E-Thesis 55 views 12 downloads
Tomennydd Glo yn Ne Cymru: Risg Newydd neu Hen Wastraff? / BEN WALKLING
Swansea University Author: BEN WALKLING
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PDF | E-Thesis – open access
Hawlfraint: Yr Awdur, Ben T. Walkling, 2025. CC BY-NC-ND - Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUThesis.72044
Abstract
There are 2,573 Coal Tips in Wales, with 360 classified currently as high risk (Llywodraeth Cymru, 2025a). Coal tips reemerged as an issue in Wales following a tip landslide in Tylorstown (Rhondda Valley) due to heavy rain fall in February 2020.This study researches the varied ways that coal tips ha...
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Swansea
2026
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| Institution: | Swansea University |
| Degree level: | Doctoral |
| Degree name: | Ph.D |
| Supervisor: | Closs Stephens, A., and Meara, R. H. |
| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa72044 |
| Abstract: |
There are 2,573 Coal Tips in Wales, with 360 classified currently as high risk (Llywodraeth Cymru, 2025a). Coal tips reemerged as an issue in Wales following a tip landslide in Tylorstown (Rhondda Valley) due to heavy rain fall in February 2020.This study researches the varied ways that coal tips have been viewed across time and locations as risky features (especially following the Aberfan Disaster 1966), piles of waste, post-industrial landscape scars, good places for biodiversity and leisure, and things that spark memories.This research uses a qualitative mixed methods approach to explore coal tips and their present consequences. The findings draw from an online survey (73 respondents) conducted in the Summer 2022 and follow-on semi-structured interviews (19 participants) in Spring 2023. Autoethnographic site visits to several coal tips as well as to the village of Aberfan were conducted to locate the tips within their geographic setting and to experience the memorial locations of the Aberfan Disaster.This study contributes to human geography literature which currently has a lack of understanding of coal tips and their current consequences. These consequences are discussed through exploring the role of risk in a landscape feature viewed as risky, looking at a waste product that is not treated as such currently, and aspects of memory that are intertwined with a landscape feature in a post-industrial and heritage context. The study also moves the debates around coal tips in Wales from only viewing the tips as risky, by also demonstrating that they are products of waste, memory, and heritage as well. This demonstrates the ambivalence surrounding the coal tips at the moment. |
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| Item Description: |
10/06/26 RL - Record created. No embargo, CC-BY-NC-ND license. ORCID: 0009-0003-9945-1046 |
| Keywords: |
Coal Tips, South Wales, Risk, Waste, Memory, Heritage |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
Ysgoloriaeth Ymchwil y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and School Of Biosciences, Geography And Physics Bursaries |