Trane Pit

Gilfach Goch. (98278987)

The Britannic Merthyr Coal Company Limited operated at the extreme end of this valley where it had a mineral lease of 2,000 acres. By the time of the deepening of Trane Pit it had already become part of the Cambrian Combine (1910) which was formalised into the Consolidated Cambrian Limited in 1913. In 1929 it was merged into Welsh Associated Collieries Limited, which in 1935 merged with the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited to form the Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries Limited which held Trane Colliery until Nationalisation in 1947.

The 15 feet diameter Trane Pit was originally sunk in 1887 to a depth of 332 yards and deepened between July 1911 and March 1912 to a depth of 462 yards to the Four-Feet seam. It employed 296 men in 1915/6 and 155 men in 1919 and was managed in both years by D. Davies. R.B. Davies was the manager in 1923 when Trane/Llewellyn (Britannic Merthyr) employed 538 men working underground and 114 men working at the surface of the mine. By 1935 it employed 100 men on the surface and 685 men underground producing 450,000 tons of steam coal.

On Nationalisation in 1947, Trane Colliery was placed in the National Coal Board’s, South Western Division’s, No.3 Area, No.2 Group, and at that time employed 55 men on the surface and 271 men underground working the Pentre seam. The NCB merged the Britannic and Trane Pits with the Trane shaft being used to raise the coal output. The Trane Pit was closed in November 1953.

Please also see Britannic Colliery.

Some of the fatalities at this mine:

• 17/4/1912, Rhys Jones, aged 44, sinker, explosion.
• 17/4/1912, John Stephens, aged 61, sinker, explosion.
• 17/4/1912, George Bond, aged 55, sinker, explosion.
• 17/4/1912, Henry Jones, aged 39, sinker, explosion.
• 3/2/1913, Charles Owen, aged 30, labourer, wall on surface collapsed
• 6/7/1925, Edwin Protheroe, aged 24, collier, roof fall.
• 9/11/1925, Henry Seymour, aged 36, collier, roof fall.
• 1/4/1926, George Crew, aged 36, haulier, crushed by tram.
• 19/3/1929, Henry T. Grant, aged 27, tipper, caught in machinery.

Some statistics:

• 1912: Manpower: 241.
• 1915: Manpower: 296.
• 1916: Manpower: 296.
• 1919: Manpower: 155.
• 1920: Manpower: 340.
• 1923: Manpower: 652 with Llewellyn.
• 1924: Manpower: 1,042 with Llewellyn.
• 1930: Manpower: 652.
• 1931: Manpower: 800.
• 1933: Manpower: 825.
• 1935: Manpower: 785. Output: 450,000 tons.
• 1937: Manpower: 504.
• 1940: Manpower: 382.
• 1941: Manpower: 386.
• 1942: Manpower: 382.
• 1944: Manpower: 353.
• 1947: Manpower: 326.

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