Dissertation on Pentreclwydau Colliery ~ by Mr. Michael Cole.

Description

In March 2021 Mr. Michael Cole a student from South Yorkshire reached out to the people of Cwmgwrach on the community Face book site, for any information on Pentreclwydau colliery, as he was undertaking research for his Dissertation. A number of people were able to help him and Michael was grateful for their contribution.
He was researching his Dissertation under the heading:
Pentreclwydau Colliery – Why did the National Coal Board close the Vale of Neath’s ‘hundred-year super pit’ after just over a decade?
Part of his research was in the form of a questionnaire, and a copy of the questionnaire I completed for him is linked below.
Harry Caswell was also able to provide some information for him, as well as Joff Whaite who provided some excellent photographs of the colliery.
Over the coming months we corresponded by email to gather as much information as we could. He was very interested in the effect the closing of Pentreclwydau colliery had on the men working there, and the effect on the community as a whole.
Michael went on to gain a First Class Honours degree, with his dissertation achieving a mark of 90%. He was thankful for the help he received from the village and gave me permission to use his Dissertation in the GwrachTimeline website.
Dissertation:
Below is a link to Michael's dissertation.
http://oro.open.ac.uk/78821/1/COLE_A329_RVOR.pdf
Citation:Cole, Michael (2021). Pentreclwydau Colliery – Why did the National Coal Board close the Vale of Neath’s ‘hundred-year super pit’ after just over a decade? Student dissertation for The Open University module A329 The making of Welsh history.
Questionnaire:
https://gwrachtimeline.co.uk/mining-questionaire
Slide Show:
[metaslider id="2314"]
All photos from the Joff Whaite collection. Joff was a photographer for the National Coal Board and moved to Glynneath in the 70's living in the cottage behind the Rock pub.
Tree cutting Ceremony:
Newspaper Articles:
References and Resources:
Dissertation by Michael Cole.Photographs provided by Joff Whaite
Newspaper cutting provided by Glyn Davies.
Questionnaire completed by Roy Bowen.