Chapter 14
DECLINE IN THE COAL TRADE IN THE
ABERDARE VALLEY 1921–1926.

1. The National Situation of the Mines.

In January 1921 the then government de-controlled the mines of Britain. The owners then gave the miners notice of a 50% reduction of wages. In May 1921 the owners locked out the men for three months and defeated them.

2. The Mine Owners of the Aberdare Valley and the Coal Crisis.

To the astute observer of the British coal industry in 1921 it could be seen that it faced a crisis. It was the oldest in the modern world and backward technically.

An expert could write: —

“In the majority of pits, the process of getting the coal is like it was 50 years ago”. S. Mavor ‒ Colliery Guardian 13/6/24.

Numerous commissions of inquiry had reported the same backwardness.

The plans of the South Wales and Aberdare mine-owners to meet the crisis of unprofitability of the mines and beat off foreign competition were:—

(a) Cut costs by cutting wages.

(b) Cut costs by merging their concerns, and close the more uneconomic pits.

The outlook therefore was very grim for the pits of the Aberdare valley, for many of them were among the oldest in the coalfield.

3. Amalgamations of Coal Firms in Aberdare and South Wales.

The owners had always tried to amalgamate their firms since 1840. In the 1890s and the 1900s the process of amalgamation was speeded up by the activities of two originally Aberdare firms.

(a) The Thomas-Berry-Llewellyn Group.
D.A. Thomas, M.P. (Viscount Rhondda) from his Cambrian Coal Co. Ltd., in the Rhondda made take-overs of companies based on coal and its subsidiary activities. His main associates in this were the Berry brothers of Merthyr Tydfil, Seymour Berry (Lord Buckland), Gomer Berry (Lord Kemsley), William Berry (Lord Camrose) and the Llewellyn family of the Bwllfa collieries etc., Aberdare.

These were Rees, his sons Sir David, William Morgan, Griffith, and Morton Howell Llewellyn; grandsons Rhys and Henry Morton Llewellyn. All these men and their associates held hundreds of directorships of companies.

(b) The Powell Duffryn Coal Co. Ltd., Aberdare.

Since its formation in 1864, the P.D. as it was called had been taking over smaller firms in the valley and in the rest of South Wales. It was in 1921 the single largest coal company in Britain and the most ruthlessly efficient in the use of machines and of manpower. It had a reputation for grim, hard, mechanized efficiency.

In 1924 only 18% of British coal output was mechanized.

In 1924        67% of American coal output was mechanized.

In 1924        55% of Powell Duffryn coal output was mechanized.

(c) Remainder of the Aberdare Valley companies.The rest of the valley companies were:—

It was plain to see that there was a growing struggle between the Berry-Llewellyn group and the Powell Duffryn for ultimate monopoly of the mines of the coalfield of South Wales.

4. The Great Strike of 1926.

The Baldwin Government of 1924‒29 had narrowly averted a strike in 1925 by giving the mine owners a subsidy of £52 million for one year. In January 1926 the owners gave the men notice of a 20% wage cut and one hour extra work per day with no pay. The men refused and on the 1st May 1926 the mines of Aberdare and Britain closed.

At first, there was the General Strike of the T.U.C., which lasted nine days. During these nine days, the town was ruled by the unions and there was no trouble. Then the T.U.C. withdrew its support for the miners, but the miners decided to fight to the bitter end.

5. Life of the People in the Great Strike of 1926.

The miners and their families knew that if they accepted the terms of the owners that the owners would be back in a few years for more reductions, so they set to fight it out.

Soon the men and boys of the mines settled down to a routine. With carts to carry two or three cwts of coal they went to the old spoil heaps at dawn and dug into the heaps, and took out the coal left in the tips. Every day thousands of miners thronged the streets of the valley on their way to the tips, which are on the sides of the mountains, perhaps walking three or four miles to get to the spoil heap, then working all day for a few bags of coal, then walking all the weary way home.

As they were on strike, the men and boys got nothing to live on. The women got 15s. 0d. a week parish relief. The school children got 3s. 0d. per week each and some meals in school.

But the summer of 1926 was a glorious one. Every day one woke to a glorious dawn. The men and boys sallied out for the long trek to the spoil heaps with their carts and bread, margarine and jam sandwiches. The vast colliery mounds were covered with thousands of workers digging steadily in the hot sunshine.

6. Fun and Games in the Strike of 1926.

The tradesmen of the Aberdare valley in 1926 thought of a plan to keep the workers on strike from getting nasty, when bored. In June they organized a carnival and offered good prizes for jazz bands and other entries. The response was amazing. About 60 jazz bands and 50 individual entries turned out. The bands were dressed like bullfighters with Carmen, Stone Age hunters with bear, Zulu warriors, A Sheik with his harem and eunuchs. There was every kind of character band with their well-drilled members playing a crude musical instrument called the gazooka. There were side drums, big drums and leaders.

Soon the carnivals became the rage of South Wales. There were swimming galas, cricket matches, cycling races, boxing matches, concerts in the halls with the strikers as the performers.

7. The Winter of Discontent in 1926.

As the torrid summer turned into a golden autumn the shadow of winter began to haunt the homes of the miners of the Aberdare valley. Six months of material austerity had worn down the wives and children of the miners and the strike began to wear the aspect of a mass-martyrdom as the miners struggled through the streets dragging their little carts in their now threadbare clothing.

In September in lower Aberdare at Abercwmboi, a man had gone back to work. The whole resources of the police were mobilized to protect him. Every night there were scenes of hostility as he went to work escorted by hundreds of policemen. In October 1926 on one of these nightly marches, there was a brutal attack by the police on the people. Savage sentences were meted out by the magistrates.

One month later, on 17th November 1926, after seven months and two weeks of heroic struggle to maintain their living standards, the men of Aberdare were advised by their leaders to go back to work.

The greatest strike in the history of the British and Aberdare people was over.

(‘Aberdare Leader’ — 1926)

(‘Powell Duffryn Review’ — 1942–4)

(‘Life of D.A. Thomas’ — His Daughter and Others).