Brook Drift or Gwaun-cae-Gurwen No3

Near Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, Amman Valley 729119.

This anthracite drift was opened in 1898, and in 1899 it employed 55 men; in 1908 it was managed by J. Hargreaves and employed 186 men underground and 36 men on the surface. In 1911 it employed 248 men and in 1913 it employed 222 men and was still managed by Joseph Hargreaves. It abandoned the Red Vein in November 1914. It was not listed in 1917, but again was recorded in 1921, by 1932 and 1934 it had again disappeared. It abandoned the Little Bryncoch seam in 1939. It was owned by the Gwaun-cae-Gurwen Colliery Company which was formed by a consortium of Yorkshire businessmen in 1874 when they bought the Old Pit from the Morgan Family. The continued to expand and sink further pits in the area mainly: the Maerdy pit in 1886, the east pit in 1910 and the Steer pit in 1924.

An advert for this Company in 1913 stated:

Sole Proprietors and Producers of the Celebrated G.C.G. Machine-made Cobbles and Nuts for Stoves and House Purposes
Specially Washed Nuts & Beans For Gas Producers
Red Vein Large, Red Vein Cobbles: For Horticultural Purposes and Lime burning.

In March 1914 it was sold to the Colliery Investment Trust Limited of London. At that time it was producing 1,200 tons of coal a week.

Some statistics:

• 1899: Manpower: 55.
• 1900: Manpower: 101.
• 1901: Manpower: 129.
• 1905: Manpower: 160.
• 1908: Manpower: 222.
• 1909: Manpower: 220.
• 1910: Manpower: 236.
• 1911: Manpower: 248.
• 1913: Manpower: 222.

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