The Glyn pits, ceased as a working mine in 1932. This picture was taken some time later, probably mid to late nineteen forties, when it was an electrically driven pumping station to clear water from both Glyntillery and Hafodyrynys collieries, as well as the Glyn itself. The transformer house for the electrical supply can still be seen on the right of the picture above. The wooden headgear was reported by a coal board engineer as being fifty feet to the wheel spindles, but the height from ground level to the eaves of the winder house is 34 feet, so the readers can judge for themselves.
Just over the top of the transformer building on the right can be seen the top of the airtight cladding of the up-cast shaft. This was necessary to prevent air entering the fan drift from the top of the shaft, instead of circulating in the workings, Before a fan, this was unnecessary, as there were 'Flap' doors on the shaft top, which were lifted up by the ascending cage, to drop into place again when the cage descended. In the centre front of the picture a tram can be seen on the start of the inclined way to the screens, about a hundred yards away to the right.
A screens is where the trams of coal are firstly tipped (tippler) over a grid in order to remove the very small particles and dust (small coal) from the rest of the coal, leaving the remainder to be carried on a slow moving belt. Men would be stationed on both sides of this conveyor belt, checking and clearing any unwanted foreign objects such as stones, wood or metal leaving clean coal only. Below in the 2nd 1930s photograph is a setup of what the end of the process would have looked like, with the coal passing into several awaiting trucks .
Tippler
Coal Loading
