you don’t have to tell me The history of coal production I happen to live in the place which was the biggest coal exporter in the world at one time.

Sorry, but your post #103 gave a different impression

I know how it affected the valleys, as on business I regularly covered that area, and during the 1984/85 strike period watched the lorries on the motorways moving coal around, and a close police friend of mine was shipped in to help control it, causing much resentment.

It hit you all hard there, and in other pit communities, but it's time had come, certainly encouraged by the foolish actions of Scargill. Now coal is rapidly declining down to not far short of zero, why would anyone invest in pits anywhere in the UK to supply a reducing demand, even if you could encourage the high tech young of today to work down them?

I just do not understand that logic.

[Sir Tigger KC]

Am I right in thinking that they had got close to solving the conundrum of how to burn coal cleanly?  But they didn't quite get there before EU law compelled them to close down the coal fired power stations?   

It seems bonkers to me, just to abandon a massive resource like that.   

[Lizzie Zoom]

Am I right in thinking that they had got close to solving the conundrum of how to burn coal cleanly?  But they didn't quite get there before EU law compelled them to close down the coal fired power stations?   

It seems bonkers to me, just to abandon a massive resource like that.   

They have created a far cleaner way to burn coal, but renewables will always be cleaner and the decision has been made to go down that road

In anycase, can digging the coal out of the ground in the UK, with all that implies for those who would have to do it, then transporting it all again to the six coal fired plants only still operating, or more if a change of policy was to occur, be justified?

[ronnyd]

Am I right in thinking that they had got close to solving the conundrum of how to burn coal cleanly?  But they didn't quite get there before EU law compelled them to close down the coal fired power stations?   

It seems bonkers to me, just to abandon a massive resource like that.   

They have created a far cleaner way to burn coal, but renewables will always be cleaner and the decision has been made to go down that road

In anycase, can digging the coal out of the ground in the UK, with all that implies for those who would have to do it, then transporting it all again to the six coal fired plants only still operating, or more if a change of policy was to occur, be justified?

Could always flog the surplus to China or India, or even the U.S. They don,t really give a stuff about clean air.

[Doctor Gollum]

That isn't strictly true, a lot of the US power comes from Nuclear 

[Lizzie Zoom]

That isn't strictly true, a lot of the US power comes from Nuclear 

Yes indeed, and it is echoed by the following I noted before when looking at UK coal consumption:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37692

Use of coal in the US for power generation is going down, even with the Trump factor

[Lizzie Zoom]

And one for the Climate Change deniers:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49817804

 

[Raeturbo]

I’m aware of the decrease in consumption but we are still burning coal, it should be coal taken from our own country. Besides you don’t have to tell me The history of coal production I happen to live in the place which was the biggest coal exporter in the world at one time.

Sorry, but your post #103 gave a different impression

I know how it affected the valleys, as on business I regularly covered that area, and during the 1984/85 strike period watched the lorries on the motorways moving coal around, and a close police friend of mine was shipped in to help control it, causing much resentment.

It hit you all hard there, and in other pit communities, but it's time had come, certainly encouraged by the foolish actions of Scargill. Now coal is rapidly declining down to not far short of zero, why would anyone invest in pits anywhere in the UK to supply a reducing demand, even if you could encourage the high tech young of today to work down them?

I just do not understand that logic.

.       That’s rubbish, as said new technologies were well on the way at that time for cleaner burning, and the time had certainly not come, you’re talking out of your arse, as proven by the miners buy out at Hirwaun which is still operational and Thatcher was just as bad as Scargill on this issue. It was never going to be resolved. Besides who did you want to invest? It was already there!

[Raeturbo]

So you would rather burn coal from abroad than our own?   Honest question

[Raeturbo]

I just do not understand that logic.       That’s right you’ve no idea, your not from here,  you’ve never worked underground, you’ve heard this,. your friends did this and that. Pack it in girl and watch the lorries.

[Raeturbo]

2008 was official ending but there’s still a lot going on there.

Coal had been commercially mined at Tower Colliery near the village of Hirwaun in the South Wales Cynon Valley since 1864, first as a drift mine and later (in the 1940s) as a deep mine.

In the aftermath of the 1984/85 Miner’s strike, the then Conservative government instructed British Coal to undertake a huge closure programme, involving many of the UK’s deep mines, on economic grounds. The official axe fell on Tower in April 1994, and many experts thought that was that…. But what happened next was totally unexpected.

Rather than accept the fate decreed for them, the Tower miners, led by NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O’Sullivan, came to a decision: they would buy their own pit and continue to work it successfully. Two hundred and thirty nine miners each pledged their £8,000 redundancy payouts; they developed a business plan; and they attracted financial support from the banks.

In spite of strong official resistance, and in the face of other competing bids, the Tower miners won the day and their bid for the colliery was accepted, with the result that on January 2nd, 1995 they marched triumphantly back into Tower and began work in earnest the following day.

For the next thirteen years, the re-opened Tower Colliery successfully produced coal, and made a decent profit for its’ many owner-shareholders until, in January 2008, with the last economically viable deep coal deposits worked out, the pit closed for the second – and last – time.

Now, some three and a half years later, the Tower story is set to begin one last chapter, with permission gained to extract about 5.8 million tonnes of shallow coal deposits…

We were ordinary men;

We wanted jobs;

We bought a pit.

 Historical
The Cynon valley is the oldest mining area in Wales. Predates the more famous Rhondda valleys having its roots on the Hirwaun common mining ironstone followed by coal. Following the demise of iron industry replaced by demand for coal.

HISTORY INTRINSICALLY LINKED WITH COAL & IRONSTONE HISTORY OF HIRWAUN COMMON

1631 - EARLIEST RECORDED COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION.

GROUND LET FOR DIGGING BY EARL of PEMBROKE

1757 - JOHN MAYBERRY SECURED LEASE of 250 acres in 1757 on HIRWAUN COMMON TO SUPPLY RAW MATERIALS FOR IRON FURNACE CONSTRUCTED AT HIRWAUN IN SAME YEAR.

IRONWORKS AQUIRED IN 1780 ANTHONY BACON ( PARTNER FRANCIS HOMFRAY ) OF CYFARTHA

PURCHASED 1819 BY WILLIAM CRAWSHAY.

1800 - TURN 18TH CENTURY GROWTH OF IRONSTONE & COAL MINING FROM SURFACE DRIFT MINES

1847 - KNOBBY DRIFT ( CNAPIOG DRIFT ) IRONSTONE & COAL ( 5’ SEAM )

1848 - CRAWSHAY TOWER BUILT (FOLLY?, SHELTER ?, CELEBRATE SUPPRESSION MERTHYR RISING ? )

1859 - HIRWAUN IRONWORKS CLOSED

FOLLOWING CLOSURE OF IRONWORKS TRANSITION FROM IRONSTONE TO COAL MINING

1850 - LONG RANGE LEVEL ( Aberdare Steam Coal Co.)

1859 on FOLLOWING CLOSURE, TO MEET DEMAND FOR STEAM COAL, ATTENTION GIVEN TO MINING SEAMS IN LOWER COAL MEASURES

1864 - BUTE ESTATE RENAMED CRAWSHAYS GOITRE MACHINE LEVEL AS TOWER COLLIERY

OLDEST CONTINUALLY OPERATED COAL MINE IN UK – POSSIBLY WORLD

1864 - NEW DRIFT (4’)

1894 - 3RD DRIFT (6’)

4’ & 6’ DRIFTS LATER RENAMED 1 & 2 DRIFTS

1920 - No.3 DRIFT – “ OLD DRIFT “

1941 - No. 4 SHAFT

1958 - No. 3 NEW DRIFT ( DESIGNED FOR LONG HAUL CONVEYORS )

1993 - TOWER CLOSED by B.C.

2008 - ECONOMICALLY EXHAUSTED AND CLOSED

MINING DISASTERS / INCIDENTS

MANY FATALITIES OVER YEARS,

THE WORSE ON 12.04.62 WHEN 9 MEN WERE KILLED AND 9 SERIOUSLY INJURED BY GAS EXPLOSION.

Charlie Dyton

SERIOUS THREATS TO LIFE / SURVIVAL OF THE MINE

Almost Lost Colliery 3 Times:

1972 - Water inrush – from Rhigos O.C.C.S.
Potential multiple fatalities

1982 - Water inrush into N.21 from Rhigos Colliery
Potential multiple fatalities

2000 - Gas inrush from Glyncorrwg Colliery
Potential multiple fatalities

Tower Colliery

 

[Raeturbo]

But.... all I’m saying is.... let’s burn our own coal if we have to burn any at all.

[Lizzie Zoom]

I just do not understand that logic.       That’s right you’ve no idea, your not from here,  you’ve never worked underground, you’ve heard this,. your friends did this and that. Pack it in girl and watch the lorries.

Why are you getting so angry and pissy over numerous posts about something out of your, and my control? Why should I be "from here" to be allowed by you to comment on this matter?! What I know is my experience of that filthy stuff that blighted our childhoods and led to dramatic changes of government policy after the public demanded it.  Getting covered in soot, and breathing it in was not good, let alone 'cutting' ourselves through the smogs caused by burning a prehistoric fuel that had certainly had it's day.  If you cannot recognise that......!!!!

I have also not made the decisions that obviously you have a real issue with, that have been made about using coal by those fully qualified to do so over recent DECADES, recognising that fuel is costly, inefficient, and generally bad for human health, let alone damaging to the planet when burnt.  As I have said, this is 2019, not the 1979, or even 1949, that you seem to reside in, and use the condescending language of against women which I find as an educated women highly offensive.

[Lizzie Zoom]

2008 was official ending but there’s still a lot going on there.

Coal had been commercially mined at Tower Colliery near the village of Hirwaun in the South Wales Cynon Valley since 1864, first as a drift mine and later (in the 1940s) as a deep mine.

In the aftermath of the 1984/85 Miner’s strike, the then Conservative government instructed British Coal to undertake a huge closure programme, involving many of the UK’s deep mines, on economic grounds. The official axe fell on Tower in April 1994, and many experts thought that was that…. But what happened next was totally unexpected.

Rather than accept the fate decreed for them, the Tower miners, led by NUM Branch Secretary Tyrone O’Sullivan, came to a decision: they would buy their own pit and continue to work it successfully. Two hundred and thirty nine miners each pledged their £8,000 redundancy payouts; they developed a business plan; and they attracted financial support from the banks.

In spite of strong official resistance, and in the face of other competing bids, the Tower miners won the day and their bid for the colliery was accepted, with the result that on January 2nd, 1995 they marched triumphantly back into Tower and began work in earnest the following day.

For the next thirteen years, the re-opened Tower Colliery successfully produced coal, and made a decent profit for its’ many owner-shareholders until, in January 2008, with the last economically viable deep coal deposits worked out, the pit closed for the second – and last – time.

Now, some three and a half years later, the Tower story is set to begin one last chapter, with permission gained to extract about 5.8 million tonnes of shallow coal deposits…

We were ordinary men;

We wanted jobs;

We bought a pit.

 Historical
The Cynon valley is the oldest mining area in Wales. Predates the more famous Rhondda valleys having its roots on the Hirwaun common mining ironstone followed by coal. Following the demise of iron industry replaced by demand for coal.

HISTORY INTRINSICALLY LINKED WITH COAL & IRONSTONE HISTORY OF HIRWAUN COMMON

1631 - EARLIEST RECORDED COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION.

GROUND LET FOR DIGGING BY EARL of PEMBROKE

1757 - JOHN MAYBERRY SECURED LEASE of 250 acres in 1757 on HIRWAUN COMMON TO SUPPLY RAW MATERIALS FOR IRON FURNACE CONSTRUCTED AT HIRWAUN IN SAME YEAR.

IRONWORKS AQUIRED IN 1780 ANTHONY BACON ( PARTNER FRANCIS HOMFRAY ) OF CYFARTHA

PURCHASED 1819 BY WILLIAM CRAWSHAY.

1800 - TURN 18TH CENTURY GROWTH OF IRONSTONE & COAL MINING FROM SURFACE DRIFT MINES

1847 - KNOBBY DRIFT ( CNAPIOG DRIFT ) IRONSTONE & COAL ( 5’ SEAM )

1848 - CRAWSHAY TOWER BUILT (FOLLY?, SHELTER ?, CELEBRATE SUPPRESSION MERTHYR RISING ? )

1859 - HIRWAUN IRONWORKS CLOSED

FOLLOWING CLOSURE OF IRONWORKS TRANSITION FROM IRONSTONE TO COAL MINING

1850 - LONG RANGE LEVEL ( Aberdare Steam Coal Co.)

1859 on FOLLOWING CLOSURE, TO MEET DEMAND FOR STEAM COAL, ATTENTION GIVEN TO MINING SEAMS IN LOWER COAL MEASURES

1864 - BUTE ESTATE RENAMED CRAWSHAYS GOITRE MACHINE LEVEL AS TOWER COLLIERY

OLDEST CONTINUALLY OPERATED COAL MINE IN UK – POSSIBLY WORLD

1864 - NEW DRIFT (4’)

1894 - 3RD DRIFT (6’)

4’ & 6’ DRIFTS LATER RENAMED 1 & 2 DRIFTS

1920 - No.3 DRIFT – “ OLD DRIFT “

1941 - No. 4 SHAFT

1958 - No. 3 NEW DRIFT ( DESIGNED FOR LONG HAUL CONVEYORS )

1993 - TOWER CLOSED by B.C.

2008 - ECONOMICALLY EXHAUSTED AND CLOSED

MINING DISASTERS / INCIDENTS

MANY FATALITIES OVER YEARS,

THE WORSE ON 12.04.62 WHEN 9 MEN WERE KILLED AND 9 SERIOUSLY INJURED BY GAS EXPLOSION.

Charlie Dyton

SERIOUS THREATS TO LIFE / SURVIVAL OF THE MINE

Almost Lost Colliery 3 Times:

1972 - Water inrush – from Rhigos O.C.C.S.
Potential multiple fatalities

1982 - Water inrush into N.21 from Rhigos Colliery
Potential multiple fatalities

2000 - Gas inrush from Glyncorrwg Colliery
Potential multiple fatalities

Tower Colliery

So you believe that awful historical safety record backs up your argument for use of coal in the UK, and risking what will be young miners lives to get it out of the ground?!

You really are backward, or deranged, in thought!