Merthyr Lewis

This is the Rhondda Heritage Park, open to the public, near Pontypridd

By 1880 WT Lewis had sunk the Bertie shaft, and in 1890 the Trefor shaft (both Trefor and Bertie were named after WT Lewis' sons, and remain so today at the Rhondda Heritage Park). By 1891 the Colliery was known as the Lewis Merthyr Navigation Collieries Ltd and from 1890 the five pits became the "Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries Ltd" employing some 5,000 men and producing almost a million tons of coal annually.

The Bertie shaft was 4.3m in diameter and 434m in depth. The Winding Engine is unique because of the unusual design of the drum known as a differential bi-cylindro conical drum, which enabled the engine to wind to and from different depths simultaneously. There is thought to have existed only one other engine of this style. The engine was originally steam operated until it was electrified in the late 1950s.

In 1904 the company sunk the Lady Lewis colliery a mile to the North East in the Rhondda Fach and in 1905 they acquired the Universal Colliery at Senghenydd, which was later to suffer the worst ever mining disaster in British history. In 1929 the colliery became part of the Powell Dyffryn Group, and in the same year Coed Cae stopped winding coal. Hafod No 2 followed, and Hafod No 1 in 1933. The colliery was nationalised in 1947.

In 1956 there was a terrible explosion at the colliery killing 9 men and injuring 5 others. In 1958 Lewis Merthyr Colliery and the neighbouring Ty Mawr Colliery merged and all coal winding ceased at Lewis Merthyr, with coaling continuing via Ty Mawr and men and supplies only at Lewis Merthyr. By 1969 the Colliery had become the Ty Mawr/Lewis Merthyr Colliery. As many as thirteen seams have been worked at the Lewis Merthyr using the advanced long wall method of working with most of the coal being won with pneumatic picks and hand loaded onto conveyors