Views from the hamlet of Cardiff / Nettleton
| Cardiff and Nettleton are both names for a hamlet (defined as a village with no church), former coalmining town, in Blacklick Township, about two miles northeast of Nanty Glo (via Cardiff Road) and two miles east of Twin Rocks. Though most local villages had more than one name in their history, Cardiff / Nettleton seems to be the only one that has kept both names in use throughout the years, some apparently preferring one, others preferring the other. |
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| The photo above, which is on display in a Johnstown history museum, shows miners outside the opening to Cardiff / Nettleton Mine in the 1940s. The hillside entrance to the mine is, presumably, to the left of the edge of the photo. The caption superimposed in the center says 'Man at center in light shirt and necktie is John Malcolm Coleman, Superintendent for Imperial Coal Co. at the Nettleton Mine.' Click here for a letter describing this photo and another photo taken in Cardiff / Nettleton. |
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| The undated photo above, of the now-gone Cardiff Hotel, is one of hundreds of representations of Blacklick Valley contained in the NTAMHS CD-ROM now available for donation. Click here for details. |
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| The photo above shows the Cardiff bridge that linked the original hamlet of company houses of Nettleton to the main road to Twin Rocks (now Expedite Road). By the time this was taken, the railroad had gone out of business and the rail bed seems to have been turned into a trail or quad path. Thanks to Ed Thompson for sending this historic picture. |
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Photo
by Bill Martin; used with permission of the Nanty Glo Journal
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| Above, the Cardiff Mine tipple while it was still in service. Cardiff Mine (unlike most other mines in the area) was serviced directly by both the C&I and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The PRR line was a spur off the Nanty Glo to Vintondale line, which crossed what is now Route 271 just below the former St. Charles Church in Twin Rocks and followed the contour of the hill there on into Cardiff. The C&I reached Cardiff by way of the Nanty Glo to Colver line through Ivory Hill, Lincoln, Eleanor, Cardiff, and Belsano. It appears that the two rail lines in this photo are one from each of the railroads and that the tipple was a "double" tipple, tipping coal from the twin towers to which ever railroad was waiting with an order of coal to fill. Photo by Eddie Thompson. |
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| Above, the Cardiff Mine tipple as seen from the drift, after it had been abandoned and started to decay. Photo by Eddie Thompson. |
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The
photograph source is unknown. This photo scan and the one above were
submitted by Barbara Lindsay Hackenen
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| The Cardiff Mine Company Store as it looked before its demolition. Additional historic information, facts about its use or disuse since the mine's closing, and before, and anecdotes are solicited for this page. What do you remember about this store? |
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Click here
for a video record of the C&I Railroad's historic final trip to
Colver, from Revloc through Nanty Glo, Cardiff, and Belsano.
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Click here
for the Nanty Glo Home Page Mines page.
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© Jon Kennedy 1997, 2005 |