Ammanford No1 and No2 Colliery (Top or Red Vein)

The Ammanford No 1 Colliery (Top Works or Red Vein)
 

A rare site of Ammanford No1 (top works) uncovered in August 2008 before being recap (photo by Tony Gostling)

Ammanford No 1 known as Gwaith Isa'r Betws (Map Rev SN648401)..... sunk by Henry Herbert in 1890. In 1891 they opened second colliery, Ammanford No 2 known as Gwaith Uchaf Betws became part of United Anthracite Collieries Ltd in 1924Ammanford No 1 was abandoned after the 1925 strike.Ammanford No 1 owned by Amalgamated Colliers Ltd in 1927There was an adjoining brickworks producing bricks stamped 'Ammanford Colliery'Ammanford No 2 closed in 1976 Substantial remains of the old Ammanford Colliery ... the only example of a late C19th colliery in Carmarthenshire and one of the few virtually intact sites in South Wales. A book called the 'Battle of Ammanford' has a substantial feature i.e the 1925 Coal Strike at these pits.

1925 - The Anthracite Strike and the 'Battle of Ammanford'
Then, during 1925, the UAC Ltd. created a situation at Ammanford No 1 Colliery by challenging the rights of the important custom of seniority rule, which protected the workmen from victimisation from management.. This rule, the "last in, first out" principle, ensured that whenever there were redundancies the owners couldn't use that as an excuse to lay off union activists. All men were protected by their date of employment at the pit with those most recently employed the first to be laid off. The problem arose at Ammanford No 1 when management refused to acknowledge and implement the seniority rule.
The Ammanford No 1 lodge decided to strike over this issue. Within a short time the whole of the Swansea District Anthracite miners, including Emlyn Colliery, Penygroes, were on strike. There followed a period of riotous and bloody confrontation between the miners picketing the collieries and the police, most of who had been imported from outside the valley to protect the men still at work and the company's property.
Finally, one evening, groups of workmen visited each pit in the Amman and other valleys and, after some troubles, cleared the men out of every pit in the Swansea District. The worst riot took place at Ammanford No 1, on Pontamman bridge, between police and strikers where many were injured on both sides. This situation resulted in a high number of local people being committed to trial at Swansea and Cardiff Assizes for unlawful and riotous assembly with 58 miners being imprisoned. The AAC Ltd. gave up the struggle after this and recognised the seniority rule within the Anthracite District. The miners had won the struggle – but they lost Ammanford No 1, for this pit was closed by the UAC Ltd. for good in reprisal. However, as all the men from Ammanford No 1 were relocated to other nearby collieries this must be seen as a victory.

Mr Henry Herbert a Mining Engineer, In 1911 he sold the land in Tirydail which became Arthur Street (named after his son), and again in 1947 he appears when his family sold more land on the same field to Ammanford Urban District Council for the building of Myddynfych council estate.
Mr Henry Herbert was more than a property developer, however, and he also established a drift mine at Bodyst Isaf in Hopkinstown, working the outcrop of the 'Red Vein' seam. It was in 1890 that he sank this mine on the Betws Mountain but soon sold out his undertaking to a syndicate of wealthy Lancashire coal owners who created a new company, the Ammanford Colliery Company Ltd. The company was formed with a share capital of £40,000 in £10 shares. Within a short time after the takeover the company decided to close the operation at Bodyst-isaf and open a new slant on land attached to Glyn-cywrch Farm, again working the outcrop of the 'Red Vein' seam. These workings were to be called Ammanford No 1 Colliery, later to be known to the miners as 'Top Works'.

No1 uncovered in August 2008 (photo by Tony Gostling)

Expanding their operations in 1891 another slant was driven near to where Maesquarre Road joins Pentwyn Road and this was called the Ammanford No 2 Colliery, later to be referred to as the Ammanford Little Vein Colliery, and which was more or less the focal point of mining activities in the area.
By 1908 Ammanford No 1 (Red Vein) was producing anthracite coal with a workforce of 245 underground workers and 20 surface workers. Ammanford No 2 (Little Vein) was producing coal with 278 men underground and 104 surface workers the larger number of surface workers presumably being employed on the shared washery. Thusthe Ammanford Colliery Company were providing work for a total of 747 men. In 1924 the Ammanford Colliery Company Ltd was sold to a much larger organisation, the United Anthracite Collieries Ltd.
A major industrial dispute in 1925 had a serious effect on coal mining in the area resulting in the closure of the Ammanford No 1 Colliery (Top Works). This was the Anthracite Strike of 1925, which had started in Ammanford at the end of April that year. During the next four months Ammanford was the epicentre for riots and mass demonstrations whose shock waves were felt all over the district. On one day alone, July 30th 1925, there were riotous disturbances simultaneously at Ammanford square; Ammanford No 2 colliery, where there was a police baton charge; at Betws; and also at Wernos, Pantyffynnon and Llandybie collieries. And the major battle was yet to come, the so-called 'Battle of Ammanford' which occurred on August 4th. In total 198 miners were arrested with 58 being jailed for periods of up to one year.
In 1927 yet further changes occurred, with the United Anthracite Collieries Ltd, itself being merged into a much larger conglomerate, the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd., setting up offices and headquarters in Tycoch.
Ammanford No 2 expanded during this period and a railway and sidings were added. Attached to the site, and owned by the Ammanford No 2 colliery, was a brickwork’s which ran alongside the railway sidings. This produced bricks which were stamped 'Ammanford Colliery' until nationalisation of the colliery in 1947 after which they bore the name of 'Ammanford' only. The brickworks was closed by the NCB in 1960 though the chimneystack of its kilns was a familiar sight until recent times and can be seen in all the photographs of the colliery. It was not uncommon for a colliery to also produce bricks as part of its operation. Bricks after all had to be fired to extreme temperatures in kilns, and where better to get coal than just a few yards away and at cost price as well? The Emlyn colliery in Penygroes opened in 1893 and closed in 1939 but its brickwork’s continued in production until the mid-1990s

Brickworks and Sidings at Ammanford No2

Growth of the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd. The local owners who opened the two Ammanford collieries operated on a very small scale compared with the major capitalisation that took place in the coalfields of Glamorgan and Monmouth. The take-overs of 1924 and 1927 brought much greater players onto the stage as the following comparisons show:
Year Coal Owners Collieries Operated in Carmarthenshire
1890 Henry Herbert Bodyst Isaf
1890/91 Ammanford Colliery Company Ammanford No 1 & No 2
1918 Ammanford Colliery Company Ammanford No 1 & No 2, Pontyberem, Pontyberem Clynhebog
1945 Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ammanford No 2, Emlyn No 1 & No 2, Carway, Great Mountain No 1 & No 2, Pantyffynnon, Llandybie, New Cross Hands, New Dynant (Tumble), Pentremawr No 1 & No 4, Pontyberem, Great Mountain No 3, Wernos
Thus at nationalisation in 1947 the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd (AAC) operated 15 collieries in Carmarthenshire with a total workforce of 3,748. A far cry indeed from the two collieries of the Ammanford Colliery Company in 1908 with their 747 miners. To show the scale of the Amalgamated Anthracite Company's operations, the other nine non-AAC collieries in the Ammanford and Amman Valley area employed only 742 men between them (Garnant, Llandybie, Pantyffynnon, Mount (Butchers), two in Glanamman, three in Saron).
The Nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947 brought the next major changes with the Ammanford No 2 Colliery coming under the administration of the National Coal Board. The Colliery continued production until the opening of the adjoining new drift mine in 1976, on the site of the old Ammanford No 1 pit. The new drift was renamed Betws Colliery, rectifying at least one anomaly, as the two Ammanford Collieries were in fact in Betws, located at the Betws end of Pontamman bridge. Like Ammanford No 1 before it Ammanford No 2 was now closed. The 'spake' which had carried miners to and from the coal face since 1890 was given a continued lease of life, however, in the form of a new mine on an old site.
British Coal run down mining industry
Here are the official NCB coal output and manpower figures for Ammanford Colliery after nationalisation in 1947.

Year 1948........... Manpower 188 ..........Tonnage 25'000

Year 1953........... Manpower 298 .........Tonnage 87,049

Year 1956 ..........Manpower 399 ..........Tonnage 100,470

Year 1961.......... Manpower 470 ..........Tonnage 73,936

(Source: Betws Mas o'r Byd (2001)
It's interesting to note that in 1956, the 399 men at Ammanford colliery produced 100,740tons of coal, a third more than produced in 1961 by 470 men. Throughout the remorselesspit closures of the seventies and eighties, accelerated after the defeat of the 1984/85 miners' strike, men were transferred to remaining collieries, often making them uneconomical, and giving the government further excuses to close them. These, and other creative accounting methods, were used time and time again to close what were often profitable pits. When Betws colliery was closed in 1993 the excuse given was that it was unprofitable. Yet British Coal operated at that time what can only be described as a 'scam' to make mines appear unprofitable on the accountant's balance sheets. Instead of Betws selling its coal directly to their customers at the current market price, they had to sell instead to a marketing company set up by British Coal. Betws sold its coal to this marketing company at less than market prices, while the marketing company then sold directly to the customers at the going rate. Thus Betws colliery – and many others that were closed during this period – were guaranteed to make a loss. The architect of this amazing dodge was Swansea born Michael Hesletine, the Trade and Industry Secretary of John Major's Tory government which privatised the industry in 1993, though not after massive opposition from the entire mining and trades union movement. Needless to say, the Betws Colliery management that bought and ran the mine after it was privatised did not employ such suicidal sales techniques, preferring instead to live in the real world.
It is worth while pausing to think about this, and perhaps we may be forgiven for dwelling on it somewhat. The Tory cabinet at the time, much like the current Labour cabinet, had a pretty thick sprinkling of multi-millionaire business men amongst its members. It is inconceivable that these people would unknowingly run a coal business on the basis of selling at a price that was guaranteed to make a loss. Experience may have given many of us a low opinion of politicians generally but this level of stupidity is surely impossible even for them. The only conclusion that can be drawn, clearly, is that this loss making policy was deliberate, and designed to give the flimsiest of pretexts to sell off the mining industry on the grounds that it was loss making.
At the time of privatisation it was pointed out that if the deep mining industry had been subsidised at the same level as the nuclear industry, then the coal produced by Britain's deep mines could be given away free! In the 'dash for gas' that followed, Britain was in the ludicrous position of closing down its deep coal mines but then buying French gas for our power stations via a trans-channel pipeline, and subsiding the French company who supplied it (Electricité de France) by £140 million in 1993 alone. As if this wasn't enough, this was in accordance with a deal signed between Britain and France as far back as 1981.
The closure of Ammanford colliery in 1976 brought to an end an era of older, pre-mechanised mining. According to John Cornwell in his 'Collieries of South Wales' (2001), Ammanford Colliery was one of the last in Wales, certainly the last in the Anthracite District, to mine coal using the 'long wall' method by hand. Ammanford Colliery and Graig Merthyr in nearby Pontardulais, were also the last deep mines in Wales to bring coal to the surface by rope hauled trams.
The pit had two drifts (intake and return airways). These airways were 3,200 metres long and travelled beneath the old Ammanford No 1 mine. More than 4,500 tons of rock were extracted to develop the new drivages. The steel arches that formed the roof cost more than £1 million. The depth of the workings ranged between 150 metres and 800 metres below Betws mountain.

Betws New Drift

Ammanford Colliery was closed in 1976 and in 1978 Betws New Drift was opened. For these two years the workforce of Ammanford Colliery was transferred temporarily to nearby mines. In 1978 the initial workforce of 500 men was drawn from the former Ammanford Colliery workers and Graig Merthyr Colliery in nearby Pontardulais. From May 1978 to January 1993, when British Coal closed the mine, a total of 21 long retreat long wall coal faces were mined. From 1994 the pit was taken over in a management buy-out by Betws Anthracite Company Ltd who changed the coal extraction method to the older 'pillar and stall' method. Stephen W Town's study of the Amman Valley published in 1978 describes the difference between the two methods of coal extraction in Ammanford Colliery as follows -
"It should be mentioned here that the methods of winning coal have developed tremendously since the Second World War, and mechanisation largely superseded the pick and shovel. But it wasn't always so. The traditional method of winning coal from a face, common in this area until about 1950, involved small groups of men working a particular part of a seam by driving a stall into it from a roadway driven across the seam. They won the coal largely by hand and filled it into tubs which were then taken to the pit shaft; individual output was measured and payment was made on this basis. As well as getting the coal, each small group was primarily responsible for the maintenance of the roof of its area, as well as performing a wide variety of other tasks. By the early 1950s the long wall method of working had generally replaced the pillar and stall.Unlike the pillar and stall method where a series of parallel entries were made into a face with pillars left standing to support the roof in between the stalls, in the long wall method the entire stretch of a face was worked at the same time, and the area behind the face where the coal had been removed was left to collapse following the removal of props. The use of a mechanical coal cutter which moved down the whole length of the face became practical, as did the installation of a conveyor on to which coal could be loaded by the collier as it was won from the seam. Although there were many variations to this method of working (which was still used in Ammanford Colliery), the general principle involved a cycle of production over three shifts in a twenty-four hour period. Coal would be cut and fired on one shift, the conveyor and roadways advanced on the second shift, and the coal filled and face propped up on the third. Productive effort was dependent upon the efforts of all three shifts which together may have involved 40 men working on one face; each task was paid on a piece-work basis (amount of coal cut, or tonnage filled, etc.) but the earnings of individuals were dependent upon the efforts of a whole group, rather than on those of just the immediate team of two or three men. This demanded a higher degree of group co-operation in task performance than had been normal hitherto.By the early 1960s, this method of working was being replaced by the more automated system of power loading whereby coal is cut and loaded on to a conveyor by machine. Both Abernant and Cynheidre collieries were developed for this sort of mechanised working; except in the case of the Wernos colliery where pioneering work in the development of power loading was carried out, this system of working was new to the valley. Other equally important developments followed, such as self-advancing roof supports and conveyors. These developments tended to split up the close-knit work groups created in earlier systems of production, particularly because earnings were no longer related to output and are hence no longer so dependent on close cooperation."
This memory of the huge machinery involved in mining in the modern era comes
from the son of NCB employee Hugh Walters:
My father was at the NCB Group Workshops, very near to Pontaman Bridge. Lots of his work as a turner was to do with getting disparate pieces of kit (probably bought by incompetent higher-ups) to work together. This often involved designing, creating and assembling pieces of machinery. He enjoyed the work because no two days were the same. At one time he enjoyed being used by Dr Jacob Bronowski (who had an association with NCB research labs in Swansea), to see if the good Doctor's ideas could be translated from paper to working reality.I remember him telling me about the work he did in connection with the creation of the new Betws mine. If I recall correctly (and I wouldn't put any money on the numbers being right), the coal from the mine was brought to the surface on a conveyor belt that was 2000 yards long. To get any conveyor belt moving, the system must have a very efficient gearbox. A conveyer belt is never just off or on. My father worked on the gearbox. After talking with him for a while about it, with ladders and winches being mentioned, I had to revise my conception of this gearbox. My father was actually working inside the gearbox. The "box", in order to contain the required cogs, etc., had to be sixteen foot high. I've never been able to imagine what such a gearbox (and contents) would look like or the technology that no doubt soaked up a sizeable proportion of the millions sunk into the ground there. (Lloyd Walters, correspondence 12th November 2005.)
Coal started to come off the conveyor belts in 1978 after the mine was officially opened by Prince Charles on 1st March. Someone present on that occasion tells of the preparation that was necessary to receive such a dignitary:
Preparation was similar to a television programme about preparing for a Royal visit. The policy being, 'if you can't move it, paint it'. With that instruction, I was sent underground for a final clean up – this meant literally dusting the coal so that the Prince could be shown that it was shining ... There was one embarrassing moment. All the signs on the surface of the colliery had been replaced in both English and Welsh, but unknown to us one of the Welsh signs had been spelt wrongly and only the Prince spotted it. The colliery General Manager was not impressed. (Alan Jones quoted in: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
The forecast expectancy of the Colliery (based upon the estimated coal reserves available) was given as 15 years. Looking to the future, moves were made in 1983 to extend the operations of the mine by gaining access to an estimated 7.5 million tonnes of anthracite in two seams – 'Big Vein' and 'Peacock Vein' which were to the east of the 'Gardeners Fault'. A special machine, a Titan tunneller (known as 'the mole'), was deployed to cut a 540 metre long drivage through rock which proved to be a formidable and expensive task.
During the 29 years of Betws New Mine's life the workforce of 11 collieries were transferred to augment the miners already at Ammanford Colliery. As mines were closed in a relentless pit closure programme their workforce was transferred to nearby mines that were still open until Betws was the only one left. As had been predicted, this closure programme accelerated after the defeat of the 1984/85 miners' strike. Here is a list of the mines affected:

Redeployment to Betws came from the following pits

Colliery Operating Years

Ammanford 1890 to 1976

Craig Merthyr, Pontardulais 1873 to 1978

Cwmgwili 1960 to 1980

Morlais, Llangennech 1893 to 1981

Brynlliw, Gorseinon 1903 to 1983

Treforgan 1963 to 1983

St Johns 1908 to 1985

Lady Windsor 1884 to 1988

Wernos Washery 1949 to 1988

Abernant 1958 to 1988

Cynheidre 1954 to 1989
Cefen Coed/Blaenant 1924 to 1990

(Source: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005)

1993 and Privatisation
In the meantime the National Coal Board had been restructured and was now known as British Coal. In 1992, when there was evidence of a sharp drop in the demand for coal, a major national review of the industry took place. As is usual with governments and businesses, 'review' turned out to mean massive closures, and it led to drastic action with the shutting of a large number of deep mines. The Betws Drift Mine was one of the pits so scheduled and on the 15th of January 1993, British Coal withdrew their operations at Betws. In June of the same year advertisements appeared in the National press offering licenses for the working of coal at five collieries of which Betws was one.
Happily, the story didn't quite end there, for with the full support of the community a management buy out was successful, forming a new private company in 1994 to be known as 'Betws Anthracite Ltd.
Tower colliery near Hirwaun, also in the Anthracite District, took a different route when they opted for an employee buyout instead, with each miner investing £8,000 of his own money. Along with various loans the new Tower colliery was launched as a workers' co-operative, employing 350 people in 2001. Of course, with politicians nothing is ever, as it seems and there were some who smelled political motives behind the Tory govermen's decision to allow workers' buyout of Tower Colliery:
I don't think British Coal would have supported our bid for workers' buyout. As far as Tower Colliery was concerned it was a political decision to make the Tory government look good, 'a propaganda coup'. Not that anything can be taken away from the Tower men; they fought a brilliant campaign and proved their confidence in themselves. (Former Betws NUM Secretary Mike Reynolds in: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
After privatisation coal was to be mined in Betws from the 'red vein' seam and eventually from the top quality 'peacock' seam. The 'peacock' anthracite which plays with the colours of light is only a degree or two from pure carbon and has been described as being to the miner what a perfect diamond is to a jeweler. The coal produced at the privatised mine was originally for burning in the domestic fire, its traditional use, but in 1999 an innovative new use was found for the coal. This was as a water filtration product trade marked as 'Puracite', a top quality anthracite filter media, exclusively mined and manufactured by Betws Anthracite Ltd. This comprised 90% carbon granules, washed, dried and precisely sized to individual customer specifications and used in the treatment of drinkable water, process water and effluent.
In 1998 a plant producing quality anthracite filter media was constructed. Anthracite as a filter media has for many years been widely used as a way of improving filtration rates and the quality of water. The filter media must conform to very stringent parameters and this was borne in mind during the design of the plant. In 1999 the plant was commissioned and the products offered for sale, the first customers being the former Welsh Water Authority.Within months orders were being received from all corners of the globe via Betws Anthracite internet website. At this point it was decided to give this unique product its own trade name and 'Paracite' was born.In the next five years a large customer base was established supplying many countries and regions of the Far and Middle East, North and South America, West Europe, Indonesia, North Africa, Scandinavia and the U.K.In 2003 Betws Anthracite resulted in the end of mining activities and the filter plant and business was sold to the E.G.L. group and renamed Puracite Limited.
The plant is still located at the former Betws Washery site producing premium filter media. In addition to conventional water treatment applications the product is now being used in sewage treatment, petrochemical cleaning applications, industrial waste and water and metallurgical uses. (Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
After the buyout however the new management decided to go back to the older 'pillar and stall' method of extraction. The coal was to be produced using conventional mining methods by boring and firing the coal and hand filling by shovel, a backward step from the mechanised long wall system the nationalised industry had introduced to Betws in 1978.
A former Betws miner comments:
At a stroke, under the pillar and stall method of coal extraction, it turned from the most modern mine in Europe back to the old system of hand filling coal. The work was a lot harder ... (Keith Rees quoted in: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
The NUM chairman at Betws from 1994 to 2003 explains this method in more detail:
We had gone back to the 1930s in terms of producing coal by hand filled methods. There were six coal headings working. The cycle consisted of boring, firing, hand clearing the coal and erecting two 15ft bars. Three men worked on the coal face and an output of 12 tons a shift per man was the goal for face workers. We were all men around 16 stones starting at the pit after the buyout but after a few months we had lost a lot of weight. (John Walters quoted in: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
For nearly 200 years colliers traversed Maesquarre Road on their way to work at the Dynevor & Maesquarre Colliery, the Ammanford Nos 1 & 2 Collieries, and the Betws Drift Mine. There were however many changes during that period and no longer was a miner identified on the street by his appearance, covered head to foot in coal dust. The pithead baths, an essential part of a modern colliery, were introduced under the National Coal Board regime in the 1950s. Still, no matter what improvements had been achieved in working conditions mining was still a highly skilled and dangerous occupation. After nationalisation in 1947 legislation was passed to place pit safety in the hands of the workforce itself, by means of the 'Deputy' system. These men had full authority to overrule management in matters of safety. In the 1990s the Tory government, ahead of privatisation, took away the responsibility of safety from the Deputies and gave it back to the employers instead. Thus a major advance in safety achieved by nationalisation was reversed when the mining industry was privatised in the 1990s. Sadly, a Labour government returned to power in 1997 left things as they found them, with the result that accidents in what few British pits remain are on the increase in the last few years.
Under British Coal management the mine employed up to 700 people in the 1980s. At December 1999 a total of 110 men were employed at the now privatised pit, reduced to about 50 in December 2000. Then, in 2001, the Betws Anthracite Company received a major government grant of £2.8 million, thus safeguarding the future of about 100 miners and their families, at least for a few years to come. But 'few' would be the operative word and the end was not, in fact, far away. The business plan for the Betws management buyout in 1994 had only been for ten years mining, and on Friday 1st August 2003 that plan ran its final course when the pit was closed, this time for good. Cruelly, the mine had just received an order to supply its Puracite granules as the filtration product for the swimming pools at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. At the time of the closure it was estimated that there are still 2 million tonnes of known coal reserves at Betws with another 5 million tonnes in untested seams. Yet within a year a yuppie housing estate was built on the site. With Britain's energy needs increasingly imported from politically unstable regions of the world, most of them ruled by dictatorships, we may well question the wisdom of our political masters in abandoning native resources like coal.
Betws mine survived these final ten years as much from a series of government grants as from self-generated income: the privatised concern received a total of £4.9 million of operating aid from the Department of Trade and Industry between the years 2000 and 2001 (see Coal U.K., August 2003). But this shouldn't detract from the achievement of the workforce who did everything, and more, that was asked of them during this time. The management, though, were left considerably better off after closure than the miners who lost their livelihoods in a high unemployment, low income economy. Here is the BBC website's report of the Betws. More than a century of mining in a west Wales valley came to end on Friday when Betws Colliery closed its gates for the last time. Around 60 miners and their families marched out of the colliery marking the end of an industry that employed thousands in its heyday in the Amman Valley. There were tears as well as laughter as 110 men who had worked side-by-side, many at the coal face, finished for the last time. The colliery has been forced to close because of rising insurance costs and a drop in the market price of the anthracite coal that was excavated there. NUM lodge secretary Anthony Jones said: "It's a sad day. "The miners have gathered here to celebrate the achievements of Betws and also to commemorate the sad demise of the last deep mine in the Amman Valley. "Over the last 10 years Betws Colliery has put into the local economy in excess of £30m. "It's a big void for someone to fill. "We've had some marvellous times and some tragic times. "It's comradeship and friendship, something that cannot be touched in any other industry." Last-ditch talks to try and secure further financial support from the government were held in Westminster last week but without success.Keith Sutton, one of the long serving workers at the colliery, said: "It's a very emotional day. "All of a sudden it's the end and I don't think there will be anyone coming back here. "It's been hard work, there is no getting away from that, but I have great memories. "I don't know what the future holds but my children are now grown up and we'll manage." Many communities in the Amman Valley were founded on coal mining and between the two world wars there were more than 30 working pits in the region.

Betws councillor and former miner John Dorian Evans had tears in his eyes but said the community would bounce back from the jobs blow. "It's a very sad as 110 people are being made redundant," he said. "It will have an affect on the local economy because these were relatively high paid jobs. "We have been here before when the pit was closed by British Coal back in 1995. "It's a tribute to the resilience of the people of the Amman Valley that they have always been able to adapt to new jobs. "Most of the men are middle-aged but I'm quite confident they will be able to find new employment. "These men are likely to be the last generation of coal miners and the skills they have accumulated and their experience will be lost and possibly lost forever."
One more former miner can provide the final word on the end of mining in the
Amman Valley:
The colliery closed in July 2003 and on that day we all met in the car park. We raised the N.U.M. banner of Betws Lodge and we all marched down to the entrance of the mine where we took photographs. I closed the gates for the last time. We all had tears in our eyes. I felt it very much because it was my drill that found the first coal at Betws 28 years earlier, and here I was closing the gates to close the pit.After this we all went down the Welfare Club in Ammanford for a few pints of beer and to say goodbye to each other.The N.U.M. has an annual Christmas dinner for the boys that worked for British Coal and it is well attended each year. I miss the comradeship that was to be found in the coal industry. (John Walters, Betws N.U.M. Chairman from 1994 to 2003 in: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005).
Betws Colliery –a Timeline
Here is a timeline for key events taken from a history of the mine published by former miner John Dorian Evans in 2005.
Chronology of Main Events at Betws Colliery

1974
Work begins in sinking the pit.

1976
Ammanford Colliery closes; Prime Minister Jim Callaghan visits the new pit.

1978
March 1st: Prince Charles opens the pit and production starts.

1983
£12 million investment is made at the pit to access through geological disturbances.

1984/85
The coal miners' strike.

1985
£3.9 million is made available to sink new drift and shaft.

1993
The end of British Coal ownership and the pit is placed on care and maintenance.

1994
The management buyout.

2003
July 31st: the end of coal production at the pit.
(Source: Betws New Drift Mine, John Dorian Evans, 2005)
3. FORMER AMMANFORD COLLIERY BUILDINGS
Some of the former Ammanford no 2 buildings are still in use, having been sold off by the NCB in the 1960s with the decline of the British coal industry. The pit baths have been taken over by Amman Engineering Ltd. The stores buildings, along with the manager's office and the Group workshops, are in use by small firms and the railway line and its sidings, after 20 years of disuse, were bought up by Llandeilo Building Supplies. All are employing from the local workforce, so there is some continuity.
There are other buildings which once formed part of these two Ammanford collieries but which have since acquired a second life as businesses of quite a different kind from that originally envisaged.
Tycoch. This property is closely associated with the mining history of the area, though its current use as a nightclub might seem far removed from this. When the Lancastrian business syndicate purchased the colliery undertaking at 'Bodyst-isaf from Mr Henry Herbert in 1890, they appointed Mr Ernie Hewlett (one of the Directors and principal share holder of the newly formed Ammanford Colliery Company Ltd.) to oversee the operations and their interests.
Immediately after commencement of the two new 'slants' – the Ammanford Nos. 1 and 2 Collieries – they proceeded with the building of offices and residential accommodation for Mr Hewlett. The site selected, next to the Ammanford No 2 Colliery, was at the junction of Pentwyn Road and Maesquarre Road. The building was constructed in the English style, using Ruabon facing bricks which was quite in contrast to local traditional structures which at that time were mainly of dressed stone or rendered plaster work. Because of its conspicuous outward appearance it soon acquired the name of 'Tycoch' – the 'red house – a name it still carries to this day.
In 1903, the Ammanford Colliery Company Ltd. purchased the adjoining mansion of Wernoleu, where Mr. Hewlett took up residence until his departure to Africa in 1923. Tycoch became the administration block of the Company, being extended in 1927 to accommodate the larger concern of the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd.
Under nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, all assets of the various companies were taken over by the National Coal Board and Tycoch entered into a new role as Group Headquarters of the No 9 (Neath) Area.
Signs of decline in the coal industry, with its inevitable changes, loomed in March 1967, when it was announced that the South Wales administration was to be merged into two areas (Eastern and Western). The new Western Area, with headquarters at Tondu, near Bridgend, contained former No 1 (Swansea), No 2 (Maesteg), part of No 3 (Rhondda) and No 4 (Aberdare), along with No 9 (Neath) areas – controlling 34 collieries with 22,260 employees. The Tycoch and Wernoleu properties, now surplus to requirements, were placed on the market.
Messrs. Mary F Roberts and Samuel Roberts, (Licensees of the Coopers Hotel, Betws) purchased Tycoch, and converted the premises into a residential country club, which was to change hands on a number of occasions in the years to follow. Part of the building (the old drawing office complex) is now transformed into a night club called 'Senoritas Nitespot', clearly not an enterprise devoted to punctuation or spelling activities.
Brynhyfryd
Brynhyfryd (translated – 'bryn' is a 'hill' and 'hyfryd', is 'pleasant' – a pleasant hill).
The house is believed to have been built by a Mr Samuel Chivers, around about the mid 1800s.
The Chivers' family were connected with the chemical manufacturing industry in Pontamman, creating a very successful vinegar and pickling business and achieved national repute for over 120 years. In the 1920s, the property was acquired by the Amalgamated Anthracite Company Ltd. who converted the premises into offices. At one time it was occupied by the financial section of the company where, every Friday, colliers would queue at the pay hatch to collect their hard earned wage packet.
The National Coal Board placed Brynhyfryd on the market in 1965 and the new owner re-instated the premises to its original use as a private residence.
Dowty Prop and Cable Repair Workshop
In order to make financial savings and improve efficiency, the National Coal Board decided to provide their own in-house facilities for the maintenance of Dowty-props and underground heavy electrical cabling (these works had previously being carried out by private companies, under a standing contract).
A new factory unit was built on land formally used as railway sidings where rail wagons were cleaned. This fronted Maesquare Road and was well equipped with lathes, welding equipment and other machine tools, all operated by NCB employees. Unfortunately, with the pit closure program of the sixties, this was closed in 1968 and remained unused until 1986, when the site was bought by Llandeilo Building Supplies and opened as the Ammanford branch of their builders' merchant business.

Wernoleu

Wernoleu is situated on land which was originally part of an old farmstead. On the Ordnance Survey map of 1831 it is shown as 'Gelli Grafod'– 'gelli' is a wood or copse and 'grafod' means 'gravely' so the word translated means, roughly, 'a gravely wood'. On the 1875 Ordnance Survey map the farmstead has disappeared and in its place is a property called Wernoleu, meaning 'the location of the alder trees'.
Wernoleu, originally designed as a gentleman's residence, was built about 1872 by the Morris family who became involved in the nearby Amman Bridge Chemical Works; the grounds were laid out as park land with an imposing selection of trees, an ornamental lake, and a large walled garden.

Within a short period of time the ownership changed when the Ammanford Colliery Company Ltd. bought the property in 1903 as a residence for the Managing Director.
The Company later became part of the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Ltd. On the nationalisation of the industry in 1947 these assets were once again transferred, this time to the National Coal Board, to be occupied as the residence of the Area No 9 (Neath) manager.
In 1965, under re-organisation of Area No 9 of the Coal Board, the house and surrounding land, along with two other properties – Tycoch and Bryn Hyfryd – were placed on the market and sold in separate lots. After protracted negotiations, the Ammanford Urban District Council acquired about 17 acres of the land and earmarked it for private development rather than the more usual council house building. An estate of about 100 houses now stands on this site, divided up into five roads – Ashgrove, Fairoaks, Laurel Drive, Pinewoods and James Griffiths Road. The last named, a departure from naming the roads after trees, was to honour Ammanford's most famous political son, Jim Griffiths MP, who, in the 1964 Harold Wilson government, became the first Secretary of State for Wales. Wernoleu itself was bought separately and converted into a hotel and country club, and is still in business as a hotel and bar today.

The Life Of Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

A Too-Short Biography on Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Kathleen Hepburn-Ruston was born on May 4, 1929 to parents Joseph Hepburn-Ruston and Baroness Ella van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston. She had two half-brothers from the Baroness's first marriage, and was born in Ixelles, Brussels. Audrey had often said "If I were to write a biography, it would start like this: I was born in Brussels, Belgium, on May 4, 1929 . . . and I died six weeks later." A six week-old infant Audrey had contracted a case of whooping cough and her small heart had momentarily stopped beating. Her mother, with a quick prayer and a smart slap to the backside, saved her daughter's life. This is the extraordinary beginning of Audrey Hepburn.

When Audrey was just six years old, her life was shattered by the sudden abandonment by her father. She recalled seeing her mother walking around the house, sobbing hysterically. His departure would mark Audrey for the rest of her life, leaving her in constant fear of being abandoned again. Many rumours circulate as to why Joseph left: some biographies claim that he was caught in the act of cheating, and others claim that his pro-fascist mindset in an increasingly unstable political world led his own father-in-law to bribe him into leaving his family. Whatever the case, Joseph's departure was sudden and infinitely painful to his daughter. He left for England, and Audrey was sent to an English boarding school a short time later by the parent's mutual agreement. The divorce took a whopping 10 years to complete.
Audrey was shipped back to her mother's side of the family in Arnhem, Holland when England declared war on Germany in 1939. Holland was neutral (mainly because both England and Germany bought heavily from Holland), so the Baroness figured that she and her children would be safe there. Unfortunately, Holland was close to the German border and the Nazis were very keen on taking over Holland's great resources. Shortly thereafter Holland was invaded by the Nazis and the country was forced to surrender under the threat of being bombed entirely to rubble. Life was terribly harsh for Audrey and her mother. Her older brother, Alexander, was forced to go into hiding before he could be swept off to a forced labor camp (or worse). Her younger brother Ian hid with them for a while before being rounded up and shipped to Germany himself in a work camp. Joseph was placed in an interment camp for the duration of the war due to his fascist roots, and Audrey didn't hear from him for years, even after the war had ended and he had moved to Ireland.
Holland was liberated on Audrey's 16th birthday, May 4 1945. This date also became a national day of mourning for Holland, who suffered greatly during the war and was exposed to especially harsh treatment. The war ended not a moment too soon for Audrey. She was terribly ill with anemia, asthma, edema and colitis, besides being severely malnourished after months of living without real food. British and American troops were charmed by the English-speaking Dutch girl and showered her with chocolate bars and cigarettes, which became two life-long addictions for her. Audrey even said that she would always associate the smell of British cigarettes with freedom.

Life anywhere in Holland after the war was nearly impossible, with many cities unfit for living and food still practically nonexistent. Audrey heard through a friend that she might qualify for a ballet scholarship in England, so she and her mother spent the next year finding and mailing the correct paperwork for the move to England. Shortly before moving she appeared in a short travelogue film called Netherlands in Seven Lessons (or Dutch on the Double). It didn't do well and never was released internationally. Life in England wasn't any better than it had been in Holland, with severe housing shortages and strict food rations. Audrey received a partial scholarship to Marie Rambert's School of Ballet and her mother became a live-in manager of an apartment complex. By now Audrey realized that she had lost too much time and training during the war and would never be a prima ballerina, and would struggle to even be in the corps de ballet. Yet another dream shattered by the war. But she persevered and began landing jobs in the chorus line of dance shows. She wasn't terribly good at this type of dancing, but even then she possessed a magnetic charm that made people notice her (and forget her sub-par dancing). She began to be cast in slightly better revues and earn more money, and was soon being considered for parts in films. She was offered the female lead in Laughter in Paradise, but originally turned it down because she was planning to do a touring review with then-boyfriend Maurice LeBon. The revue fell through and the relationship shortly after, and Audrey prayed the part was still available. It wasn't, but she was given a bit part. Shortly afterwards she was signed to Associated British Pictures Corporation.

Audrey had small parts in a couple of other films, then landed a fairly big part in The Secret People, an art house film that would show off her ballet training. During filming she met shipping magnate James Hanson, and the two began dating. Following that came Monte Carlo Baby (or We Go to Monte Carlo), which took advantage of her knowledge of French and involved a trip to the Riviera. It was during this film that Audrey met the legendary author Colette, who cast Audrey instantly as her Gigi. Colette and playwright Anita Loos had been working on a stage adaptation of Gigi for years, and were especially stuck on who to cast as the courtesan-in-training. Audrey insisted that Colette was making a big mistake because she couldn't act, but Colette wouldn't hear of it. Audrey was cast, her fate sealed. She was shipped to New York in style on the Queen Mary, arriving 10 lbs. heavier after gorging on the gourmet food and chocolates. After much struggling and being fired at least 10 times by the director, Gigi opened at the Fulton Theatre on November 24, 1951. Monday's papers declared Audrey a star, nearly unanimously. From this time onward her life became a whirlwind. Hanson proposed one night at the El Morocco Club, and she accepted. She wanted to quit her career and have lots of babies . . . but not just yet. Next came Roman Holiday. After being secretly filmed during the screen test, director William Wyler decided then and there that she was indeed a princess. Audrey and James planned to be married after Roman Holiday had wrapped filming, but since Gigi was such a hit, it was scheduled for a tour directly after filming. Finally, the couple mutually and amicably agreed that things just wouldn't work. But Roman Holiday co-star Gregory Peck had introduced Audrey to an old friend of his, actor/director/writer Mel Ferrer. They were instantly enamored of each other, but nothing romantic sparked right away. Audrey was too busy and still recovering from her broken engagement. But she had seemed interested in doing a play with Mel, who was also a cofounder of the La Jolla Playhouse, and Mel found what he thought would be a suitable vehicle for the two of them in Ondine. She loved it, and fell in love with Mel, too. Before long they were married in Switzerland, but not before Audrey won both an Oscar and a Tony award in the same year, a rare feat which had only been done once before.

But Audrey still wasn't ready to completely quit for the family life. She and Mel tried desperately to work together, or if that couldn't be done, work close together. While preparations were underway for War and Peace, Audrey suffered her first miscarriage. She was heartbroken and threw herself into her work. Her star kept rising and she had an impressive roster of distinguished co-stars and directors already under her belt. She earned another Oscar nomination for Sabrina and The Nun's Story, but she still wanted children more than anything. Shortly before starting work on The Unforgiven, Audrey learned that she was pregnant again and cursed her luck. She would have to ride a horse bareback in this film, something she definitely didn't want to do when pregnant, especially since she had been afraid of horses ever since falling off a pony as a child. Director John Huston said the film was cursed, and Audrey's spill off of her horse seemed to prove it was so. The horse was startled while she was on him and he bucked, throwing her over his head and flat onto her back with an audible snap. She had the wherewithal to quip, "Well, I had to do something to get out of this hellhole" before fainting. It turned out to be several broken vertebrae, some torn muscles and ligaments and a sprained ankle. The baby seemed to be fine, but she would be flat on her back for 6 weeks. Filming continued and the movie was finally finished. But Audrey suffered another miscarriage and sunk into a deep depression.

Before too long she was pregnant again, and this time she vowed that absolutely nothing would happen to this baby. She stayed at home and limited herself to very little physical strain or even exercise, and it worked. On July 17, 1960, Sean Hepburn Ferrer was born. Audrey gasped, "Let me see my baby, let me see it at once. Is it all right? Is it really all right?" When she saw her healthy son for herself, she collapsed, exhausted.
But work was still calling her. Her next film took some persuading, especially after its original star, Marilyn Monroe, refused to be labeled as "a woman of the evening." Audrey saw Holly Golightly in a different light, and an instant classic was made. Women rushed out in droves to copy Holly's little black dresses, "pineapple" hairdos, and animal shelters couldn't supply enough orange-striped tabbies.

Her work continued steadily, and with powerful agent Kurt Frings behind her, she became one of the highest paid actors in her day. For My Fair Lady she was paid the then unheard of $1 million (paid out over 10 years, for a bit of a tax break). But her continuing success in the face of her husband's seeming decline was placing a strain on their marriage. (While Audrey was filming My Fair Lady, Mel was involved in Sex and the Single Girl starring Natalie Wood, and was paid a paltry $35,000.) People started noticing the strain, and finally in 1967, Mel and Audrey separated and filed for divorce. Audrey was devastated and feared that Sean would take it badly, but he came to console her over the breakup.
During divorce proceedings Audrey met and eventually fell for an Italian psychiatrist, Andrea Dotti. They were both vacationing with Princess Olympia Torlonia aboard her yacht and began seeing each other. Shortly after her divorce was finalized, Audrey and Andrea were married. She was determined to give him children, since he had come from a large family and wanted a large family of his own, and became content to just settle down and become an Italian housewife. Her phone number was even listed in the phone book! When she became pregnant, Audrey flew back to her home in Switzerland and restricted herself to bed rest to ensure that nothing happened to this baby, either. But while she was resting, tabloid reports reached her on a nearly daily basis about Andrea's late night club hopping with various young beauties. Audrey tried to shrug it off but was heartbroken. Their only child together, Luca Dotti, was born on February 8, 1970. His birth put a temporary patch on things, and Audrey was pleased to see how well the now 10 year old Sean took to his new brother. Unfortunately the pleasantries did not last and her marriage to Andrea too crumbled

Audrey had been away from films for nearly 10 years by now. She had vowed to be a better mother to Luca, feeling guilt over putting Sean in boarding schools and having nannies care for him, and wanted to be around more for her younger son. But now he was getting older and more independent, and the boys were even encouraging her to go back to work. When Sean Connery as Robin Hood came calling, the boys were thrilled. So, after a too-long absence from the screen, Audrey came back as Maid Marian in Robin and Marian. A lot had changed in the industry in ten years, and Audrey wasn't sure that she liked it. But the world went crazy over her comeback, and she was deeply moved to realize that no one had forgotten her, and that they had in fact missed her terribly. She never got as deeply into acting as she had in her early days, and the choice of good parts were much more limited to her now that she was in middle age. But she had other things to occupy her now.
In her last starring film, They All Laughed, Audrey became involved with co-star Ben Gazzara. Just how involved they were is unclear, but both were recovering from brutal divorces and were really too damaged to be of much good to the other. This damage may also have temporarily blinded her to Robert Wolders, a quiet gentleman she had met at a friend's house. They found mutual ground together talking about their war experiences (Robert had been born in Holland and they had lived just 30 miles apart during the war) and exchanged phone numbers. Slowly they began to see each other and the relationship evolved into a comfortable companionship. Robert and Audrey eventually moved in together, but Audrey always refused to get married again. "If it ain't broke, why fix it?" she would say. Still, those years with Robert seemed to be the happiest of her life. She came out of her unofficial retirement to play an angel in Steven Spielberg's Always, a most appropriate final role.

But the most important role was yet to come. Audrey had been chummy with fellow actor Danny Kaye, helping him at fundraisers as part of his job as Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF. When Danny passed away in 1987, Audrey felt an obligation to do something. UNICEF's forerunner, UNRRA, had saved her life at the end of World War II. Besides, she had been taught to put others before herself. So in 1988, Audrey became the new Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She began to travel the world to see firsthand the damage done by drought, famine, and the cruelty of humanity. She was also credited with bringing the world's attention to the tragedy of Somalia, and she added a new dimension to the role of Goodwill Ambassador.
Unfortunately, it couldn't last. During one of her trips, she began to complain of stomach pains. She had figured it was just a bug, something she had picked up from bad water, and shrugged it off. But when she and Robert, who traveled with her, came home to Switzerland, the pain didn't stop. Friends and family finally persuaded her to fly to Los Angeles and undergo some tests. Everyone was devastated to learn it was colon cancer. She quickly underwent surgery, but the cancer spread nonetheless. She stayed with friends in L.A., where they crowded into Audrey's bedroom to watch Fawlty Towers, a favourite TV show of hers. When she felt strong enough, she was flown specially back home to Tolechenaz, Switzerland, to finish her life.

While she still had strength she walked around her garden with her loyal gardener, telling him where to plant the new flowers when spring came. He insisted that she would be there to plant them herself, but she knew that time was short. Her last Christmas was spent quietly at home with Robert and her two children, where she read them Time-Tested Beauty Tips and enjoyed a quiet holiday on one of her last trips down the stairs. On January 20, 1993, Audrey passed peacefully in her sleep. She was buried in the town's local cemetery. The funeral service was overflowing with mourners, and flowers were piled around the casket and outside the chapel's doors. Her grave was swamped in a thick pile of beautiful flowers. It is safe to say that the whole world mourned her death. Even Tiffany & Co. felt the need to say goodbye. They took out an entire page in the New York Times with a beautifully simple.
Audrey Hepburn1929-1993
Our huckleberry friend

Iformation from Audrey Hepburn Biography website, photo’s from many different websites and rearranged by Tony Gostling August 2008.

My time at Craig-yr-odyn quarry

In the later part of 2006, I was told the sad news that a quarry that I had once worked at,in the early part of the 1970’s was to close.

So I enquired if I could go up and take some photographs on the last working day. And on December 8^th 2006 after 33 years taking my camera with me, I return to the quarry, only to find two men working there, and one long hole cut into the mountain. It was an eye opener for me to see how much stone that had been taken out of the quarry in over 30 years, and how much it had changed, and yes the memories came flooding back to me when I worked there.

It began in 1973 the quarry is just outside the village of Trapp near Llandybie called Craig yr odyn run by a gentleman by the name of Mr Herbert.

When you enter the quarry the office and weighbridge would be on your right, my first job was to operate a crushing machine, which was located on the side of a steep bank under a corrugated iron shed. At the time when I started, it was very uncomfortable first thing in the morning; it was a steel open fronted shed, with no heating, and at times bitterly cold. You started the grading drum first then the elevator, one of the small crushers; all were outside of the main shed.

Once this was under way, you made your way back into the main shed to start the conveyor belt, and main crusher, and this was done by pressing and holding down a button and winding a handle, which turned the DC electrical motor on to full speed. It had a big flywheel on the right side (about four feet in diameter), and when the machine was running at full speed it continually vibrated. You would then go outside and tell the driver to tip the load, and when the driver had tipped you would then go back in and take your place over looking the mouth of the crusher. Above the crusher was a large shoot holding the limestone rocks with large chains hanging across it, which would help to stop falling stones going over the side, which you would lift over the sides when about half the load had gone. You would pull down stone towards the mouth using a five-foot steel rod with a hook at the end where they were then reduced to approximately 4inches in size before traveling along a conveyor belt to the bucket elevator

That would take it into a storage bin. Outside this shed there was a ramp and stairway that would lead you to the top of the bins.

Here you would send some of the stone back down to a smaller crusher, and again it would be crushed down to 2inches to dust, and again be elevated up to the top into a large rotating drum some 20-30 feet in length, and approximately five feet in diameter. This rotating drum would grade the stone, which would fall into separate bins waiting to be discharged into the lorries.

At the side of the bin that held the dust, would be a small door, that you opened to let it into yet another small crusher, where the dust was made into ground limestone which was used mainly for agriculture use.

As well as feeding the main crusher, you had to watch these bins, so when they became full you had to tell Gerald the driver, which ones to empty into the back of an old grey Austin lorry. When Gerald was not available to do this and if I had the time, you would also drive this lorry, and take the stone to the appropriate storing piles.

There were times I would also drive the loading shovel that was used for loading the lorries that took the stone by road to the customers. One of the drivers was Mervin known as “Mervin Chipping’s”; he was always fun to work with.

The smell of crushed limestone is a smell you never forget, you could say it’s similar to that of rotten eggs.

And when the end of the day came you would go home looking as if you had been in a tank of flour. “Very white like a ghost”.

Some of the boulders that were too big to go through the cranes bucket, “what went through the cranes bucket could also go through the mouth of the crusher” (Well that was the idea). So Dai the driver of the R B Had to put them to one side but sometimes just for a laugh, he would place one in the back of the lorry, and they would find their way on top of the crusher’s mouth; just siting there looking at you. So you had to cut them down to smaller size with a 14-pound sledgehammer, and at times extremely hard work and it often held up production.

Dai was a hell of a boy, and would do anything for a good laugh.

Another character that worked also at the quarry was a chap called Jack a well-built man, but not very tall and he to was always fun to work with, his job was to operate this crusher and to show me how to work it when I stared work there.

Jack and I had to cycle to work; or rather Jack pushed his bike to work, because he only lived within a mile down the road from the quarry, which had a steep hill down to where he lived. Going home was easy, as all he had to do was to sit on it. I lived some five miles away and winter months were the hardest times travelling to work, because your thumbs would suffer from the cold and frost. Working with Jack was fun as you could always guarantee he would have something funny to say. I always enjoyed working with him.

While I was working at the quarry I had many different jobs, so to say that I was a just a labourer would be an understatement.

I remember that on wet or rainy days the mud would stick to the side of the shoot, and also under the conveyor belt. This took Jack and myself a good few hours to remove. Jack or I would go underneath the conveyor belt and would pass the waste out. And on cold and rainy days would be difficult and often-hard work, especially when the surface of the quarry was cleaned away before it was blasted. Despite attempts to clean up the topsoil, you always had some soil or clay that would find it's way into the load, and would always stick like concrete to the sides of the shoot.

When Mr Herbert, would take the drilling-rig, (which worked with a big air-compressor), up to the top of the quarry ledge. Which was pulled by his old land Rover, he would be up there for a few days drilling many holes, we knew it would be a short time before blasting would take place, and more rock would be on it’s way.

Now going back to the large rocks that shouldn’t have found their way to the crusher. There were times when you wouldn't be able to break those with a sledgehammer, so this would mean that extreme measures would be taken by applying Dynamite, yes dynamite.

We would try and do this very carefully because now and again you would take off the shed roof, or at least part of it, and once the fuse was lit you would escape through the side door and wait outside. By now I was getting used to using plastic explosives, by picking it up watching the boys, placing it on large rocks up on the quarry face, which was too large to be used, or could not be lifted by the crane.

And if I can remember you had to take some plastic explosives put a hole in the side with a T shape tool, made from aluminium called a bodg’er. You would then place a detonator into the hole, place it onto the rock, and mix up some lime dust with water, or clay if there was any. Cover the plastic explosive and insert a fuse, which would burn very quickly once lit, give a blast on the air horns and then light the fuse.

Now driving around the quarry with plastic explosives was an experience in itself. An old Morris Minor van, the so called works van, driving this vehicle around on very rough surfaces with enough explosives in the back to blast dear Morris and myself to the nearby village.

Looking back now I often wonder how we would manage today, Health and Safety would have a field day, and also a lot to say about it.

We took our tea breaks in an old hut made from an old Railway Wagon.

It had a door at one end, and you would sit around the side. It also had a kind of table in the centre and I do believe a window at one end.

You would have 15 minutes around 10am, just time to make a cup of tea and 30 minutes for dinner.

And when I had my pay on Fridays I would sometimes go down to the village shop to buy something to eat. It was half a mile or so from the quarry next to the Cennen Arm’s pub, called I do believe Cennen Stores, and this would be eaten on the way up. Because you only had half an hour break, so by the time you got back it was time to go back to work.

The hut wasn’t the best place to eat, it wasn’t very clean or warm at the best of times, and had very little or no heating. The winter months weren’t pleasant, and also the boys would be speaking Welsh most of the time, so you could say it was difficult to hold a conversation, and can be a little awkward when you are an Englishman.

On Saturdays you worked from 7-30am till 12noon and would sometimes do repairs necessary for the coming week, this would include many aspects of work such as repairing, cleaning, greasing, cutting steel and welding, and making sure all the machinery was working properly.

When we were working a three-day week, (miners strike) there was more time for this, and it was done more often.

One day I was welding inside and underneath the new crusher, Mr Herbert was working outside, and inside a space no bigger then four feet long and less then two feet wide with no lighting. I could smell something burning, I couldn’t see anything so I just carried on when until my right leg was getting very hot, looking down I could see by now that my overalls were on fire. Dropping the tools I made a quick escape from inside the crusher, and I wasn’t long putting out the fire.

During one afternoon lifting the chains back inside the shoot I would tap on with my rod that I would use to pull down the stone. This would tell the dump truck driver that it is safe and he could now tip the load of stone. And I then wait outside but there was no response; so I went back in and did it again, but still had no response.

"I had suspected that he had to go and do something"; so eventually I went to look for him, but he was not inside the cab, and I couldn’t see him anywhere. As time was going on I decided to climb into the cab, and looking around at the dashboard and instruments to see if I could manage to work out how to tip it. Remember I was young at the time and had no licence, and never driven a dump truck, or anything this big before, but I couldn’t so I sat there inside the truck for a few minutes, and still there was no sign of the driver.

Try again I said to myself, well somehow I did managed, you had to put so many gear levers, in or out of gear, you would not believe.

By the time the truck was tipping, unfortunately Mr Herbert was on his way down from the top of the quarry in his Land Rover, and noticed that I was sitting there inside the cab, he stopped and looked at me, shouted. “What the hell are you doing in there?” or words to that effect.

So after I explained to him he then told me “Now that you are in there you can stay in there”. Saying to myself now what have I done, pressing the clutch pedal I selected a gear, and off I went. And after a few runs up and down the quarry I was ok, and from that day I was the new dump-truck driver, which was to be a great experience.

This dump truck was Russian built, with left-hand drive, and when you started it in the mornings you had to make sure that all the doors and windows were closed, because for ten minutes or so there would be a lot of white smoke coming out of that big exhaust pipe.

I can clearly remember that one of the first times I tried to reverse this machine towards the crane. Which was a R.B face shovel when somehow, I misjudged the distance between the crane and myself, and hit the back doors of the crane with the truck damaging the doors of the crane. Dai the diver was very upset over this, and he told me off. So we worked out a marking system using a traffic cone, so I could see it from my cab, and from 
                    
                                                                                  that day I never hit him again, or I should say, I never hit the R.B again.

This dump truck was the biggest thing that I have ever driven before having lived on a farm, and my father only had a small Grey Ferguson TE20 tractor.

One day I was told to drive this monster a mile or so down the main road to pull out one of the road lorries. The driver had managed to get himself off the road and stuck in a ditch, Mr Herbert went before me in his Land Rover because this truck would take up most of the road. I found this to be a little scary at first, and at the time not even thinking about a licence or insurance, but I did enjoy the run.

One day the brakes on this dump truck didn’t work very well, so if you wanted to stop dead you couldn’t, I reported it to Mr Herbert but I was just told to carry on.

Now coming down towards the crusher, you had to make a turn to the right, then you had to put your clutch in, wait for your front wheels to roll towards a small bank, no more then a two feet high. And if you went too far, you would go over the top and down the bank, (this was not a good idea), you would then go back to the crusher’s shoot, and apply the hand brake, which did work.

Having to drive down to the bottom of the quarry or to top up with fuel would always be an experience, making sure that no one was on the way up, because once you came off the top there was no stopping you.

Fortunately this came to an end one day, after the Health and Safety inspectors called in, having found out that there were no brakes or very little on my vehicle. I was asked to stop and take it down to the workshop which was a big semicircle corrugated shed with a pit in the middle, there I was ask to park it over the pit so they could have a good look at it. After that we were told not to use it, and it was sometime before Mr Herbert managed to do all the repairs.

I would just like to say with all these different jobs that I had, there was never any increase in wages, something you would be now unwilling to do today. And the average weekly wage then was around £12 to £20 and that’s with a bonus if the quarry had sold more stone that week.

Mr Herbert had a daughter "Mari" who would call in now and then to ride her pony which was kept in a meadow by the works, and you can be sure she would always turn a workman’s eye.

When the time came for the surface, or any large rock to be blasted. It was my duty to sound the big air horns on the dump-truck, this would tell other work colleagues that there would be danger of flying rocks, therefore to take adequate safety measures. It would be one long blast to tell them it would be two minutes before blasting. Each explosion had to be counted by you to make sure it was safe to return.

Afterwards you would give two short blasts on the air horns to say it was safe and clear. I do remember Jack telling me one day of a workman in an old quarry nearby, who went back to one that hadn't gone off, and he was unfortunately killed.

During the 1970s when the miners were on strike, we had to work a three-day week without electricity, this gave us more time to do more maintenance, and any odd jobs that needed doing.

One week a new lad started work, he took over from Jack, who at this stage was back working on the crusher.

By now Mr Herbert had decided to expand his business, by putting a bigger crusher into the quarry, (this I believe was around 48 inches) and would take larger rock,

So over the next few months or so, new bins, conveyors including new machinery were fitted, a new shed, which housed the new electrical controls, was also built.

This control panel had so many different switches and lights on it, and I did look forward to seeing all this new plant up and running.

Mr Herbert and I worked a lot together on this new plant, and when the day arrived, Mr Herbert asked me if I would like to turn it all on.

This crushing machine would produce much more tonnage per hour than the old system, but it would still supply some stone on a conveyor belt to the old crusher.

I do believe the same size crusher was fitted in Cilyrchen Quarry at Lime Firms Ltd a company in Llandybie in 1975, of which I became a work member after finishing with Mr Herbert.

Mr Herbert liked to have a drink now and then, and one morning came into work, and maybe after being out the night before, decided for some unknown reason, to sack my friend and myself, we were at the time working underneath the conveyor belt cleaning out the waste.

Both of us didn't understand the reason why, it may have had something to do with him having a hangover, my friend decided to go back that week and ask for his job back, but I decided not to.

Looking back now it was hard work but an experience that I shall never forget, I did from time to time pop in to purchase stone, it was always lovely to see my old friends again.

The quarry had changed many owners by now, and the reason to cease operating at this time was not clear when I returned in December 2006.

I saw very little of the old machinery remaining, the old crusher that I helped to fit many years ago had by now been replace, and you could see that the replacement hadn’t worked for some time. I was told that this one was going to be shiped abroad and the remaining steelwork and bins would be pulled down within weeks.

Looking around I could only see a hole where the small crusher once stood, and sadly no sign of the dump truck.

I do remember it siting at the side of the new bins with no wheels on it for years later, it to may have gone to the scrap metal merchants.

Tony the driver of the loading shovel, Who had work at this quarry from around 1976, asked me if I remembered the old dump truck and showed me a photograph of it, he also had memories driving it, but not many happy ones.

This is only a small part of my time there, but should give a insight into one's working day...!. 
I would like to thank Tony (loader driver) and Gareth (site manager) for their permission and opportunity to take some photographs.

Before I left the site I was also told the sad news of my old friend Jack, who had sadly past away some time back.

Leaving the gates, there was sadness for the workmen that I knew and worked with and for all the men, who had once worked at the quarry. 
Unfortunately now only memories remain.

The company called Lime Firms ltd (Cilyrchen Quarry) in Llandybie. Was then run by Sir Alfred McAlpine & Son (northern) Ltd. Where I was employed for a seven weeks contract as a steel erector after leaving Mr Herbert. This company was partly responsible for making the end part to the motorway called the M4; the pay was much better than in my previous job. This employment came to an end after eight weeks, but that’s another experience in my working life.

Tony Gostling

49 Glynderi Glynmoch Glanaman Ammanford Carms SA18 2JG