Cwm Coke Works Documentary - One of the UK's Last Abandoned Industrial Giants
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- Опубліковано 1 гру 2024
- The third video of the series we find out what happens when giants fall. It sees us drive down to the south of Wales as we shift our focus from slate to coal mining. This short film follows us on our exploration through the enormous remains of a partially-demolished coke works in Beddau; once adjoined to Cwm Colliery where the coal mined from underground was processed into useful coke fuel on site. This enormous industrial wasteland is perhaps the most gigantic explore we have done to date, and we had to do it justice with a video which captures both the harsh environment it has created as well as how this lost landmark has come to define the surrounding area.
Please subscribe to Beyond the Point for the rest of Abandoned Wales. Our 4th episode continues on this topic, and is a short film comparing the remains of no less than 6 of Wales' collieries. Don't miss it!
Find out about the video series here:
beyondthepoint....
Filmed on the Osmo Pocket and Nikon Z50 with 16-50mm and 70-250mm lenses.
Worked underground on the coal faces in Cwm/Beddau for just under 20 years until it closed in 1986, Then worked away before working for 4 years in the Cwm Coke Works in the 1980/90s. Later moved to the Maindy Level , up in Gelli, Rhondda for a number of years. Really enjoyed watching this video of the the old place, but it is now a death trap in many places , so will be glad when it is finally gone, before someone is seriously hurt up there. Great video though, thank you.
Thanks for commenting 😁
My dad worked there and actually died on the site in 1990. I've never been there so it's interesting to see what it's like via such videos.
A word of warning.
In plants like this, beware of relying on handrails made out of tubular steel.
I worked for many years in the steel industry and saw many accidents where the hand rail had rusted from inside and was unstable, yet appeared in good condition.
The customer's specs invariably banned these and insisted on handrails constructed from structural section such as angle iron.
I spotted a couple of rails constructed out of RSAs, but most were from tube. Accidents waiting to happen!
Will have to watch out for that!
My grandfather used to work there, he’s nearly 80 now and he always tells me stories about it.
Another great piece of industrial heritage and history soon to be lost forever. Well done guys for documenting another interesting site, great filming and narration. 👌
Thanks a lot Steve 😁
From slate mining to coal and coke to now fuck all industry.
10:38 that is a coal crushing mill, probably a hammer mill. Looks 50 years old perhaps. This would crush the incoming raw coal to standard size for later processing.
Great video guys, I enjoyed this exploration a lot. The entire site looks really interesting. Great you managed to explore before demolition starts. Great narration too 😉😊
Thanks for the kind words guys!
Worked there for yrs moving the excess coke up to the field....loading wagons to take coke out to customers and filling the breeze plant and bunkers on the weekends when no external transport was running.....happy days.....very dirty ....but happy 😊
Cheers for sharing
You naughty lads, but what fun! Great video
Such an interesting video and so pleased you filmed the site before it was demolished - you are doing an amazing job of documenting some wonderful buildings and places that will soon be lost in the mists of time 👏🏻😁
Has it been demolished yet?
@@cyriuxx5750 From what I can Google, it’s still not completely demolished
@@MelanieJolie Thanks.
Good view of the furnaces themselves from halfway through the video.
Found a comment you left on a Steve Duncan urban exploration of Las Vegas and it’s great to see that you’ve taken up the mantle on your side of the pond and are respecting but also documenting human history
Glad to hear it. Steve Duncan and those Undercity films remain a huge inspiration
This was like my playground once when I was younger (2003 ish), so much to look at, so much to climb and venture with so much surrounding
my dad worked in the cwm for 6 years he’s 60 now and my bamp worked there 35years they always talk to me about what it was like
great video mate.
Toujours un véritable plaisir🎬🍀😉🤘
Merci beaucoup!
Llanhilleth Village, abertillery, pit head baths, are still there as well, you missed them :)
I had a look round here recently. Lots of the metalwork has been removed but it's still impressive.
Worth traveling from north Devon to see?
I visited this about 8 times in 2022/2023. A lot of fun. Took a telescopic ladder and managed to access the stairs to the top of the main hopper tower. Saw security a few times, had to hide for an hour once.
No coke, no new steel. No new steel, no heavy industry and no growth. This is why the UK has been in a depression for over a century. Coal production in the UK began its decline in 1913.
Hi there mate, loved the video! Went around the perimeter of the plant today and am really keen to go take some photos in there. Is there any chance I could ask you a few questions about it? Would be a massive help.
Thanks 😁 drop me an email at Liam.heatherson@sky.com
I used to visit this works in the late 80s in my truck, our company had the contract with the NCB for scrap purchasing (it was owned by the NCB/BC until BC was sold off). It was a dirty smelly place and none of our drivers used to want to go there to collect our containers! Sad to see it in this state as I remember it working in full swing, it is an important part of Wales's industrial heritage.
In Teesside, there used to be a very very similar site - you can find it by searching Dorman Long Tower. The concrete tower is almost exactly the same, however, this would have been heated up in separate ovens to heat up the nearby (now demolished) Blast Furnace.
10.38, this is the Hammer Mill, all the mixed coal and breeze was sent through here to mix and pulverise it together before going up to the service bunker.
My partners mate worked at the CWM, and he said “just before they closed the shaft millions pounds worth of new pieces of mining equipment still wrapped were put down in pit and then closed it off. Don’t know what the equipment was but he definitely saw low confined access front loading shovels. 😳😳😳😳🏴👍
I walked down that conveyer absolutely lethal but huge fun
Big kudos indeed 👊 I’m glad it wasn’t there so I didn’t have to convince myself
Spent all my childhood playing up them mountains.... Most my family worked there too
Always thought it odd how the collieries were almost immediately cleared away as if by some hand of vengence whilst all the rest of the site was left to rot and cause an eyesore for many years.
Did the allow you in ?
I live close to it
Spent my childhood throwing rocks through all the windows down there....... 🙄😂
Good stuff as usual! From memory the word cwm (pronounced koom) is Welsh for valley and is the only proper word in a language in Great Britain without any vowels in it.
Cheers, it does indeed mean valley - a very imaginative name they chose 😂
Haha but to explain why that's not the case and thus ruin the joke, w and y are vowels in Welsh. W depending on the context makes a short/long 'oo' or 'wuh', while Y makes a 'uh', 'i', or 'ee' sound
But yeah Welsh names aren't the most imaginative lmao - if you translate them, they're just descriptions of the area
@@Tom-ns8vk Sussex, Middlesex, Essex. Yea, I guess it's about what's on your mind when coming up with names.
Ayo when you see blue dirt here don’t touch it, that is prussian blue and got that cheeky cyanide waiting 4 u
Interesting, how does that result from the industry here?
@@BeyondthePoint apparently it’s common among ex coal gasification sites n stuff, pretty sure the term for it is blue billy or something
@@BeyondthePoint yeee it is my guy
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_billy
amazing footage btw, cameras never do it full justice but some of the best footage I’ve seen of it
@@BeyondthePoint Cyanides, Phenols, Ammonia, crude benzole, hydrogen suphide. To name a few.
Coal is far to rich in useful chemical to be wasted by burning.
There were lots of by products extracted from the coal during the process. All these were packed and sold, extra income. My Dad worked there after transferring from Maritime in Pontypridd when it was closed. My Grandfather also went there from the Maritime. Dad was a coke car driver.
He worked in the place that's at the end of this film. He drove the huge machinery to drive the full or empty coke cars through the furnaces. My father was poisoned with Red Oxide, a by-product in 1962ish. He nearly lost his life. He went back to the Cwm after quite a few years of being sick. He couldn't go back to his old job as he couldn't climb the ladder to the cab or stand in a particular way to reach the foot lever. He tried to keep on working there, but I think he was glad to finish from the dirty smelly place. Great film.