The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited

Sir George Elliot was born in Durham in 1817 he started his career as a pit boy in the Durham Coalfield and worked his way up the ranks until he was rich enough to speculate in the South Wales Coalfield. In partnership with Thomas Forster and William Armstrong he purchased Thomas Powell’s pits and in 1864 became Practical Director of the new Powell Duffryn Company. He retired in 1877, but returned as managing director in 1880, he became chairman in 1886 and held this post until his retirement in 1889 when he was succeeded by Lord Brassey. Sir George Elliot’s vision for the coal mining industry extended far beyond the confines of Powell Duffryn, he promoted the case for a giant coal trust which would cover the whole of the United Kingdom. He planned to unite 3,500 collieries into one single monopoly with a general council of nine members and a capital of £110 million. When he died in December 1893 this plan died with him. The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited initially raised a capital of £500,000 and in 1866, High Duffryn, Aberaman and Treaman collieries were purchased and the company headquarters were sited at Aberaman. By the end of 1866 Cwmneol and Fforchaman pits were also purchased and the company became the largest in the Cynon Valley.

The slump in the coal trade of 1875 resulted in the closure of High Duffryn, Upper Duffryn, Abergwawr and Lower Duffryn, with only the Lower Duffryn pit re-opening. In 1878 of the 39 pits in the Cynon Valley, Powell Duffryn owned 12 of them. In 1881 the company sank the George pit and purchased the Abercwmboi colliery from David Davis. Powell Duffryn, which was to become the most powerful coal mining company in the world now started to expand out of the Cynon Valley and spread to the other parts of the Coalfield. However they had still not finished with the valley and in 1893 the Middle Duffryn pit was deepened, in 1900 the Lletty Shenkin Colliery was purchased, and in 1909 the Ysguborwen Colliery came under their control.

In 1882 Sir George took a lease on Lord Tredegar’s property to the south of New Tredegar Colliery, which they already owned, to sink the Elliot and Bargoed pits. The Coed-y-Moeth level was opened in 1893 and the sinking of the Bargoed pits started in 1896, the sinking of Penallta Colliery started in 1906 and in that year the decision was made to sink Britannia Colliery.

In 1900 annual production of the company stood at 1,942,000 tons, by 1913 this had risen to 3,874,000 tons with 13,611 men employed in 1915, but everything was not sunshine and kisses for the company and the miners during this period, and in 1910 a particular nasty dispute broke out in the Cynon Valley. For the year 1910, the main topic for political and industrial historians has been the Cambrian Combine Dispute, but little has been said about this parallel dispute in the Powell Duffryn pits of the Cynon Valley. In most of the collieries of South Wales, it had been the custom for the workmen to be allowed to take home any old timber to light their fires. At the Lower Duffryn pit, Powell Duffryn arbitrarily stopped this custom in contravention of the conciliation agreement. The men went on strike on the 24th of October and immediately the men at Lletty Shenkin pit joined them, soon all the Cynon Valley pits were on stop and 11,000 men were out on strike.

As the workmen had not given notice of their intention to strike the South Wales Miners Federation refused to sanction it, and different to the Cambrian strikers, they received no strike pay. Violent disputes erupted all over the Valley, and on the 8th of November, six policemen were injured in a battle at the Powell Duffryn power station at Aberaman. More violence followed at Aberaman on the 13th, Cwmbach on the 14th, and again at Aberaman on the 22nd of November when over twelve police were injured The Aberdare Lodge linked up with the Cambrian strikers in calling for firstly a south Wales strike, and then a national strike, but to no avail. On the 14th of December 1910, a conference of the South Wales miners advised a return to work and the Cynon Valley dispute fizzled out.

In 1920 the take-over of the Rhymney Iron Company was completed and 4,000 acres of mineral rights were acquired in the Llantrisant area. By this time the company had a capital of £4,934,328, a mineral acreage of 20,000, and an annual output of 5 million tons of coal. In 1924 a joint venture with the Ocean Coal Company formed the Taff Merthyr Steam Coal Company and opened the way for one of the last major sinkings under private ownership in the South Wales Coalfield; Taff Merthyr pit. In 1928 Nantgarw Colliery was purchased, and in 1929 Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries Limited were brought into the fold.

In 1935 the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited and the Welsh Associated Collieries Limited merged with a capital of £17,000,000 under the new name of Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited, this new company controlled 44 pits that produced 12,372,000 tons of coal, 32% of south Wales’ output.

Prior to the merger, the company employed almost 16,000 men, with the Board of the Company consisting of; Chairman and Managing Director, Edmund Lawrence Hann, Directors; Sir Leonard Brassey, Charles Bridger Orme Clarke, William Reginald Hann, Norman Edward Holden, The Right Hon. Lord Hyndley, Sir Stephenson Hamilton Kent, Sir Francis Kennedy McLean, and Evan Williams. Their headquarters were at 1, Great Tower Street London, EC3.

Penrikyber Colliery was absorbed into the combine in 1943 and was one of the 59 pits that employed 34,740 men and produced 14,671,500 tons of coal, 38% of South Wales’ output in 1945. Powell Duffryn also owned 6,971 houses in 1945.

Powell Duffryn, the largest coal company in the United Kingdom was, along with the nation’s other coal companies Nationalised on the 1st of January 1947 and their mining assets came under the control of the National Coal Board.

Much to the chagrin of the workmen, the Powell Duffryn influence then expanded throughout the Coalfield with the appointment of the old PD managers throughout the new Coal Board. Powell Duffryn received compensation of £16 million for assets which had a book value of only £12.6 million. £11.6 million of this was returned to the shareholders.

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