Part
Three
- THE
BOOM YEARS 1881-1921
By
the mid-1880s, Abertillery's
fortunes improved as the coal industry began to expand again. Pen-y-Bont
Colliery was deepened in 1886 and Vivian Colliery was sunk in 1889,
bringing its first coal to the surface in 1891. In 1890, John
Lancaster and Co sunk a shaft at Six Bells.
Thousands
of additional immigrants now poured into the area to work in the new and developing
collieries and the town embarked on its greatest expansion. From
1891 to 1911, its population rose from 10,846 to 35,415 with house
building occurring on a massive scale. The boom years for
Abertillery had arrived.
Sinkers
at the pit head, Six Bells
circa 1890
The
Inspector of Mines list of 1896 shows that 1615 men were working at
the South Wales and Rose Heyworth collieries rising to 2,664 some
twelve years later. In 1896, Pen-y-Bont Colliery employed 681 men.
By 1908, there were over 2700
men working in Pen-y-Bont and its sister collieries, Gray and
Vivian, owned by the Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Co. Ltd.
As the coal mining industry grew,
so did the size and stature of the town. New houses were needed to
accommodate the workers whilst new civic bodies were required to
administrate the town as it expanded. The
parish church of St. Michael's in
the town centre was demolished and rebuilt in the 1890s. In 1896, communications within the
town were facilitated when a new bridge was built just above the
foundry to connect the eastern and western sides of the Tyleri
valley.
The
original Foundry Bridge under construction in the mid 1890s
In conjunction with the civic
standing of the town, the commercial activity in the town grew. New
shops sprung up particularly in the centre where Somerset Street,
Church Street, Commercial Street and High Street were packed. A
shopping arcade was built between the latter two streets, whilst the
confidence in the town was exemplified by the erection of a new
Market Hall and the rebuilding of the Morgan and Francis store which
together with its rival on the opposite side of the road, Bon Marché,
gave the inhabitants a quality of shopping to rival anything in
Monmouthshire.
The Morgan and Francis shop,
established in 1875, was rebuilt in 1897, known to locals as the
Pontlottyn store
