Bedlinog Colliery

Bedlinog, Taff Bargoed Valley (09750163)

This colliery consisted of two shafts and worked between 1881 and 1924. In 1892 a 40 feet in diameter Waddle type ventilating fan was installed at this colliery. The No.1 Pit was completed in 1881 to a depth of 524.6 metres and encountered the Brithdir seam at a depth of 41.8 metres, the No.2 Rhondda seam at a depth of 228.5 metres, the Four-Feet seam at a depth of 454 metres, and the Nine-Feet seam at a depth of 516 metres. The first coal came up the pit in June 1881. The No.2 Pit was completed in 1883 to a depth of 522.8 metres, encountering the coal seams at similar depths to the No.1 Pit.

The first coal came up in June. The Dowlais Iron Company sank it at a time when they were closing down their works at Dowlais and moving their steel-making operations to the new works at East Moors in Cardiff and at the same time paying more attention to their coal mining operations. The total sinking and equipping costs came to £131,000 for this colliery. One of the winding engine houses was likened to the architecture of a large nonconformist chapel.

The men were quick to organize the Bedlinog Medical Committee of which it was said that:

“Bedlinog was a classic south Walian colliery village, in a small tributary of the Taff Valley, just to the south-east of Merthyr Tydfil with terraced housing clustered around a single colliery that employed just over a thousand men before it closed in 1924. Its medical scheme consisted of a single doctor who provided attendance to the workmen and their families.”

This mine wasn’t a particularly safe place for boys, as can be shown in 1895 when on the 24thof April, William John Owen aged 14 years and a collier’s boy was killed, and then on the 17thof June in that year poor William Jones aged 12 years was also killed. It stayed in the hands of the Dowlais Company until it became Guest, Keen and Company in 1901, and again Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited in 1902. It remained with GKN until its closure in 1924. The manager in 1884 was Daniel Williams, in 1896 it was Bruce Jones, and in 1908/16 and 1918/19 it was G.M. Evans.

In 1910 the No.1 was averaging an output of 4,300 tons of coal from the Rhas Las and Little veins while the No.2 was working the same seams and producing 3,000 tons of coal a week. The sections of the main coal seams in this area were:

• The Garw, not worked at 0.6m.
• The Lower-Five-Feet/Upper Five-Feet/Gellideg was separated through seven metres of beds of which 1.5m was workable.
• The Seven-Feet, was between 0.3m to 0.7m thick on 0.6m of stone on 0.3m to 0.6m of coal.
• The Yard seam was 0.45m thick.
• The Amman Rider was not worked at 0.3m thick.
• The Bute seam was not worked at 0.3m to 0.5m in thickness.
• The Lower-Nine-Feet seam consisted of, coal 0.4m, dirt 0.5m, coal 0.56m, this seam was extensively worked.
• The Upper-Nine-Feet or Red Vein was six metres above the Lower-Nine-Feet and one metre in thickness.
• The Six-Feet seam was a composite seam of one metre in thickness.
• The Lower-Four-Feet seam was 0.75 metres of coal.
• The Upper-Four-Feet was five metres above the Lower-Four-Feet and one metre thick.
• The Two-Feet-Nine seam was not worked, it consisted of, coal 0.17m, dirt 0,48m, coal 0.28m, dirt 0.43m, coal 0.28m, dirt 0.38m, coal 0.2m.

Its coals were generally classed as type 202 Coking Steam Coal, weak to medium caking, low volatile, low ash and sulphur contents. They were used for steam raising and blast furnace coke.

The Upper-Four-Feet seam was abandoned in May 1903, The Nine-Feet or Rhas Las seam in September 1917, the Six-Feet or Big Vein was abandoned in March 1921 and finally, the Little Vein was abandoned in December 1924, the manager at that time was G.N. Evans. By 1945 it was owned by Taff Merthyr Steam Coal Co. Ltd. It was retained by the NCB for pumping only before final closure in 1948.

Some of those who died at this mine:

• 30/5/1878, John Prothero, aged 31, sinker, shaft incident.
• 25/6/1878, Robert Owens, aged 50, sinker, shaft incident.
• 5/8/1883, John Jones, aged 27, collier, roof fall.
• 23/7/1884, Evan Jones, aged 40, collier, run over by trams.
• 4/12/1886, William Powell, aged 53, haulier in No.2, run over by tram
• 18/1/1887, John Eynon, aged 34, collier, roof fall.
• 25/3/1887, Robert Wilcox, aged 59, collier, roof fall.
• 22/2/1888, David Richards, aged 45, ripper in No.2, roof fall.
• 22/10/1888, John Cooksley, aged 39, collier, roof fall.
• 10/6/1890, David Harris, aged 31, waller in No.2, roof fall.
• 29/11/1890, David J. Rees, aged 15, collier in No.2, roof fall.
• 29/11/1890, David Francis, aged 19, collier in No.2, roof fall.
• 18/10/1893, John Price, aged 14, collier boy, roof fall.
• 23/3/1894, John Price, aged 27, haulier in No.11, roof fall.
• 21/5/1894, Samuel Jones. Aged 30, collier in No.2, roof fall.
• 17/11/1894, Edward Rowlands, aged 33, collier in No.2, roof fall.
• 24/4/1895, William John Owen, aged 14, collier boy, roof fall.
• 14/6/1895, John Davies, aged 36, collier in No.1, roof fall.
• 17/6/1895, William Jones, aged 12, collier boy in No.l1, roof fall.
• 14/11/1895, Thomas Walters, aged 50, fireman, run over by trams.
• 25/11/1895, Isiah Jones, aged 37, labourer in No.2, roof fall.
• 19/11/1896, John Price, aged 42, labourer in No.2, roof fall.
• 20/8/1897, Gomer Davies, aged 46, rider in No.1, was run over by trams.
• 10/12/1897, David Davis, aged 36, Collier, No.1, roof fall.
• 18/1/1898, James Salter, aged 22, haulier in No.1, roof fall.
• 23/2/1898, David W. Davies, aged 24, haulier in No.1, roof fall.
• 5/6/1898, Thomas John Jenkins, aged 20, fitter, machinery.
• 19/9/1898, David Williams, aged 45, repairer, in No.2, roof fall.
• 19/9/1898, John Harris, aged 39, assistant repairer in No.2, roof fall.
• 20/12/1898, John Thomas, aged 33, collier in No.2, roof fall.
• 21/3/1899, Henry Phillips, aged 45, repairer in No.1, roof fall.
• 5/8/1899, William Cheafy, aged 36, assistant repairer in No.1, roof fall.
• 6/8/1899, E. Thomas, aged 45, fireman in No.1, shaft incident.
• 15/3/1910, T.H. Tippett, aged 16, collier boy, No.1, roof fall.
• 23/3/1910, Richard Williams, aged 47, repairer in No.1, roof fall.
• 27/4/1910, John Jones, aged 49, repairer in No.1, roof fall.
• 2/7/1910, John Simms, aged 25, waterman, run over by trams.
• 7/10/1910, William Phillips aged 27, haulier, run over by trams.
• 9/12/1910, William Rees, aged 51, ostler in No.1, fell down the shaft.
• 27/2/1911, Owen Roberts, aged 31, ripper in No.1, roof fall.
• 5/5/1911, John Canovan, aged 23, collier, shaft incident.
• 25/11/1911, George Powell, aged 26, repairer in No.2, roof fall.
• 18/12/1911, David Davies, aged 59, haulier, roof fall.
• 24/2/1912, Albert Thomas Marsh, aged 14, pump boy, run over by trams.
• 13/5/1912, Thomas James Llewellyn, aged 21, rider in No.2, roof fall.
• 3/9/1913, Edwin England, aged 49, engine cleaner. Run over by wagons.
• 24/9/1913, John Hewitt, aged 32, ripper, run over by trams.
• 22/8/1914. Rees Jones, aged 42, collier in No.1, roof fall.
• 8/10/1914, Joseph Walters, aged 44, collier in No.1, roof fall.

Some statistics:

• 1887: Output: 130,658 tons.
• 1889: Output: 157,523 tons.
• 1893: Output: 224,549 tons.
• 1894: Output: 272,103 tons.
• 1895: Output: 289,497 tons.
• 1896: Manpower: 1,402. Output: 290,585 tons.
• 1899: Manpower: 1,282.
• 1900: Manpower: 1,268.
• 1901: Manpower: 1,256.
• 1902: Manpower: 1,404.
• 1903: Output: 336,427 tons ..
• 1905: Manpower: 1,691.
• 1907: Manpower: 1,878.
• 1908: Manpower: 1,790.
• 1909: Manpower: 2,242. Output: 469,485 tons.
• 1910: Manpower: 2,553.
• 1911: Manpower: 2,553.
• 1912: Manpower: 2,585.
• 1913: Manpower: 2.527. Output: 396,993 tons.
• 1914: Manpower: 2,300.
• 1915: Manpower: 2,300.
• 1916: Manpower: 1,700.
• 1918: Manpower: 1,614.
• 1919: Manpower: 1,553. Output: 253,526 tons.
• 1922: Manpower: 1,528.
• 1923: Manpower: 1,716.
• 1924: Manpower: 1,720.
• 1925: Manpower: 1,980.

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