My grandfather work there 50 years he did back in the day I live in Essex still go back to Cwm to lay flowers on the hillside where my mother and father's ashes are scattered overlooking my mother's mum's and dad's house and as a child we would travel from Essex to stay at my nan and granddad's house for summer holidays and Xmas Cwm and Ebbw vale yes it was dirty and the river run orange but it was alive once the steelworks and marine colliery closed ? But I love it down there

14:30 is exactly what they are doing. It makes absolutely no sense to get rid of the backbone industry for a country. Trades are crucial to any developing world and cheap Energy locally produced is part of that.

Although my father was from Swansea, iv been out the country most my adult life , iv just moved back to Wales and am living in Dyffryn Cellwen, so found this very very interesting , many thanks .

Used to work from Margam Diesel Depot upto the washery in the 1980s taking basically the very small stuff down to Cardiff Tidal yard

So very sad, I used to shunt the coal trains coming down from Onllwyn at Margam. When they stopped, along with other coal traffic, it put a massive dent in our industry, one which its never recovered from. I think our government will rue the day they killed coal eventually.

Very sad times we live in because of our Government and a false green agenda .

Thanks Rog for documenting the closure. What a lesson for the children of tomorrow to learn how the world used to be powered. And what a lesson for Governments of tomorrow how they messed up in the past. How the resources, knowledge and experience were on our doorstep but were thrown away.

It’s a tragedy for these guys that this plant is closing but it’s also a tragedy for our country. Our political leaders wouldn’t know how to sweep the floor properly, yet they’ll gladly throw away our energy security. All based on dubious scientific assumptions around protecting the planet. China, India and Russia are laughing at us behind our backs.

Clean coal is a oxymoron.

People are so easily controlled tome to tell these leaders who’s there boss

Proper men doing proper jobs 👍

No true word said from these men, and it’s the second time I’ve heard said “ why is it just the Uk trying to go 100%green” the other miner was from the big K in Yorkshire.

Awesome video thanks lads I am a ex miner working under ground and on top on the prep plant . Florence pit good times gone but not forgotten 😢😢⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️⛏️😞😞

It was the best job I ever had great bunch of men. The government sold us all down the road should never have closed 90% of the mines. And the r still importing coal in what a joke

Have you got any film or photos of the manvers complex , late 70's 80's?

That was a very sad day for the industry all over Great Britain I worked in the local colliery at the Windsor colliery senghenydd ,washery plant under the late DAI m.s my dad

New Zealand's heritage steam railway miniature and full scale runs on either 100% Welsh or a Combination, could immediately tell it was the Welsh Coal we use 110%. Will be missed when it closes as it has some of the finest coal for steaming big and small ever.

Utterly crass and criminal the way successive governments have sold off the very industries that once made this country great and more importantly,self sufficient. Politicians are for the most part,technical illiterates and complete morons.

Lefties will kill this country ,we still need coal ,but we'll buy it abroad ship it half way round the world yeah dead environmentally friendly ,when we've got it on our doorstep ! My grandad was a miner from tradegar moved to North east during the war worked anthracite mine , hell be turning in his grave ith what's happened to our mining heritage & industry killed by polititions playing lip service to the greens ,wait till we have a winter when the lights go out they'll have no answer to the problem ,clean burning coal is possible just was killed by them at the top !

Realy interesting to watch i work in the steel industry have done for 23 years and it saddens me to see this and what the government is doing to the country and our children's future

I mean its a local tragedy and all but geez its hardly surprising. The place is tiny, falling apart, some of its apparently from the 30s, for gods sake theyre loading a train with a loader. The ROM loader looks like it was borrowed from the local farmer. And old mate wonders why coal from the other side of the world is cheaper.

hello from australia.... i worked underground in australian coal mines for 38 years.... been retired now for 3 x years...

Well done for venturing into the mines and communities, not enough people recorded these things, despite the vast scale of the coal industry here. You've made a valuable contribution.

A absolute sin I hope these green brainwashed zealots are proud of their selves for what they’ve done to these men and thousands more like them

There is 3 trillion tones of known coal reserves in the UK. It's amazing to think about that.

a fantastic documentary , green policy aint working

I'm from fife and the closing of the pits killed this area and it's still felt today it's a sin

I still dislike her, pleased she did not end well. She imported subsidised coal and told us to compete, Scargill was not too clever, with her it was spite.

Why no Dates on anything. Difficult to understand the timeline.

Away of life gone forever sad decline of a once Mighty industry respect to All Who have worked on winning the coal for generations my Dad was a coal ⛏️ miner my grandad and many members of My family on both sides ⛏️🙌👐👏🤝✊ total respect 🤝

It doesn't make sense because there are back handers and brown envelopes flying around within government, the whole system is bent ! ! ! Vested interests are abundant

Britain has been sold out our own people left with nothing we used to make everything now it all from China and we are replaced by people who aren't even British 😢

These are real working men! Closing this place down is criminal

Just goes to show how out of touch the government is! closing old power stations and not building any new ones! Crazy and closing down the Steel works great content 👌 🇬🇧

Thank you so much for doing this. Even in this recent closure, the camaraderie and knowledge shine through in the men. I hope they never lose it - I never did. The comments by the staff about coal, its uses, it's importance and how we sit upon vast reserves are all true. We've only used a tiny percentage of the proven reserves and there will be much more in unproven reserves too. Up here in NE England several mines were about to tap into vast untouched coal measures. Politics saw those plans decimated. The excuses were pathetic if I'm honest. For anyone reading my comment: Coal is an important product. Not just for burning for heat but it's also useful in plastics production, gas, medicines and can even be used to make petrol and diesel - search for something called The Coal Tree and see for yourself. Not too long ago, coal was the main source of those ingredients for this country. Natural gas was discovered and governments set to prioritising that, their excuse being that it was 'clean'. Just look now how even gas is considered dirty.. Coal can be distilled or burned cleanly. It's something that was avoided for political reasons - it gave Governments an excuse to wipe the coal industry from the face of the UK. As the staff in the video said, look at history. The younger generations are not. They believe that coal is dirty because they were brainwashed into thinking that. One day, the UK will collapse and it will be because of exactly this green agenda. When the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, your lights will go off, you will become cold, your cars will not move, your phones will not charge.

So pleased you've gone to the trouble of making this. I can relate to it in so many ways. I was a blacksmith/welder at a coal mine in NE England until a certain woman shut us down. In later years and through a hobby, I began talking to and would sometimes mix with the team running a large opencast mine for UK Coal. I distinctly remember the staff pointing to distant wind turbines and telling me that those would see them out of a job. Their vision, and that of ex-miners from the deep mines gives a unique insight into the truth about coal and what is being ignored for 'cleaner' things.

Steam Train 🚂 preserved lines still need coal it's a shame if we can't get UK coal 🤨🧐

Thatcher the batch she killed that industry off .than for the next 30 we still using coal .but from other countries. So they never gave a shit about own miners

Great to see you again Kerry, Looking well, and glad you have done so well for yourself.

I have heard that Merthyr Tydfil have been granted planning permission to keep their wash-plant open. Saves buying it in from abroad.. All makes perfect sense to me!

Bring back Welsh Steam Coal, us steam Locomotive people are crying out for it!! None of this oily foreign nonsense..🚂👍K

The British government seems hell bent on smashing Wales into the ground. They’ve taken away our Coal they’ve taken away our steel. And most of the other big employers we once had. As for the Welsh government they’re a waste of time.

No mention of Senghenydd, missed opportunity, joined deep underground to both Nantgarw and Windsor mines and the largest disaster... Hundreds in one day, gone but not forgotten... Yet!

How sad

They are killing our communities and our futures, and it's not just the tories. More pits were closed under Labour than Conservative and the biggest culprit was joining the EEC. A wonderful record of the past industries that could still be moderised and provide valuable resource well into the future, but the load minority rules whilst the rest of us are drowned out.

Awesome, heart-felt and emotional documentary! Nice to see those men again. Well done Rog.

A great record 😢 and another nail in the coffin. All our industry has gone, whole communities killed off. The tory toffs and their rich friends couldnt have big unions who fought for better conditions and rights and the only way was to shut ALL big industry down. The rich got richer, they always do and the workers always pays for it. Well done Roger 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Another brilliant video Roger 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

“And who robbed the miner Say the grim Bells of Blaina!” Idris Davies. We know the answer. All railways went West. They robbed us blind.

We'll dance on yer grave Magie Thatcher ⚒️