Acorn Colliery

Overview

A Llangennech colliery opened in 1911 by the Acorn Colliery Syndicate, which worked the Golden and Fiery seams until 1932 and was reopened under NCB licence from 1953 until 1966.

History

Acorn Colliery was at Llangennech, east of Llanelli. It was opened in 1911 by the Acorn Colliery Syndicate Limited, which employed 35 men in 1912. By 1918 there were 78 underground and 37 at the surface under the manager T. J. Bowen, and in 1923 a hundred underground and thirty at the surface, under David Lewis, producing house and manufacturing coal from the Golden and Fiery seams.

The colliery abandoned the Fiery and Golden seams in 1932 and closed shortly afterwards; the syndicate was struck off the register and dissolved on 1 September 1936.

After nationalisation the mine was reopened about a hundred yards north of the old adit and worked under licence from the National Coal Board, by E. Morgan and C. Thomas from 1953 to 1957 and from 1960 by the Acorn Colliery Company, which suffered a costly fire in September 1960. Its last workings, in the Fiery or Lower Swansea Six Feet seam, were abandoned on 17 September 1966, and Acorn finally closed that year.

Geology

The Golden and Fiery seams; the Fiery is also called the Lower Swansea Six Feet.

Workings

An adit, and after 1953 a new entry about a hundred yards to the north of it, worked under NCB licence.

Closure

The Fiery and Golden seams were abandoned in 1932 and the syndicate dissolved in 1936. The licensed mine's Fiery workings were abandoned on 17 September 1966, when it finally closed.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Acorn Colliery was opened in 1911 by the Acorn Colliery Syndicate Limited. ¹
• In 1923 it employed 130, producing house and manufacturing coal from the Golden and Fiery seams. ¹
• The Fiery and Golden seams were abandoned in 1932. ^1,2
• It was reopened under licence in 1953 and finally closed in 1966. ¹
• The Fiery workings were abandoned on 17 September 1966. ³
• NMRS records injuries at Acorn, Llangennech, between 1912 and 1930. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Porthdafen colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: ACORN, Fiery and Golden seams, abandoned 1932 — British Geological Survey
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: ACORN, Fiery (Lower Swansea Six Feet) seam, abandoned 17 September 1966 — British Geological Survey
4. (secondary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Acorn, Llangennech (records 1912-1930) — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 10 October 2026 · Last researched: 10 October 2026