MineArchive
A Trip to Bryddewy Coal-Mine
| Category | Literature |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1809: Waring's The Village Sunday. About 1810: Waring comes to Wales. 1813: A Trip to Bryddewy Coal-Mine. 1814: he settles at Neath. 29 March 1857: he dies at Neath. |
'A Trip to Bryddewy Coal-Mine: Being a new poem on a new subject' is a poem by Elijah Waring, the Neath writer and preacher, published in 1813 about Bryndewi Colliery in Dyffryn Clydach, west of Neath.
The mining history in this record
Bryndewi was one of the collieries of Dyffryn Clydach, just west of Neath, whose coal went down tram roads to the wharves at Neath Abbey and the Tennant Canal. Elijah Waring, the son of Jeremiah Waring of Alton in Hampshire, came to Wales around 1810 and started an English-language monthly about the country, The Cambrian Visitor, which lasted about eight months and lost him a good deal of money. In 1813 he published his poem on a trip to the colliery, subtitled 'a new poem on a new subject'.
He settled at Neath in 1814 and married Deborah Price, sister of Joseph Tregelles Price, in 1817. Brought up a Quaker, he became a Methodist minister; he wrote much for the Poetical Magazine, took an active part in the campaign for parliamentary reform through The Cambrian of Swansea, and later edited the recollections of the poet Edward Williams, the Bard of Glamorgan. He moved to Cardiff in 1835 and then to Hotwells, Clifton, and returned to Neath about 1855, where he died on 29 March 1857.
People
Elijah Waring (about 1788-1857), poet, preacher and publisher of Neath.
Legacy today
The poem is known today from bibliographies of English poetry of the period and from a passing mention in Dai Bevan's local guide to Dyffryn Clydach, which records that the Neath poet once wrote about Bryndewi Colliery.
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.
- Elijah Waring published 'A Trip to Bryddewy Coal-Mine: Being a new poem on a new subject' in 1813. (documented fact) 1
- The Neath poet Elijah Waring once wrote a poem about Bryndewi Colliery, one of the Dyffryn Clydach pits whose coal went by tram road to the wharves at Neath Abbey and the Tennant Canal. (documented fact) 2
- The 'Bryddewy' of the poem's title is Bryndewi, or Bryn-dewy, the colliery in Dyffryn Clydach. (reasonable inference, uncertain) 2,1
- Waring, born at Alton in Hampshire about 1788, came to Wales around 1810, settled at Neath in 1814, became a Methodist minister after a Quaker upbringing, and died at Neath on 29 March 1857. (documented fact) 1
Mines
- Tir Edmund Colliery — Neath Port Talbot
Waring's poem of 1813 is about Bryndewi (Bryddewy) Colliery in Dyffryn Clydach, the working recorded in 1894 as 'Tir Edmund (or Bryn-dewy)'; Dai Bevan's local guide names the poem among the valley's pits.
Real-world mining concepts used here
Sources
- (secondary) Elijah Waring (Penny's Poetry Pages, George J. Dance) — Penny's Poetry Pages Wiki (Fandom)
- (secondary) Dyffryn Clydach: a guide (part 5) — Dyffryn Clydach local history guide
Record created: 29 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026