Although there was a small drift mine on the edge of the village which closed in the 1970s, Lanchester's economy was mainly based on agriculture.
42.
Widespread commercial anthracite mining in Wales has now ceased although a few large open cast sites remain, along with some relatively small drift mining operations.
43.
But closure that year occurred of both the Taff Merthyr Colliery and the Trelewis Drift Mine, amongst of host of closures in the South Wales Coalfield.
44.
But the development of drift mines and the development of the Taff Vale Railway, meant that by 1875 the majority of the villages residents were colliers.
45.
The early mines would have been drift mines or adits where coal seams outcropped or by shallow bell pits where coal was close to the surface.
46.
The Bald Mountain drift mine in Forest City was founded in Aug . 1864, and was the largest of its kind in the state at the time.
47.
In Ashland, visitors to Pioneer Tunnel can take an underground tour of a horizontal drift mine that runs 1, 800 feet into the side of Mahanoy Mountain.
48.
Tower Colliery was finally closed on 25 January 2008, although production continued at the Aberpergwm drift mine owned by Walter Energy until suspended on 3 July 2015.
49.
Created to exploit of deep lying anthracite seams, it was envisaged to eventually encompass the working of the drift mines at the Great Mountain Colliery and Pentremawr.
50.
The mine later changed its name to Hemsworth Colliery which closed in 1969 . Kinsley Drift Mine was opened on the site of the old Hemsworth Colliery in 1977.
