Cylchgronau Cymru

Milwr Tunnel111 The Halkyn Deep Level, or Old Drainage, was begun in 1818 by Earl Grosvenor at Nant-y-Flint (SJ 230711), about 180ft. above sea-level, and driven westwards to unwater his Halkyn mines. It was continued intermittently until 1875, when it was taken over by the Halkyn District Mines Drainage Co. The company obtained an Act of Parliament empowering them to levy royalties on mines in the area drained by the level, and between 1878 and 1883 extended it southwards to the Rhosesmor Mine. It was then continued to the Bryncelyn and Llyn-y-pandy Veins. In November 1901 it tapped the main feeder of water at the intersection of the Llyn-y-pandy Vein and Bryncelyn Crosscourse, and lowered the water levels in the Pen-y-fron, Llyn-y-pandy and South Llyn-y-pandy Mines from about 440ft. to 255ft. above sea-level. The South Llyn-y-pandy Mine, the level's furthest point south, some five miles from its portal, was reached in 1903 (Fig. 3). The second drainage level, the Milwr Tunnel, was begun in 1897 at sea-level near Bagillt (SJ 213760) by the Holywell-Halkyn Mining and Tunnel Co. in order to drain the mines north of the Halkyn District Mines Drainage Co. area. In 1913 the latter company obtained an Act of Parliament to extend the Milwr Tunnel into their district, whose boundary, beneath the hamlet of Windmill on Halkyn Mountain, was reached in 1919. During the First World War the desperate need for minerals led the Ministry of Munitions to subsidize to the extent of £ 42,000 an emergency scheme to pump water from the mines in the Rhydymwyn area up into the Halkyn Deep Level. In 1917 a generating station was built near Taylor's Shaft, North Hendre (SJ 20436780)112 to power two pumps in the shaft capable of raising 4,000 gallons of water a minute to the Halkyn Deep. Some two miles of overhead transmission lines ran from the generating station to Davey's Shaft, Bryncelyn, and Conqueror of Wales Shaft at the east end of the Llyn-y-pandy Vein. Both shafts were deepened and 2,000 gallon pumps, powered by the central generating station, installed at each. The total volume of water pumped from these mines, with existing capacity, would have been 15,000 gallons a minute. Launders were also installed in the Llyn-y-pandy Mine as a precautionary measure to ensure an adequate flow in the Halkyn Deep Level, from which water was supplied by a pipeline to the munitions factory at Queensferry. The whole scheme was nearly completed when the armistice was signed, and work was suspended. It proved impossible to get the mining interests to pay the drainage royalties necessary to make the scheme Unless otherwise indicated, this account relies on Smith, op. cit., 23-8; G. A. Schnellmann, 'Lead-Zinc Mining in the Carboniferous Rocks of North Wales', Future of Non-Ferrous Mining in Great Britain and Ireland (1959), 239-41; and Appleton, op. cit., 34-5. 112 Not to be confused with Taylor's Shaft, Bryncelyn. The number of Taylor's Shafts must be one of John Taylor's most enduring memorials there were others at Pantymwyn, Cathole, Fron Fawnog, Long Rake (Halkyn), and at Minera.