Dinas Main Colliery

Evanstown, Ogmore Fach Valley (97869037)

This pit was opened c1865 with one shaft being sunk to the No.3 Rhondda seam to a depth of 237 feet. It was linked to the Dinas Main Levels. The shaft was 18 feet in diameter and split into two for ventilation purposes.

It was opened by Evan Evans and his son Christmas Evans who formed the Ogmore Colliery Company in 1871, this became the Dinas Main Coal Company in 1875, the Dinas Main Coal and Coke Company in 1875 and back to the Dinas Main Coal Company in 1885.

During the bitter strike of 1893, in August the men at this pit arranged to return to work but were ‘persuaded’ not to by men from the Garw Valley. They started back in September.

On the 24th of November 1893, the Western Mail newspaper announced that the Dinas Main Colliery is about to sink two new pits to the steam coal seams (the Britannic Pits). The contract has been given and is expected to take two years. It was deepened in 1895 and another pit sunk, both to the Six-Feet seam.

The North shaft was the downcast ventilation pit and was 1,586 feet deep and the South shaft was the upcast ventilation pit and was 1,797 feet deep. They were 50 yards apart. The first coal was raised on the 22nd of April 1895.

By the end of that decade, the Dinas Main Company became the Britannic Merthyr Coal Company.

In 1896 it employed 216 men underground and 70 men on the surface with the manager being Robert Snape. It was then still owned by the Dinas Main Coal Company of Gilfach Goch.

In 1903 the pit employed 264 men, in 1907 the pit employed 151 men and the level employed 56 men. The Dinas Main pit closed in that year. It was merged into Britannic Colliery in 1907 with Britannic Colliery closing in 1960. It was also known as Gilfach or Gilfach Goch Colliery.

Some of the men who died in the pits and levels:

• 18/5/1877, John Moore, engineman, roof fall.
• 27/11/1879, Thomas Matthews, aged 33, haulier, run over by trams.
• 1/5/1880, William Morgan, aged 64, collier, shaft incident.
• 28/4/1882, David Jenkins, aged 22, collier, roof fall.
• 27/2/1884, Morgan Weller, aged 20, collier, explosion of gas.
• 12/2/1886, John Hidley, aged 17, haulier, roof fall.
• 17/1/1890, Robert Evans, aged 19, collier, roof fall.
• 8/3/1890, William Lewis, aged 54, airway man, roof fall.
• 8/3/1890, William Hughes, aged 35, airway man, roof fall.
• 24/4/1890, Charles Vickers, aged 20, haulier, run over by trams.
• 11/6/1890, Ebenezer Morris, aged 59, ripper, roof fall.
• 25/9/1890, James Phillips, aged 48, carpenter, run over by trams.
• 3/10/1890, Thomas Thomas, aged 16, engineman, was crushed by machinery.
• 19/11/1890, Thomas Bevan, aged 28, collier, roof fall.
• 1/4/1891, Thomas Edwards, aged 61, pumps man, run over by trams.
• 10/7/1895, Charles Cox, aged 26, collier, roof fall.
• 20/4/1899, James Gibbon, aged 46, collier, roof fall.

DINAS MAIN LEVELS
Evanstown, Ogmore Fach Valley (98059012)

They were opened c1865 and by 1878 the Dinas Main Coal and Coke Company were working the Nos. 2 & 3 Levels, they were managed by T. Jones.
In 1884 a Dinas Main was owned by Evan Evans and Company who employed Thomas Jones as the manager. In 1893 the Dinas Main Coal Company was listed as the owners and old Tom Jones was still the manager.

On the 14th of December 1907 in the No.3 level an explosion killed Nicholas White aged 45 years, William White aged 24 years, David J. Miles aged 23 years, John Jenkins aged 65 years, Richard Evans aged 33 years, Watkin Evans aged 39 years and William David aged 40 years. The inquest jury believed that the explosion was caused by shotfiring with gunpowder in which the holed was stemmed (packed) with small coal creating an explosive mixture.

On the 7th of February 1882, William Boyle aged 16 years, and a telegraph clerk with the Glamorgan Coal Company, for some reason best known to himself, jumped onto a brake van at Dinas Main sidings and took the brake off causing eight full wagons to run down the main line for about half a mile until they derailed and smashed four wagons beyond repair. The total damage was £150.00. Boyle was unhurt.

In 1908 they were managed by D. Bowen Jones and employed 20 men underground and 8 men on the surface in that year and 92 men 1911. By 1913 they were owned by the Britannic Merthyr Coal Company and managed by R. Edwards who employed 84 men at this mine. In 1920 they employed 140 men, in 1922 they employed 137 men and in 1923 they employed 289 men. In 1924 they employed 288 men and in 1926 they employed 190 men. This company was a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association.

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