Birchgrove Colliery

Overview

A Llansamlet steam-coal colliery sunk about 1845, with its Sisters and Brothers pits, worked for the Graigola and Tir Edmund seams until 1932.

History

Birchgrove Colliery lay just north of Llansamlet, in the lower Swansea Valley. It was sunk by Joseph Martin around 1845 as a steam-coal pit, later called the Old Pit, 32 yards deep; by 1848 it belonged to P. Davey and W. Pegg, London coal merchants. The shaft was later deepened to the Graigola seam at 120 yards, and the Sisters Pit, opened a little to the north in 1862, reached the same seam at 150 yards. It closed in 1891 and was reopened from 1901 to 1904.

George Bower and partners, as the Birchgrove Graigola Co., took over in 1874 and opened a patent fuel works at the Sisters Pit in 1875, making 20 lb blocks. Charles Hopkinson and Son had it by 1880. The Brothers Pits, Nos. 1 and 2, to the Swansea Four-Feet and Five-Feet seams, appear from 1887 and employed up to 141 underground, but were not listed after 1900.

In April 1889 a heading in the Graigola seam broke into old workings and four men drowned; in 1896 a fall in the Brothers Pit sinking killed three. Birchgrove Collieries Ltd took over in 1901. The workforce rose from 177 in 1914 to 312 in 1923, working the Tir Edmund and Graigola seams, and the colliery closed in 1932.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures of the lower Swansea Valley: the Graigola and Tir Edmund seams, with the Swansea Four-Feet and Five-Feet seams at the Brothers Pits.

Workings

The Old Pit (32 yards, later deepened to the Graigola at 120 yards), the Sisters Pit (150 yards) and the Brothers Pits Nos. 1 and 2.

Closure

Closed in 1932; the abandonment plans for the Brothers Pits were deposited the same year.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

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 colliery opened in 1855. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was sunk by Joseph Martin around 1845. ¹
• The colliery opened in 1855. (disputed) ²
• The Sisters Pit, opened in 1862, reached the Graigola seam at 150 yards. ¹
• In April 1889 water from old workings drowned four men in the Graigola seam. ^3,1,2
• The colliery worked the Graigola and Tir Edmund seams. ^1,2,4
• It employed 312 in 1923. ¹
• It employed 303 in 1923 (186 below, 117 at the surface). ²
• The colliery closed in 1932. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: Birchgrove colliery, Sisters pit, Brothers pits — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Birchgrove Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Glamorgan colliery fatalities, 1889 — Welsh Coal Mines website
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: BIRCHGROVE, Tir Edmund seam — British Geological Survey

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