Blaencaegurwen Colliery

Overview

An anthracite drift mine of three slants near Brynamman, at the head of the Amman Valley, worked from the 1880s and employing over 400 men at its peak. The Wales scrum-half Tudor Williams was electrocuted there in 1922. It was gone by 1935.

History

Blaencaegurwen was an anthracite drift mine near Brynamman, owned and managed by Hubert Huxham in 1884. Over time it had three slants. The Blaencaegurwen Colliery Company owned it by 1896, when it employed 73 men underground and 16 on the surface under Owen Powell, who was still manager in 1909-11, when it employed 296 and 308 men. In 1910 it was working the Peacock, Big, Middle and Lower seams; the workforce reached 427 in 1912, and in 1913 it employed 383 under W. Samuel. By 1917 the owner had become Blaen-cae-Gurwen Collieries Limited.

On 27 August 1922 Tudor Williams, an assistant electrician at the colliery and the Swansea scrum-half who had played once for Wales, against France in 1921, was electrocuted underground at the age of 23. Four other deaths are recorded, each a single accident: David Jones in 1885, Morgan Williams in 1911 and G. Williams in 1927, all under falls of roof, and Thomas Walker, run over by trams in 1913.

In 1923 the Nos. 2 and 3 and 'New Openings' slants worked the Trigloyn, Brass, Lower, Middle and Big veins. Seams were given up one by one: the Big Vein in 1912, the Brass in 1914, the Peacock and more in 1926, the Little Brass in 1929, and the Trigloyn, Lower and Middle in 1933. A petition to wind up the company was heard in February 1930 and the colliery was put up for sale in March 1931; in 1932 it still employed 390 men under E. Alexander, but it had closed by 1935, when the company was struck off the register.

Geology

Anthracite from the Peacock, Big, Middle, Lower, Brass, Little Brass and Trigloyn seams.

Workings

A drift mine that came to have three slants: in 1918 the Nos. 2, 3 and 3/Pantcelyn slants, and in 1923 the Nos. 2 and 3 and 'New Openings' slants.

Closure

After a winding-up petition in 1930 the colliery was offered for sale in March 1931. It was still working in 1932 and had closed by 1935, when the company was struck off.

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.

• Hubert Huxham owned and managed the drift mine in 1884. ^1,2
• In 1913 it employed 383 men under the manager W. Samuel. ^1,2
• Tudor Williams, the Wales scrum-half, was electrocuted while working underground at the colliery in 1922, aged 23. ^1,3
• It abandoned the Big Vein in March 1912 and the Brass Vein in August 1914. ²
• It employed 390 men in 1932 and had disappeared from the lists by 1935. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gwaun Cae Gurwen Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) NMRS: Blaen-Cae-Gurwen Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Wikipedia: Tudor Williams — Wikipedia
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: BLAENCAEGURWEN SLANTS 1,3 & 4, EAST PIT UC & DC (Big Vein) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 11 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026