Baglan Park & Swan Collieries

BAGLAN COLLIERY

Near Port Talbot 762924

This mine was sunk in 1862 to a depth of 89 yards by the Baglan Swan Colliery Company. It was owned by Grenfell and Sons in 1875/82 when it was managed by J. Walter.

In 1915 it was working the Waunffynnonau seam and in 1923 it employed 5 men working underground and 2 men working at the surface of the mine. No men were listed at this mine in 1923 or 1924.

A Baglan Navigation Colliery is located on the 1927 map of mineral leases which shows it is owned by the Baglan Navigation Colliery Company. It worked to the north of Aberavon.

Other Baglan’s in this area were a Baglan at 762924 which worked between 1854 and 1870 and was owned by Thomas & Williams, the Baglan Church Colliery which worked an unnamed seam around 1865 while the Baglan Hall Colliery was sunk to a depth of 90 yards to the Big seam. It worked the Big, Big Rider and Baglan seams and was abandoned in November 1887. On the 26th of November 1866, David Roberts aged 40 years and a foreman died when suffocated by gas. At that time it was owned by the Baglan Hall Company. 

The Baglan Hill was working in 1884 when it was owned by Pascoe, Grenfell and Son. W. Walters was the manager. On the 8th of September 1883 poor David Rees a Doorboy, was only 13 years of age when he fell under moving trams and was killed. On the 26th of August 1875, James Hill a collier died under a roof fall at this mine.

PARK COLLIERY

Baglan, Port Talbot (744927/746927)

This mine was owned in turn by Edward Thomas & Company (1861), Thomas Jenkins, Baglan Hall Company (1867) then the Baglan Hall Collieries Company who held it for seven months in 1867 before going bankrupt. It was re-opened in 1873 by Pascoe Grenfell & Sons and by 1878 was known as Baglan Colliery. It was back to Park Colliery in 1881 and in 1884 it became Baglan Hall Colliery. It was abandoned in 1887.

Possibly Baglan and Swan Colliery.

SWAN (742932) AND PARK COLLIERY

Briton Ferry

This was a series of mines that was opened c1858 and closed in 1887.

They included Cwmbyr and Clay (742931) levels and the Park Pit which is dealt with under Park Colliery.

Swan was opened by the Baglan Swan Colliery Company and later owned by Thomas Jenkins and then the Baglan Hall Company until 1867 when this company went into liquidation. Baglan Hall Collieries then failed to work it and folded after seven months. It then lay idle until 1873 until Pascoe and Grenfell re-opened it.

The Swan worked the White, Clay, Cwmbyr (1874) and Parson’s (abandoned 1868) seams. It also worked the Tormynydd seam from a drift 300 yards to the north of the main colliery which was on the seashore. In the Park Pit the Big Vein was extensively worked from a shaft that was 70 yards deep. This seam was 72 inches thick and worked to the north for 16 “chains” at a dip of 45 degrees.

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