The Rhondda Heritage Park.

... The Rhondda Heritage Park Coal was mined in the Rhondda for 175 years, at its peak the Rhondda was employing 41,000 men. The main boom time took place in the 20 years between 1869 and 1889. During WW1 there were 66 collieries producing nearly 10 million tonnes of coal a year. The end of the stamp-ship era and a fall off in export markets sadly meant that coal production in the Rhondda declined steadily. Nationalisation made changes to mining but did no prevent the continuing decline of the industry. Successive governments and the NCB (National Coal Board) were unwilling to keep uneconomic pits open and the area was still very difficult to mine. The Lewis Merthyr Colliery was first developed in the 1850's (then the Hafod and Coedcae collieries). Three other steam coal pits were sunk between 1880 - 1882. By 1900, all of these collieries were

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