The Mynydd Newydd underground chapel

After an explosion at Mynydd Newydd Colliery near Swansea, the men cut a chapel out of the coal near pit bottom and held a prayer meeting there every Monday morning before their shift. The services ran for the best part of a century, the BBC broadcast one from underground in 1929, and the last Bible used there is now at Big Pit.

The mining history in this record

Mynydd Newydd Colliery, about three miles north-west of Swansea, began working in 1843 under the Swansea Coal Company. Ceri Thompson, curator of coal at Amgueddfa Cymru, records that an explosion in 1844 killed five workmen and badly injured others, and that the men afterwards came together to discuss how to protect themselves. What they decided on was a prayer meeting underground before the start of work. The management were enthusiastic and let them build a chapel in the workings, in the Five Feet seam. The first Bible was carried down and used at half past six on the morning of 18 August 1845, and a meeting was held every Monday morning after that.

The welshcoalmines.co.uk account gives a different origin and a different place: an underground explosion in 1869 that killed three miners, after which the men built the chapel in the Six Feet seam, 774 feet down. The two accounts agree on the form — a large chamber held up by rows of heavy props, plank seats between them, walls and roof whitened, and a service every Monday at six before the shift.

A journalist from the Sunday Magazine went down in 1899 and described what he found: the coal worked out of the seam to the left of the roadway to leave a chamber about sixteen yards by six, walls part-formed of small rough pine logs with the thick seam outcropping between them, and a roof of hard smooth clift whitened with lime so that it looked like a ceiling. There was room for a congregation of about a hundred, and a high wooden desk served as a pulpit. The pit was reckoned gas-free, so the chapel was lit with candles set around it.

Bibles did not last in the damp. A second was bought in 1859 and kept in a box in the engine room to preserve it; its binding broke and scattered the pages when a preacher brought his fist down on it. A visiting Scottish doctor, Dr McRitchie, presented another in 1899, and the last was bought in 1904.

People

Ceri Thompson, curator of coal at Amgueddfa Cymru, published the account of the chapel and its successive Bibles in 2019. Dr McRitchie, a visiting Scottish medical man, presented a Bible in 1899. John Moelwyn Thomas, a collier at Garn Goch, inherited the last Bible from his father, who had brought it out of the pit at its closure, and took it to miners' galas; his family gave it to Big Pit.

Legacy today

In 1924, after the colliery changed hands and shut for a time, a preaching festival was held and a programme printed for it, headed as a celebration of eighty years of prayer meetings underground. In 1929 the Radio Times carried an article on the chapel, and the BBC broadcast a service from underground on Sunday 13 October that year.

The colliery closed temporarily in 1932, reopened in 1935 with 76 men, and was closed for good by the National Coal Board in 1955. As it was closing, a collier went down to the chapel to look for the Bible and the hymn book; only the Bible was still there, and he carried it out. It passed to his son, John Moelwyn Thomas, who worked at Garn Goch Colliery and took it round miners' galas and other events, and in 2019 the Thomas family gave it to Big Pit National Coal Museum. It is the 1904 Bible, inscribed for the prayer meeting held in the Five Foot seam every Monday morning when the works was working. A different Bible was pictured in the National Museum's own out-of-print Welsh Coal Mines and captioned as the underground one, so an earlier one may still be in private hands.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Amgueddfa Cymru records that an explosion at the colliery in 1844 killed five workmen, that the men afterwards resolved to hold prayer meetings underground before work, and that the management allowed them to build a chapel in the Five Feet seam. The first Bible was used there at half past six on the morning of 18 August 1845. (documented fact, disputed)
• The welshcoalmines.co.uk account instead dates the chapel to an underground explosion in 1869 that killed three miners, and places it in the Six Feet seam at a depth of 774 feet. (later recollection, disputed)
• A Sunday Magazine journalist who went down in 1899 described a chamber about sixteen yards by six cut out of the seam, timbered with pit props along the sides, the roof of hard smooth clift whitewashed so that it resembled a ceiling, rough plank seats between the props, room for about a hundred people, and candles for light because the pit was reckoned gas-free. (contemporary account)
• The meeting was held every Monday morning at six, before the men began their shift. A programme printed for a preaching festival in 1924 celebrated eighty years of prayer meetings underground at the colliery. (documented fact)
• The Radio Times carried an article on the underground chapel in 1929, and the BBC broadcast a service from underground on Sunday 13 October 1929. (documented fact)
• The Bible bought in 1904 was the last used in the chapel. It was carried out of the pit at the colliery's closure, passed to John Moelwyn Thomas of Garn Goch Colliery, and was given to Big Pit National Coal Museum by the Thomas family in 2019. (documented fact)

Mines

• Mynydd Newydd Colliery — Swansea
  The chapel was cut in this colliery's own workings, its Monday service was held at pit bottom before the men's shift, and the last Bible used there was carried out of this pit when it closed.

Sources

1. (primary) Mynydd Newydd Colliery 1843-1955 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Underground Bible — Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales
3. (secondary) Mynydd Newydd Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026