|
In August 1948, Mining Review devoted the first instalment of its 'A Pit is Reborn' series (1st Year No.11) to the redevelopment of Nantgarw Colliery in South Wales. From 6-8 December the following year, the cameras returned to the now completed facility to examine the technique of "horizon mining". As the film explains, with the aid of several diagrams, this is a system of mine development designed to get the best out of inclined coal seams - in this case, they tilt steeply towards the surface. Level roads (called "horizons") are driven across the seams of coal, spaced a hundred or so yards apart, and the coal is then worked as a longwall face. There is something poignant about the commentator's overly exuberant optimism. Far from lasting another 400 years, as he predicted, Nantgarw pit was closed down in 1987 after being declared uneconomic to run. Michael Brooke
| 
Complete item (1:53)
