Tareni Colliery
The Mine, the Miners and Their Communities - A History of a Mining Enterprise in the Swansea Valley by Clive Reid
ISBN13: 9781527201293
Imprint: Etifeddiaeth Cwmtawe Swansea Valley Heritage
Publisher: Etifeddiaeth Cwmtawe Swansea Valley Heritage
Format: Hardback
Published: 21/10/201
I have learnt a
great deal from Clive`s book and I would like to share it with you.
This
is a fascinating book. It deals with the history of Tareni Colliery in a
very full and encyclopedic way. I bought a copy from Clive Reid at the
Ystradgynlais Christmas Festival in December of last year. Its a big
book that was clearly a labour of love and a labour of detailed
information. In particular I was fascinated by the chapter concerning
the brutal strike of 1911.
Looking
at newspaper accounts of trials, strike action and the involvement of
the police and the authorities brought back reflections of the brutal
strike and the states response in the Thatcher years of the 1980s.
Chapter 8 has so many sources and pictures that it brings alive the
riots in Godre Graig, the brutal starvation of the miner's, the attempts
to split the workforce and of the enduring brutality of companies both
then and over the last 100 years.
Chapter
7 deals with the armed robberies of 1923 that took place . They were
commited by some Tareni Miners within the Pontardawe and Ystalyfera
area. Crime is largely a product of social inequality and the violent
tenor of these events reflects the violence of gone group dominating the
resyt.
Following
the extablishment of the National Coal board, when the mines were
nationalised Tareni Colliery closed finally in 1949. the book tells us
of the relationship between the miners, their communities and the social
and political events of the 100 years of mining at the colliery. Clive
Reid has produced a book that will be a valuable source for the future.
It reminds us of our past, both our follies and of our relistaions.
Those
of us who live in a post mining South wales would learn much by reading
it, reflecting upon both the glory and the brutality of mines and
mining. I was pleased to chat to Clive Reid and I thoroughly recommend
his book.
The following web site gives more information
http://www.literaturewales.org/lw-event/tareni-colliery-mine-miners-communities/
Tareni Colliery: The Mine, The Miners and Their Communities by Clive Reed is
the story of a deep coalmine in Cwmtawe; the Swansea Valley, working at
depths of up to 1000 feet below the surface in the disturbed geology
underground that made mining that coal difficult and dangerous, and of
the men and boys known as miners. That term took in the trades of
colliers, miners, hauliers, timber men, riders, engineers, winding men,
blacksmiths, and many other trades employed in the coal mining industry.
At its peak period of employment, Tareni Colliery employed about 1000
miners, mostly underground, with nearly 200 employed on the surface in
the preparation of coals for sale and transport.
This
book is the result of five years’ research and interviews with former
miners and mining families. This is the first book written as a full
history of a coalmine and the mine owners, the miners and their
families, the mining of anthracite coals, their uses, markets in the and
Canada and the USA, and the coal mining communities of the Swansea
Valley. It is a tribute to those Tareni miners, their trials and
tribulations but also their joys and successes both in and outside of
work, and to their families and to all those others who worked the hard
anthracite coalmines of the Swansea Valley.
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