Blaenant Colliery

Overview

A Crynant drift mine that took over Cefn Coed Colliery's workforce and one of its shafts in 1968, going on to become the last colliery working in the Neath valley when it closed in 1990. Its almost fault-free take made it a record-breaking dry steam coal mine for Aberthaw power station in the 1970s and 1980s.

History

The Blaenant Colliery Company was incorporated in 1930 to drive the Blaenant Drift into the No. 2 Rhondda seam at Crynant, in the Neath valley. Based at 24 Exchange Buildings, Swansea, with David Jeffreys, D. N. Morgan, Lewis Lewis, T. R. Davies and W. A. Hughes as directors, the company had no other mine; the drift mouth was near Cefn Coed Colliery. By 1935 the colliery was in full production, employing 120 men underground and 20 on the surface and producing 52,000 tons of coal that year, and in the 1940s it employed about 180 under the manager O. Jones. The colliery passed to the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947. It raised 76,000 tons in 1954, opened pithead baths costing £21,051 that December, and had its own coal preparation plant by 1956.

When the neighbouring Cefn Coed Colliery closed, the majority of its workforce transferred to Blaenant, which extracted the same No. 2 Rhondda seam at a shallower depth; one of Cefn Coed's two shafts continued in use afterwards, ventilating Blaenant and serving as an emergency exit. By 1969 Blaenant employed 300 men underground and 26 at the surface. During the 1972 miners' strike the mine was almost flooded and was saved only by the intervention of volunteer striking miners and the management.

In 1971 (by another account completed in 1976) a New Drift, costing £1.4 million and dipping at 1 in 3.7, replaced the drift of 1963. It carried a manriding train for 120 men and a conveyor for 600 tonnes of coal an hour, shortened the coal's route to the surface by 2,250 yards, and turned the workings, now retreat faces, to the north and west. Merry-go-round trains of 32 wagons, a thousand tonnes, were loaded at the surface in 25 minutes for Aberthaw power station. The take was virtually free of faults, something unknown elsewhere in the South Wales coalfield, and the colliery was a regular record breaker. In January 1975 the NCB announced a £15 million scheme to make it one of the most productive mines in Britain, and in 1978 its 106 face, 650 feet long, became the first in South Wales worked by three coal cutters, raising its output from 3,000 to 5,000 tons a week; the workings were then 1,500 feet down, with ten miles of roadways and three miles of conveyors.

By 1983 Blaenant was losing £15.80 a ton with 698 men, and after the 1984-85 strike both its faces met bad roof. In 1988 590 men raised 500,000 tons of dry steam coal, mainly for Aberthaw. In April 1990 British Coal's South Wales director said output was below half of what was expected and that the geology ruled out the 15,000 tonnes a week needed to break even, while the NUM lodge secretary, Phil Bowen, held that vast reserves remained. Blaenant closed on 11 May 1990 with just over 600 men, the last working colliery in the area, and is unusual among Neath valley collieries for having some of its surface buildings survive in good repair.

Geology

Coal of the South Wales field in the Neath valley: the No. 2 Rhondda seam at Crynant, reached at a shallower depth than at neighbouring pits; the seam was 1.32 m thick and the take almost free of faults, yielding a dry steam coal.

Workings

Worked as a drift into the No. 2 Rhondda seam; after Cefn Coed Colliery's closure, one of that colliery's two shafts was retained to ventilate Blaenant and serve as an emergency exit. A New Drift of 1971 (1 in 3.7, with a manriding train and a 600-tonne-an-hour conveyor) replaced the 1963 drift; the faces were worked by retreat, with ranging-drum shearers and self-advancing supports by 1981.

Closure

Closed by British Coal on 11 May 1990 with just over 600 men, output having fallen below half of what was expected; the last colliery working in the Neath valley.

What remains

Some of Blaenant's surface buildings survive in good repair, unusually for a Neath valley colliery site. The remains of Maes Mawr Colliery, opened in 1874, can still be seen at the site.

Some surface buildings of Blaenant survive in good repair, and the remains of the 1874 Maes Mawr Colliery stand on the same site.

Related mines

• Cefn Coed Colliery — When Cefn Coed closed, most of its workforce and one of its two shafts transferred to Blaenant, which went on to extract the same No. 2 Rhondda seam.
• Seven Sisters Colliery — When Seven Sisters closed in May 1963 and its pit was filled in, the men employed there were transferred to the nearby Blaenant Colliery in the same valley.

Culture

• Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (Labour)
  Miners from the valleys carried the Blaenant Lodge banner with LGSM at London Lesbian and Gay Pride in 1985.

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 NMRS list of NCB collieries gives Blaenant's New Drift Mine as completed in 1976. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• By 1935 Blaenant employed 120 men underground and 20 on the surface, producing 52,000 tons of coal that year. ¹
• When Cefn Coed Colliery closed, most of its workforce transferred to Blaenant, and one of Cefn Coed's two shafts was retained to ventilate Blaenant and serve as an emergency exit. ²
• The Blaenant Colliery Company was incorporated in 1930 specifically to drive the Blaenant Drift into the No. 2 Rhondda seam. ¹
• During the 1972 miners' strike Blaenant was almost flooded and was saved by volunteer striking miners and the management. ¹
• A New Drift costing £1.4 million, driven in 1971 at 1 in 3.7, carried a manriding train for 120 men and a conveyor for 600 tonnes an hour. ¹
• In 1978 Blaenant's 106 face became the first in South Wales equipped with three coal cutters, raising output from 3,000 to 5,000 tons a week. ¹
• Blaenant was closed by British Coal on 11 May 1990, with just over 600 men working there. ^1,3
• The NMRS list of NCB collieries gives Blaenant's New Drift Mine as completed in 1976. (disputed) ³
• Blaenant, the last colliery to close at Crynant, is the only one there with some buildings remaining in good repair. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Blaenant Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Cefn Coed Colliery Museum — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - Wales — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Crynant — Wikipedia

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026