User:Wendy Kremer

PENGAM - GWENT - SOUTH WALES

Pengam is a former coal mining community in the Rhymney Valley of South Wales. Most of the village is on the east bank of the river, in Gwent (old Monmouthshire), but those parts of the village on the west bank are known as Glan-y-Nant and are in the old county of Glamorgan. ·Today, (in March 2005) 3842 people live in Pengam, there are about 1561 homes ·1% of residents are from minority ethnic groups, 27.67% of people are between the ages of 20 and 39, and there are 797 people over the age of 60. ·67.78% of residents own their own homes either owned outright or with a mortgage. 24.79% of residents live in council or housing association homes. 5.89% of residents live in privately rented homes.1.54% of residents live completley rent free! ·The population density of Pengam is approximitely 4204 people per square mile. The actual size of the ward is 0.9 square miles (237 hectares). ·The biggest employer in this area (with 29.42% of people) is the manufacturing industry Coal has been mined on a small scale in South Wales since Roman times, but the real impetus for its development came with Abraham Darby’s use of coke to smelt iron instead of charcoal. In the first half of the 18th century hundreds of coke burning furnaces were built in South Wales, with the two largest ironworks being Blaenavon and Cyfarthfa at Merthyr Tydfil. Coal was needed in great supply because three tons of coal were required to smelt one ton of iron and the number of drift mines and pits grew dramatically as a result. The second half of the 18th century saw a decline in the iron industry as the use of steel became widespread, but by this time it had little effect on the coal industry. The new steam locomotives and ships needed vast supplies of coal and the high quality "steam" coal from South Wales was in great demand. The anthracite deposits from the western area of the South Wales coalfield were also highly valued for domestic heating and industrial purposes.In the mid nineteenth century the coal industry swept into the Rhymney Valley. In the space of just a few years, its impact transformed rural settlements into bustling mining towns and communities. The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Ltd was established in 1864. It owned, managed. and operated many pits in the area. The size and importance of the South Wales coalfield cannot be underestimated. In 1913, 57 million tons of coal came up from the mines and South Wales produced one third of the world’s coal exports. At its peak over 250, 000 men were employed in the industry. The effects of World War I, however, were very detrimental to the industry. Foreign markets were lost forever, in particular the profitable French market, as the Ruhr valley coalfields were handed over to France as part of the Treaty of Versailles. Combined with the post war depression, unemployment rose and coal production fell. By 1929 South Wales production had dropped to 3% of world output. Following the Second World War there was a revival in the industry as output rose and the nationalisation of the coal industry meant new investment. However, the second half of the 20th century has seen the sad decline in the South Wales coal industry - between 1960 and 1980, 150 collieries were closed and 70,000 miners lost their jobs. There used to be two colleries in, or near Pengam. One at the top of the Main Street (Pengam Pit), and the other was on the Aberbargoed Road (Britannia Pit). The sinking of Pengam Colliery was begun in the late 1890's by the Rhymney Iron Co. Ltd. to work the Brithdir House coal seam at a depth of 312 yards. By 1908 it was employing 196 men and in 1918 the workforce numbered 518. During the late 1920's it came under the ownership of the Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Ltd., who employed 67 men there in 1938. The workforce numbered 195 in 1945. As with most House Coal collieries in this area Pengam was troubled with water inundation and heavy pumps worked around the clock to avoid flooding. Production ceased in 1956 but it was kept open as an underground pumping station, to prevent the flooding of the nearby Britannia colliery. There was a landing, about half way down in each of the Britannia shafts (North and South) from which it was possible to access Pengam pit bottom. The official entrance to Pengam colliery was adjacent to Pengam (Mon) station, on High Street previously known as Waunborfa Road. Pengam at one time had two railway stations - one in Glamorgan and one in Monmouthshire. The line in Pengam Mon belonged to the Brecon and Merthyr Railway. Construction began in 1825 and it was opened in 1836, mainly to cater to the needs of the small pits and levels, and then increasingly for the collieries when they were sunk at the start of the century. It also accommodated the desire for more mobility by the rapidly growing population of the valley, when the steam locomotives pulled the passenger carriages up and down the line. The railway track from Newport to Brecon, or Tredegar, branched at Machen, the line going from there to Caerphilly and Merthyr. The line branched behind Britannia Colliery for Brecon, or carried straight on to Tredegar where the line terminated. The locomotives hauling the coal trains along this line were pannier-tank type engines. The station, and stationmaster’s house were directly adjacent to Pengam pit.