Gelliciedrim Colliery

Near Glanamman, (67941341)

There was a Gelly Ceidrim in the Llanelli area listed in 1858/65 as being owned by Charles Morgan. The No.1 was opened in 1891 by the Gelliceidrim Collieries Company of Cambrian Place, Swansea to work the Big (Stanllyd) anthracite seam. It was located alongside the Neath to Ammanford road about four miles from Ammanford. This company was a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association.

It was confined to the east by the Tyllwyd geological fault and to the west by the Grennig fault. The original slant was driven 900 yards in a southerly direction at a dip of approximately 6 inches to the yard, with after 800 yards a cross measures drift opened up from which headings worked the coal. From these headings roadways in the coal are opened up 50 to 60 yards apart, and stalls are then worked off these roads 15 yards apart. Initially, the seam was 56 inches thick.

The main haulage engine was steam driven and built by Messrs. Neville & Company of Llanelli and had a 10 feet diameter drum. Ventilation for the colliery was by a steam-driven Waddle fan of 27 feet in diameter giving 30,000 cubic feet of air per minute.

In 1896 it employed 153 men underground and 28 men on the surface with the manager being Morgan Morgan who was still the manager in 1900. In 1908 the manager was E.R. Fisher. This company became a subsidiary of Cleeve’s Western Valleys Anthracite Company, which in 1913 employed 583 men at this mine with E.R. Fisher still as manager (he was still there in 1918).

They advertised:

Finest qualities of Anthracite For Breaking, Cobbles, Nuts, Washed Pea Nuts, Peas, Etc. Specially prepared Anthracite for Gas Producer Plants. Steamers Bunkered.

The No.2 was opened in 1924 and the No.1 was closed for production in 1927. The colliery abandoned the Trigloyn seam in December 1926 and the Peacock seam in December 1927 but continued to work the Big Vein and Brynlloi seams. The Western Valleys Company became part of Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries Limited in 1923 when the manager was C.J. Davies. In 1927/30 the manager was S. Cowley.

In April 1929 it was decided to drive new drifts into the coal. The Colliery Guardian reported that there was a waiting list of 400 men for jobs at that time. In November 1929 water from old workings burst through the main slant eighty yards from the surface and flooded the mine. All 297 men underground at that time managed to escape. In June 1945 the men at this pit went out on strike for 14 days over renewed fears of flooding from old workings.

In 1934 it employed 102 men on the surface and 530 men underground at this colliery with the manager being T.J. Evans. In 1943 the manager was E. Thomas and this mine employed 324 men working underground in the Middle, Tyllwyd and Lower Tyllwyd seams and 85 men working at the surface.

On January 5th/6th/7th 1944 the men at this colliery refused to work over one boy whose partner had failed to turn up for work and he was placed on other work. The boy walked out and the men followed him. In February a magistrates court fined two colliers £5 and £4.40 and three boys; £1.00, £0.77 and £1.22 for breach of contract.

Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries retained control of the colliery until Nationalisation in 1947 when it was placed in the National Coal Board’s, South Western Division’s, No.1 (Swansea) Area. By that time the No.1 had been closed and only employed 2 men underground on pumping operations. The No.2 was working the Tyllwyd seam and employed 92 men on the surface and 341 men underground. The manager was still E. Thomas but by 1949 it was J.L. Morgan. On the 28th of April 1949, the National Coal Board announced that they would be issuing fourteen-day notices to the 350 men at this pit the following day. They claimed that the men were on a go-slow and that the pit would have to shut. The output of coal had dropped from 10.1 cwt a manshift in 1947 to 8.8 cwt in 1948, with production dropping from 1,012 tons to 859 tons a week. After receiving ‘distinct guarantees’ from the men the pit was reopened in August 1949 and mechanised.

In 1954/55 this colliery was one of 42 that caused concern to both the NUM and the NCB over the high level of accidents. In 1955 out of the total colliery manpower of 257 men, 112 of them worked at the coalfaces in 1956 these figures were 226/103 respectively.

In 1957 the main haulage road was 2,300 yards long and the colliery was working the difficult Lower Vein, coal production was only 900 to 1,000 tons a week and around 40% of this was dirt giving a saleable output per manshift for the colliery of 8.9 hundredweights and losses of £4 per ton.

This anthracite slant was transferred to the No.9 (Neath) Area briefly before closure on the 14th of November 1957 on the grounds that it was uneconomic.

• On the 24th of August 1911, David Williams, aged 43 years and a collier died when he was run over by trams.
• On the 18th of June 1928, David Rees, aged 48 years and a shotsman died when firing a shot in a heading a piece of stone rebounded from side and caught his leg – slight flesh wound. He died on the 9th of July.
• On the 23rd of October 1929, Rhys Jones aged 40 years and a blacksmith, attempted to jump from a full journey as it went up an incline and fell under a tram – severe injuries. He died on the 10th of April 1930.

Some Statistics:

• 1900: Manpower: 269.
• 1901: Manpower: 353. Output: 75,000 tons.
• 1902: Manpower: 418.
• 1903: Manpower: 400.
• 1905: Manpower: 500.
• 1907: Manpower: 348.
• 1908: Manpower: 510.
• 1909: Manpower: 510.
• 1910: Manpower: 595.
• 1911: Manpower: 596.
• 1912: Manpower: 569.
• 1913:  Manpower 583.
• 1915/6: Manpower: 583.
• 1918: Manpower: 513.
• 1920: Manpower: 583.
• 1922: Manpower: 583.
• 1923: Manpower: 632. Output: 100,000 tons.
• 1924: Manpower: 613.
• 1925: Manpower: 583.
• 1926: Manpower: 695.
• 1927: Manpower: 247 No.1 abandoned.
• 1928: Manpower: 363.
• 1929: Manpower: 297.
• 1930: Manpower: 660.
• 1931: Manpower: 400.
• 1933: Manpower: 425.
• 1934: Manpower: 632.
• 1937: Manpower: 436.
• 1940: Manpower: 422.
• 1941: Manpower: 436.
• 1942: Manpower: 422.
• 1944: Manpower: 407.
• 1947: Manpower: 433.
• 1948: Manpower: 446.
• 1949: Manpower: 441. Output: 70,000 tons.
• 1950: Manpower: 140.
• 1954: Manpower: 229. Output: 29,617 tons.
• 1953: Manpower: 257. Output: 38,600 tons.
• 1955: Manpower: 257. Output: 30,811 tons.
• 1956: Manpower: 226. Output: 26,608 tons.

Information supplied by Ray Lawrence and used here with his permission.