Pwllfaron Colliery

Glyn-neath, Vale of Neath

This anthracite slant is reported to have been opened in 1866 although it is listed in 1860 as owned by the Neath Abbey Coal Company. At that time it was estimated that it had a thickness of 31 feet of coal in seams over two feet thick that could be mined. There was also a Pwllfaron Colliery in 1842 which was owned by Messrs. Price & Company.

It was described by the 1842 Royal Commission as:

THE NEATH ABBEY COAL COMPANY.

THE PWLLFARRON COLLIERY, in the parish of Cadoxton, in the county of Glamorgan. Messrs. Price and Co., proprietors.

Number of persons employed:-

Adults 46

Under 18 years of age 12

Under 13 years of age 3

No.392. Mr Charles Waring, agent.

These collieries are al carefully ventilated by downthrow and upthrow pits and airways and at the bottom of the upthrow pits, fires are kept. One of the workings is entranced by a shaft, one by level and none by shaft and horse and man way. All the coal is brought up by shaft. The height of our mainways is in no part less than four feet six inches and we are both at 90 fathoms and at 16 fathoms below the surface.

There is carburetted hydrogen in small quantities but the airing prevents their accumulation and we have never lost any lives from that cause. We have had one man killed by coal falling on him and crushing him and one boy killed on the incline. He got on the wrong side of being put out of the way of the carriage and was run over and killed on the spot. He was about 10 years old. The employment of young persons is in driving horses, keeping doors, and sweeping roads. We have four steam engines equal to 76 horsepower by which the coal is brought to the surface.

I do not think a limitation of the age at which children are employed in our mines is desirable as they have no hard work but if they have to push carriages &c. I should fix the limit at 14 years of age.

It was owned in 1869/70 by the Neath Abbey Coal Company but there is no listing for it in 1878 while in 1884 it was owned and managed by John Thomas. In 1896 it employed 147 men underground and 25 men on the surface with the manager being Daniel Rees. In 1910 it is shown to be owned, along with Glyn-neath, Vale of Neath and Aberpergwm Colliery, by G.H. Williams whose shipping office was at Gloucester Place, Swansea, at that time it employed 550 men, and Aberpergwm, 250 men. On the 22nd of December 1911, the Aberpergwm Collieries Limited was formed with a capital of £60,000, its commercial manager was M. Ogilvy Spencer, and the sales agent C.E. Handyside of Creswell Buildings, Swansea, and in 1913/16 employed 1,000 men at Pwllfaron and Aberpergwm. In 1918 they employed 369 men underground and 120 men on the surface with the manager being Rees Howells. This company was a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association.

Pwllfaron is still shown as working in 1917/1921. By 1923 it was owned by the Vale of Neath Colliery Company and employed 1,039 men working underground and 200 men working at the surface of the mine and in 1927 there were 1,500 men employed. Both sets of figures include Aberpergwm Colliery. The manager was Rees Howells. By 1932 only Aberpergwm is listed. In 1945 it is shown to have employed 681 men underground and 183 men on the surface with D.E. Watkins as manager. At that time it was working the Eighteen-Feet, Three-Feet and Nine-Feet seams.

On Nationalisation of the Nation’s coal mines in January 1947, Pwllfaron Colliery is again listed and placed in the National Coal Board’s, South Western Division’s, No.1 (Swansea) Area, and at that time employed 202 men on the surface and 677 men underground working the Three-Feet, Nine-Feet and Eighteen-Feet seams. The manager was G. Rees. From that date, it again disappeared and became the main drift into Aberpergwm. It was driven into the Nine-Feet seam (which it called the Big Vein) near its outcrop and worked this seam extensively. It had a thickness of up to ten feet. The seam called the Eighteen-Feet seam in this area was a composite seam consisting of elements of the Six-Feet and Four-Feet seams. It had a thickness of up to 10 feet 4 inches. The Upper-Four–Feet seams had a thickness of 47 inches. The Six-Feet seam ranged up to a thickness of ten feet. The Red Vein was 37 inches thick.

Some of those who died at this mine;

• 5/3/1852, William Evans, aged 13, rider, roof fall
• 8/4/1868, William Rosser, aged 70 years and a collier was run over and killed by trams.
• 16/9/1868, T. Richards, aged 40 years, collier, died under a roof fall.
• 21/9/1868, John Jones aged 44 years and a collier died under a roof fall.
• 24/6/1879, T. Davies, aged 40 years and a collier, died under a roof fall.
• 25/7/1894, Griffith Griffiths, aged 54, collier, roof fall.
• 30/10/1899, David Baker, aged 14, collier boy, crushed by trams.
• 31/3/1910, Idris Howells, aged 16, assistant lampman, burned. 2
• 4/11/1911, John Thomas, aged 48, fireman, run over by trams.
• 26/4/1926, Lewis Morgan, aged 56 years and a collier, died under a roof fall.
• 29/4/1927, William Morgan, aged 46 years and a collier, died under a roof fall.
• 15/7/1929, T.W. Richards, aged 18 years, collier boy, died under a roof fall.

Some Statistics:

• 1896: Manpower: 172.
• 1899: Manpower: 276.
• 1900: Manpower: 301.
• 1901: Manpower: 324.
• 1902: Manpower: 375.
• 1903: Manpower: 366.
• 1905: Manpower: 430.
• 1907: Manpower: 325 underground only.
• 1909: Manpower: 741 with Aberpergwm.
• 1910: Manpower: 250.
• 1911: Manpower: 767 with Aberpergwm.
• 1912: Manpower: 274 underground only.
• 1915: Manpower: 250.
• 1918: Manpower: 489.
• 1920: Manpower: 1,000 with Aberpergwm.
• 1923: Manpower: 1,239 with Aberpergwm.
• 1927: Manpower: 1,185 with Aberpergwm.
• 1928: Manpower: 1,168 with Aberpergwm.
• 1933: Manpower: 1,106 with Aberpergwm.
• 1937: Manpower: 1,402 with Aberpergwm.
• 1938: Manpower: 1,529 with Aberpergwm.
• 1945: Manpower: 864.
• 1948: Manpower: 891.
• 1950: Manpower: 845.

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