Corrwg Vale Colliery

Cymmer, Afan Valley84466/97269

This level was worked for steam and manufacturing coals along with the Cymmer Graigola level firstly by the Avon Vale Colliery Company of Cardiff and then by the Corrwg Vale Colliery Company Limited which did not join the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association. It employed 73 men underground and 9 men on the surface in 1896 when the manager was Edward Plummer. It employed 52 men and 45 men underground and 10 men on the surface in 1908/9 when J. Howells was manager, 85 men in 1910, 60 men in 1911, 174 men in 1912 and 220 men in 1913/16 when the manager was still John Howells, and 106 men underground and 14 men on the surface in 1918 when J. Powell was still the manager. Mr. Powell was still the manager in the following year when it employed 150 men.

It was still listed in 1923 as being managed by Mr. Powell and employed 147 men working underground and 27 men working at the surface of the mine and produced 35,000 tons of coal and in 1924 it employed 122 men. The last it is listed is in 1925.

It worked the Mountain seam at a thickness of 56” of mixed coal and dirt. It also worked the Wenallt Seam, the Wenallt Rider Seam which it abandoned in December 1921 and the Little Seam which had been abandoned in March 1896.

On the 11th of December 1913, Simon Gullifer, aged 19 years and a collier died under a fall of roof at his working face. As he was ripping roof in order to enlarge the roadway, a stone fell from a slant and killed him.

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