The miners who bought their colliery
The aftermath of the 1984/85 miners’ strike saw coal mines shut down across the country- but one Welsh pit fought on
The mid-1980s was a turbulent time for the UK coal industry. Defeat in the 1984/85 miners’ strike led to an increased pit closure programme that led the industry to shrink drastically. By 1990, over 100 collieries were closed under the Conservatives, and this followed closures under the previous Labour government.
In 1994, then-PM John Major announced 55 pit closures- including Tower Colliery in South Wales. The Labour MP for the local area Ann Clwyd led a sit-in at the colliery to protest the closure, but this was unsuccessful. On April 22 the pit, located just north of Aberdare, closed its doors after 190 years of mining in some form.
Upon closure, the miners received an £8,000 redundancy package. Led by their National Union of Mineworkers branch secretary Tyrone O’Sullivan, 239 workers pooled their money into TEBO (Tower Employees Buy-Out). Despite resistance from the government, the bid of £2 million was accepted and in January 1995, miners marched back to the re-opened colliery.
While other collieries around them continued to close, Tower pressed on. For 13 years, the miners and owners kept on mining coal- keeping the industry that had been an integral part of their community for generations alive. They were told the plan to reopen the pit wouldn’t work, but these critics were proved wrong.
Miners at collieries across the country battled to keep their place of work open. Yet for these men and their families, it wasn’t just a job- it was a livelihood and a means of keeping a community alive.
In 2008 the colliery closed and this time, it would not reopen. The mine was last worked on January 18, and was shut on January 25. It was the last working deep mine in Wales, and one of the last left in the UK. By 2015, after the closure of Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire, deep coal mining officially came to an end.
The efforts of the Tower Colliery miners was a fine example of how the united efforts could keep a pit alive. The colliery should have closed in the mid-1990s, but the workers were defiant and wanted to fight on. This spirit is what history should think of when it reflects on the UK coal industry, and also the efforts from the government to break the communities and pits like that at Tower Colliery down.
In 2024, Tower Colliery has a very different purpose. The site is now home to a Zip World zipline adventure centre, allowing visitors to enjoy the beautiful scenery of South Wales in a daredevil setting.
The landscape of the South Wales coalfield, like that of all the coalfields across the UK, looks very different now- but the memory of what they did for generations, including at Tower Colliery, should remain alive. Museums to the mining industry remain, including Big Pit which is just 30 miles away from Tower. Maintaining these and giving younger generations the chance to experience a colliery (as a 20-something-year-old who has paid a visit) is the best way to keep this chapter of history accessible.
