Clynmill Colliery

Merthyr Tydfil (SO 058049), drift (SO 057050), No.1 (SO 059048), No.2 (SO 063048), No.3, (SO 067052).

The pit seems to have been working pre-1850 when the newspapers reported that a man had been killed there. Then, on the 19th of November 1853, a ten-year-old boy died under a roof fall. It was a water balance pit with a level that ran the water from the pit bottom and along a watercourse to the Pan Cae Bach pit. The No.1 Pit, in 1862, was estimated to have 816,000 tons of ironstone reserves and the Nos.2/3 had ironstone reserves of 524,000 tons. In 1882 the No.1 was only working ironstone while the No.2 was working the Lower-Four-Feet at a rate of 150 tons a day. The No.2 was 130 yards deep.

In 1871 it was owned by the Plymouth Iron Company and in 1877 by the Aberdare Plymouth Company. In 1878 to 1881 it was the Aberdare and Plymouth Company and in 1882/83 it was owned by Messrs. Hankey. They made an attempt to improve the mine introducing haulage machines to improve underground transport, sinking the Jacky pit down to the Lower-Four-Feet seam and driving roadways through the faulting in the Nine-Feet seam to work fresh reserves.

The mortagees of the Plymouth Works then took over from 1884 until it was abandoned in 1887 due to the coal seam thinning and the distances that had to be travelled underground to reach it. In 1898 Hills Plymouth Company was in charge. They worked the Lower-Four-Feet and Five-and-a-half seams south of Penyard but failed to make a go of it and it closed in 1902. In 1903 they restarted work in the Lower-Four-Feet seam from the Drift and then in 1904 re-opened the old 5½ workings but the work was full of problems; in 1907 they hit a large geological fault that took until 1908 to breach. In 1910 the seam thinned and on top of that, they hit old workings so they decided to go down to the Lower yard seam. In 1911 they re-started work in the Lower-Four-Feet seam introducing mechanical cutters to cut the coal but poor geological conditions forced them to withdraw the cutters in 1912.

In 1907 it employed 317 men, (a Clynmill Pond employed 4 men in 1902 and 6 men in 1907) and in 1908 it employed 329 men. In 1909/13 it was owned by Hill’s Plymouth Colliery Co.Ltd of Dock Chambers, Cardiff who employed 250 men in 1909 and 334 men in 1913 producing steam coals there. The manager at that time was still Henry John. In 1915/6 the manager was W. Green and this colliery employed 300 men. In 1918 manpower had dropped to 197 underground and 30 on the surface, the manager was now Evan J Thomas. This Company which was a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association was still operating Clynmill in 1921 but in that year decided to stop it and allocate its remaining reserves to Graig Colliery., In 1918 there was also an Upper Clynmill (Glynmill) being worked by the Carter Brothers of Merthyr Tydfil which employed 4 men.

The Glynmill Pond Level 065054 was worked by W. James in 1902 employing 10 men but was abandoned in 1903. It was reopened in 1907 by W. James who employed 6 men working the Upper-Four-Feet and Upper-Six-Feet seams. He also failed and it was closed in 1908 and abandoned in 1917.

No.2 CLYNMILL COLLIERY 
Merthyr Tydfil

This mine was worked alongside the Clynmill level. It was owned in 1878 by the Aberdare Plymouth Company Limited and, by 1913, was in the hands of Hill’s Plymouth Colliery Company Limited of Dock Chambers, Cardiff. In that year, it employed 334 men producing steam coals at Clynmill. It had closed by the 1930s.

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