Great Western Colliery started life under a different name Gyfeillion it was the second pit to be sunk by John Calvert one of the pioneers of the South Wales coal industry, John a successful railway engineer from Yorkshire was contracted by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to lay out the Taff Vale Railway's Rhondda extension, but he quickly noticed the profits to be made from the emerging coal industry and he opened his first pit in 1844 where he became the first engineer to employ steam engines for rasing coal. Work to sink a shaft for his second colliery at Gyfeillion began four years later. It took three years for the shaft to reach the coal seam. In 1854 the Great Western Railway first leased the Colliery for three months and then went on to purchase it our right, to supply their growing fleet of steam locomotives. After 10 years of profitable ownership the Great Western sold the colliery back to John Calvert but less than two years later it was once again on the market and was purchased by the Great Western Colliery Company Ltd.

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The 1870's saw a growing commitment from the Great Western to mining at Gyfeillion, the colliery first took on the company's name then a program of expansion began. The original shaft was now out dated and far to shallow to reach the richest coal seems, so it was abandoned. Work began in 1875 on sinking the 'Hetty' Shaft which four years later reached the 'Six Feet' seam at a depth of 1,176 Feet. Shortly after 'Hetty No2' shaft was sunk to 'Nine Feet' and 'Red' seams producing steam coal and 'Hetty No3' to the 'Fforest Fach' seam which produced house coal. The colliery was also linked underground to the nearby Ty Mawr shaft which worked the 'Four Feet', 'Lower Four Feet' and 'Nine Feet' seams. Coke Ovens, an Iron foundry and a Brick Works were added to the southern side of the pit head. Not long after it had been completed a major kink in the 'Hetty' shaft was discovered making it unsuitable as production shaft. Although it had been fitted with a powerful large diameter fan capable of moving 280,000 cubic feet of air per minute, so it was retained as the main ventilation shaft for Great Western Colliery.

In 1890 the Ty Mawr shaft was deepened to reach the 'Five Feet' Seam. Three years later it would become the scene of a terrible disaster which would claim the lives of 63 miners. on the afternoon of the 14th of April sparks from the wooden brake blocks of a haulage engine on the 'Four Feet' seam fell onto some cotton waste and ignited, Water was brought up from the stables and men beat the flames in an attempt to extinguish the fire, but fanned by the strong ventilation current within the mine the fire spread to wooden pit props igniting coal dust in the air. Sending thick clouds of poisonous smoke down into the workings. the bodies of 58 miners were recovered and three of the rescued would later die from their wounds. One more body was later discovered when the colliery reopened.

Great Western went on to become one of the biggest pits in the Rhonnda in terms of both production and employment in 1923 'Hetty No.2' employed 683 men, 'Hetty No.3' 324 men and there were 1,143 men working at 'Ty Mawr'. However a year later the scene was dramatically different, during the early 1920's work had been underway sinking a new Ty Mawr shaft known simply as "No1" it was much closer to Great Western than the original Ty Mawr site, just on the on the other side of the Taff Vale Railway and linked to Great Western by an iron lattice bridge which still stands to this day. Once the new shaft was completed the original Ty Mawr site was abandoned along with the Great Western's 'Hetty No2' and 'No3' shafts which were infilled and cleared shortly afterwards. The older 'Hetty' shaft was retained for ventilation and emergency access at the newly renamed Ty Mawr Colliery.

In 1929 Ty Mawr was purchased by the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company one of the largest coal companies to operate in South Wales. Who continued to own the colliery up until Nationalisation and employed 613 men at Ty Mawr during 1945. Following nationalisation Ty Mawr became part of the NCB South Western Region but little changed at the colliery until a major investment of £1.2 Million was made in 1958 to merge Ty Mawr with the nearby Lewis Merthyr Colliery. All coal raising was transferred to Ty Mawr which had better rail links while men and machinery were lowered at Lewis Merthyr.

Ty Mawr/Lewis Merthyr never became a fully mechanised pit employing advanced long wall methods of working with most of the coal being won with pneumatic picks and hand loaded onto conveyors. By the 1980's these method were viewedas unproductive and the colliery was included in a list for closure despite having plentiful available reserves. Production at Ty Mawr/Lewis Merthyr ceased in July of 1983 one the first in a series of pit closures which would spark the 1984 miners strike.

Fortunately the Lewis Merthyr Pit head was saved and is today open to visitors as the 'Rhondda Heritage Park' where it two sets of headgear and their winding engines can be seen. Although the site of the Ty Mawr has now disappeared beneath a housing estate. The local council recognised the importance of the 'Hetty' Headgear and have preserved it and its winding house and although it is not currently open to the public it is currently in the care of the heritage park who have long term plans to reopen the winding house to visitors sometime in the future.

I have made a number of visits to Great Western Colliery over the recent months it has become something of a favorite for me it is a very photogenic place and despite being along side a very busy road a sence of peace and quite surrounds the site a far cry for what it would have been like during it working life. Much of the colliery site has been cleared over the years the original Gyfeillion colliery site along with 'Hetty No2' and 'Hetty No3' now lie below modern industrial units, while the demolished remains of the brick works and coke ovens can be found in thick undergrowth to the south of the headgear. The site is dominated by the winding house which towers over the road below, while the headgear looks quite small along side it. Approaching the colliery site from the rear is soon becomes clear that the winding house and headgear are built on a raised plateau about ten meters above the colliery yard. Waking along the east side of the pit bank I first came across an adit running into the bank which lies in line with the headgear. This adit which is now fully bricked up was the landing level used for loading pit ponies and materials into the cage. 'Hetty' as an upcast shaft required an airlock at the unloading level which was provided by this adit.

Moving round the other side of the pit bank the next discovery is more modern gas boiler used to replace the original coal fired boilers. It now sits on an concrete mount but the remains of more modern brick walls which would have once enclosed the boiler can be easily found. Along side the boiler a flight of cast iron stairs leads up on to the pit bank. These stairs are now to unsafe to climb and have been fenced off. Next we come to brick fan drift, which connects the top of the upcast shaft to the fan house via a curved brick tunnel. In between the fan drift and the fan house a large diameter rusted fan housing can be seen which easily shows how big the fan is. Towering above are the fan vents with their heavy louvers open to the sky. Access to the fan room is not possible all it's Doors and Windows have been bricked up so it is impossible to tell if the fan is still in place but i cant see how it could have been removed without demolishing the fan room or the fan housing.

On the other side of the fan house is arched stone tunnel which leads underneath the engine house. On the other side of this there is a large pile of iron pipes these are badly corroded and have been removed from the side of the engine house looking up at it you can see where they were once connected to the building and functioned as a release point for steam in the engine.