CWM Coke
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CWM Coke opened in 1958 for the purpose of producing Coke. Coke is produced when coal is burned in airless battery like ovens to produce coke. Which is used in heavy industrial applications such as blast furnaces and even in the production of car engine blocks.
The site of CWM dates back further though to 1909. When the Great Western Colliery Co. began sinking pits to provide steam coals for the Great Western Railway.
It wasnt until 1914 that coal was actually produced on the Colliery. All of which came from two shafts named Magaret and Mildred. Which where over 750 yards deep.
In 1928 Powell Duffryn Associated Colleries ltd. took over the colliery which then employed around 1000 men. It continued production under their name until 1947 when the
National Coal Board was established to run the nationalised coal mining industry in Britain.
Between 1952 and 1960 the colliery underwent a £9 million reconstruction scheme which included linking CWM to Coedely Tonyrefail.
By the 1970s some 1,500 men where producing 515,000 tons of coke on a yearly basis at CWM until the privatisation of the National Coal Board in 1986.
The Colliery ceased production in 1986 although there where and estimated 80 million tonnes of coal seams and reserves still there which where never tapped into.
CWM Coke was designed to centralise and maintain the production of South Wales foundry coke. The coal mined at CWM was suitable for foundry coke given its low sulphur content. CWM Colliery was closed by the National Coal Board in 1986 and the coke works ceased production in June of 2002.
Since closure, the coke works has been derelict and left to slowly decay from the inside out.
There is only one word to describe this place and that is "Awesome" it really does have everything. From wooden cooling towers and huge conveyors to mazes of intricate pipe work.
Its more like a cross between NGTE Pyestock and Wallerscote soda ash works and like them still has virtually everything still in situ. From paperwork in the offices right down to the machinery.
The site is supposedly being demolished but progress is slow and given that the wooden cooling towers have recieved a Grade II listing status it looks like CWM will be around for quite a few more years.
