Llanharan - Employment

Employment

Prior to the British industrial revolution, Llanharan was a small agricultural village, and this was reflected in the 1851 census where a population of 330 people living in 62 buildings was recorded. In 1850 the South Wales Railway had opened a station in Llanharan making it a strategic location for surrounding industries. Later employment came from the nearby iron mines in Llanharry and Pontyclun. Towards the end of the 19th century an additional 80 houses had been built and Llanharan had a population of over a thousand.

With the discovery of coal an attempt to sink two mine shafts began between 1870 and 1873, but the work was eventually abandoned as the pit was too wet and inclined.

In the early 1880s, in a different location to the first sinking attempt, the first deep mine in Llanharan was opened, the Meiros Colliery. The Meiros was listed in 1888 as owned by thr Llanharan Welsh Estate of Cardiff; employing 228 men. The Meiros shaft was 200 yards deep and it mined the No. 3 seam (Rhondda). Meiros Collieries Ltd took over the colliery in 1913, and in 1915 the colliery underwent considerable modernisation. At its peak in 1923, the colliery was employing 622 men. The Meiros Colliery closed in the 1930s.

The Powell Duffryn Company restarted the sinking of the original steam coal seams abandoned in the early 1880s in 1922. This was named the Llanharan Colliery and consisted of two pits, Llanharan North and South pits which in 1945 employed a total of 855 and 775 men respectively. Output form the colliery was at its highest in the early and mid 1950s, producing over 234,000 tons of coal in 1952. From 1959 production began to fall sharply, and in 1962 Llanharan Colliery was closed down.

From 1900 until the Powell Duffryn's Llanharn colliery closed in 1962, the area westward along the Bridgend Road became the commercial heart of a relatively flourishing mining village that survived even the depression years.

Since the 1970s the residents of Llanharan have become more reliant on commuting to work as local employment reduces. Local amenities have also closed over the years including Llanharan's cinema, railway station and library.