Aberaman Colliery

Overview

A steam-coal colliery in the Aberdare valley, opened in the 1840s as part of Crawshay Bailey's Aberaman estate and sold with the whole estate to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company in 1867 for £123,500. Under the National Coal Board it became more than a pit: a training centre, a road transport depot, a property repair depot and the site of a central workshop and central stores. It closed on 23 November 1962 with its reserves exhausted, the men going to Deep Duffryn, Abercynon and Fforchaman.

History

The Aberaman estate south of Aberdare was bought by the ironmaster Crawshay Bailey from the executors of Anthony Bacon II by indenture of 17 February 1837. It was several years before he began speculating for coal; by 1845, in partnership with Josiah John Guest, he had built the Aberdare Railway, and around the same time the Aberaman Ironworks and a number of collieries with it were opened. Aberaman Colliery itself is dated to 1843.

Bailey's colliery activities were profitable but the depression in the iron trade meant the enterprise as a whole disappointed him, and he decided to sell up and return to Monmouthshire. By indenture of 2 February 1867 he disposed of the entire Aberaman estate — collieries, ironworks, brickworks and private railway — to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company for £123,500, and retired to Abergavenny. Powell Duffryn had been registered on 28 July 1864 to buy out the Powell interests, and was in the middle of nine years of litigation over the exact underground extent and value of the collieries it had bought; it did not enter full possession until November 1873. Bailey closed the Aberaman ironworks in 1875, they having run at a loss for some time.

Powell Duffryn held the colliery until nationalisation, and under the National Coal Board Aberaman took on functions well beyond winding coal: it served as a training centre, a road transport depot and a property repair depot, and housed a central workshop and central stores for the area. It was closed by the Board on 23 November 1962 because its coal reserves were exhausted, and the men were transferred to Deep Duffryn, Abercynon and Fforchaman.

Geology

The Aberdare valley worked the steam coals of the South Wales coalfield, the seams that made the district's name with the Admiralty and the world's navies. The valuable steam-coal seams on the neighbouring Blaengwawr estate began to be exploited around 1843, the same date given for Aberaman, which is the point at which the valley turned from iron to coal as its principal business.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A steam-coal colliery originally worked as part of an integrated estate: Crawshay Bailey's Aberaman holding combined the collieries with an ironworks, a brickworks and a private railway, and the Aberdare Railway he built with Josiah John Guest by 1845 was what let the coal reach a market. Under the National Coal Board the surface became a service centre for the wider area rather than simply a pit head.

Closure

Aberaman was closed by the National Coal Board on 23 November 1962 because its coal reserves were exhausted. Its men were transferred to Deep Duffryn, Abercynon and Fforchaman rather than paid off, which was the Board's usual practice where neighbouring pits still had life in them.

What remains

The colliery is gone. Aberaman is now a village whose working population largely travels to Cardiff and the M4 corridor or to Aberdare and Pontypridd; most of the industry that created it has disappeared.

Nothing of the colliery survives; the site was cleared after 1962.

Related mines

• Abercynon Colliery — Aberaman's men were transferred here when the National Coal Board closed it on 23 November 1962 with its reserves exhausted.
• Abergwawr Colliery — Abergwawr's shaft became an upcast and pumping shaft for Aberaman after 1886, and its coal was worked through Aberaman.
• Treaman Colliery — Treaman was merged into Aberaman Colliery in 1911; both Powell Duffryn pits from 1866-68.
• Ynyscynon Colliery — Ynyscynon's coal was worked from Aberaman Colliery after it closed in 1875.

Disasters & major incidents

• Aberaman Colliery explosion, 1855
  20 April 1855 · Explosion · 5 fatalities
  On 20 April 1855 firedamp fired by naked lights in the pillar workings of Aberaman Colliery, Aberdare, killed five men and boys, one of them a sixteen-year-old haulier blown into the sump and drowned.
• Aberaman Colliery explosion, 1858
  20 March 1858 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  An explosion of gas at Aberaman Colliery on 20 March 1858 fatally injured two colliers, who died two days later.
• Aberaman Colliery fall of coal, 1862
  21 June 1862 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A fall of coal killed two colliers holing in the Nine Feet seam at Aberaman Colliery on 21 June 1862.
• Aberaman Colliery shaft accident, 1883
  15 June 1883 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities
  A stone falling from the unwalled side of the Aberaman shaft tipped the ascending cage on 15 June 1883 and threw two hauliers to their deaths; the jury censured the colliery's officials.
• Aberaman Colliery roof fall, 1894
  14 November 1894 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  On the night shift of 14 November 1894 a shot fired at Aberaman Colliery brought down a fall that buried three men; two were dead when they were dug out two hours later.
• Aberaman Colliery roof fall, 1908
  3 May 1908 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 3 fatalities
  Three men died after a fall of roof at Powell Duffryn's Aberaman Colliery on 3 May 1908 while they were pulling down a low bridge of ground on an engine plane.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Aberaman' (catalogue SWR1244, Nine Feet, dated 1957); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Crawshay Bailey bought the Aberaman estate from the executors of Anthony Bacon II by indenture of 17 February 1837 and sold the entire estate — collieries, ironworks, brickworks and private railway — to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company by indenture of 2 February 1867 for £123,500. ^1,2
• Powell Duffryn was registered on 28 July 1864 to buy out the Powell interests for £365,000, but did not enter full rights of possession until November 1873 after nine years of litigation over the exact underground location and value of the collieries. ²
• Under the National Coal Board Aberaman was a training centre, a road transport depot and a property repair depot, and the site of a central workshop and central stores. ¹
• The National Coal Board closed Aberaman on 23 November 1962 because its coal reserves were exhausted; the men were transferred to Deep Duffryn, Abercynon and Fforchaman. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Aberaman' (catalogue SWR1244, Nine Feet, dated 1957); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Aberaman — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Aberdare history 8: the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company — Cynon Valley History Society
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: ABERAMAN — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026