Тонду: Көмір және темір өнеркәсібінің тарихы

Tondu is a village in Bridgend County Borough, Wales, located about 3 mile (5 km) north of the town of Bridgend, in the community of Ynysawdre. Tondu lies on the A4063 from Bridgend to Maesteg, and was established in the late 18th century as a coal mining village servicing the Parc Slip Colliery. In later years, an iron works was also established, and in the 19th century, a brick works was constructed using the clay from the carboniferous coal measures to make a variety of bricks, mostly for engineering. The brick works was demolished in 1977. The association with the coal industry was also reflected in the large area office of the National Coal Board in the village and a centre for the Mines Rescue Service.

The village has several railway lines and provided access to collieries in Wern Tarw and the Ogmore and Garw valleys, along with maintenance facilities. All were closed to passenger traffic in the 1960s. They were used extensively by coal trains until the mine closures in the 1980s. The Wern Tarw line was disused and lifted first, followed by the Ogmore line sometime afterwards. The Garw line is disused, but still extant. During the early 1990s the Bridgend to Maesteg line was re opened to passenger traffic and provides a service to Cardiff. Occasional steel trains run via the Margam to Tondu and Tondu to Bridgend branch lines. The Margam line is now used by the new Parc Slip opencast mine for coal. The village is served by Tondu railway station.

The River Llynfi flows alongside Tondu on its way to its confluence with the River Ogmore. The Llynfi at this point has had a history of severe pollution. Historically, the pollution started with the coal industry. The coal seams in this part of the South Wales Valleys are quite wet and the coal itself is rich in pyrites and thus also rich in sulphur. Such mine waters have a very high burden of coal and rock solids and also contain heavy metals such as nickel, iron and copper in acidic solution. For many years the river also suffered from pollution from a paper mill at Maesteg

Sir Robert Price took over leases around Tondu Farm previously granted to William Bryant, the liquidator of John Bedford's business. Sir Robert had ambitions as an ironmaster and began to develop an ironworks alongside the Dyffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway at Tondu in the late 1830s. He traded as the Glamorgan Coal and Iron Company. Progress was initially slow due to a trade recession in the early 1840s, but there was a revival in 1843 and the first furnace at Tondu was blown in in 1844. The year 1843 was significant for the Tondu district as extensive reserves of black band ironstone were discovered six miles (10 km) to the north in the Maesteg area during that year. The discovery, and an unprecedented period of growth in the iron trade during the mid 1840s, prompted Sir Robert to develop his works at Tondu and open up the Tywith coal and ironstone mine near present day Nantyffyllon, Maesteg. Typically for the iron trade, prices fell sharply after the short lived boom period and, as a result, the Tondu Works struggled to survive through the early 1850s and Sir Robert Price faced bankruptcy. However, because of the progress made during the years 1843–1847, the Tondu Ironworks and associated mines formed a significant pocket of production in mid Glamorgan with some potential. That potential was recognised by the Lancashire firm of John Brogden and Sons who bought the Tondu property in 1854.
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In February 1854 John Brogden sent his fourth son James, aged 22, to revive and run the business. In July 1854, John Brogden signed a new 99 year lease with Jane Nicholl. James rapidly reorganised and expanded the works.

On the day of the annual St. Mary Hill Fair, 26 August 1892, a huge explosion shook the Parc Slip Colliery; 112 men and boys died with just 39 survivors: some remained trapped underground for a week before being rescued. Sixty women were widowed and 153 children left fatherless. The mine closed in 1904. A memorial to the disaster still stands consisting of 112 stones one for every death. Much later, the coal seams were re worked as part of the Parc Slip opencast coal mine.

Also in 1892, John Boyd Harvey was appointed General Manager and Managing Director. Boyd Harvey was a Cornishman who had studied gas production in Swansea – under the circumstances a very useful thing. He had followed his elder brother Robert to South America. Robert had gone into partnership with Colonel North there and John also joined the business, managing the Iquique Gas Company on the border of Chile and Peru. He retired in 1913, at the early age of 52. After that North's Navigation continued until the Nationalisation of Coal in 1947, although the iron works was closed.

On site is an old pit pony hospital where all the local pit ponies came for treatment and rest during their lives in the local pits. It was the only pit pony hospital in Mid Glamorgan.

At the local level Tondu is a community electoral ward to Ynysawdre Community Council, represented by up to six of the ten community councillors. The Ynysawdre county ward elects a councillor to Bridgend County Borough Council.