Blaenclydach Colliery

Overview

A Clydach Vale drift mine known locally as the Gorci, worked from the 1860s and latterly by Powell Duffryn. On a November morning in 1941 its man-riding train ran away down the drift with ninety men aboard and killed seven of them, two aged fifteen.

History

Frank James opened levels in the area in the early 1860s to the No. 3 Rhondda seam, and William Berch and R. H. Miers were the owners by 1869. Another colliery was opened by Bush and Company in 1875 and was in the hands of the Forest Iron and Steel Company Limited by 1880. The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives only 35 men employed, producing house and manufacturing coal, and in 1897 the property came to the Blaenclydach Colliery Company.

In 1912 another drift was opened, also called the Gorky, while the old Blaenclydach passed to the Brookvale House Coal Company and was renamed Brookvale. The workforce was 408 by 1918. In 1923 there were 606 men at the Blaenclydach New Drift, producing house coal from the Pentre seam. The Powell Duffryn Company took it over during the 1930s, employing 576 in 1938 and 414 in 1945.

On 25 November 1941 the man-riding train ran away down the Abergorchy drift, killing seven men and boys (see Disasters, below). In July 1901 a fall of roof at the face killed two colliers (see Disasters, below).

Geology

The colliery worked the Rhondda seams at the head of the Clydach valley: the No. 3 Rhondda in the levels of the 1860s and the Pentre seam at the New Drift by 1923.

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

Workings

Drifts rather than shafts. The original Blaenclydach drift was known as the Gorci; a second, called the Gorky, was opened in 1912, and the old workings passed to another company as Brookvale. Men were taken in and out on the five-hundred-yard Abergorchy drift by spake, a train of flat-bottomed drams fitted with seats and used only for carrying workmen.

Closure

No closure date was established. The colliery was still returning employment figures in 1947, when it produced 50,000 tons with 315 people employed.

What remains

No account of the site as it is now was found. The Clydach Vale Country Park occupies the reclaimed ground of the Cambrian Colliery further up the valley, which is a different site.

Disasters & major incidents

• Blaenclydach Colliery roof fall, 1880
  31 December 1880 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  On the afternoon of Friday 31 December 1880 a father and son, David Thomas, 60, and James Thomas, 15, of Tonypandy, were killed together at Blaenclydach Colliery in the Rhondda when a huge stone fell on them in their stall.

  David Thomas and his son James were at work in their stall at Blaenclydach Colliery on the last afternoon of 1880 when a huge stone fell on them, killing them both. The deaths caused considerable sensation in the district.

• Blaenclydach Colliery roof fall, 1901
  11 July 1901 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  A slab of roof nearly thirteen feet long fell at the face in the No. 2 Rhondda seam at Blaenclydach Colliery on 11 July 1901, killing two colliers.

  On 11 July 1901 a 'cliff' of roof, 12¾ feet by 5 feet and 15 inches thick, fell suddenly at the face in the No. 2 Rhondda seam at Blaenclydach Colliery in Clydach Vale, crushing out the one prop under it and killing two colliers, Frederick Rees, aged 26, and Frederick Yelling, aged 25. At least three more props ought to have been set under it.

• Blaenclydach Colliery dam burst, 1910
  11 March 1910 · Flooding / Inundation · 6 fatalities
  On the afternoon of Friday 11 March 1910 water dammed in the abandoned Blaenclydach No. 2 level on the mountainside above Clydach Vale burst out as men drove a borehole through the barrier. Some 800,000 gallons of water and slurry swept down onto the school in Oak Street and the houses and shops around it, killing a mother and five children.
• Blaenclydach Colliery spake runaway, 1941
  25 November 1941 · Haulage / Transport · 7 fatalities
  At about seven on the morning of 25 November 1941 the spake, the man-riding train of seated drams carrying about ninety men and boys into the 500-yard Abergorchy drift at Blaenclydach Colliery, ran out of control and careered two hundred yards before it was stopped. Men who jumped were thrown back under it in the narrow drift. Seven were killed, two of them fifteen-year-olds, and many more injured.

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 'Blaenclydach Level' (catalogue SWR1357, No.2 Rhondda, dated 1903); 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.

• Frank James opened levels in the area during the early 1860s to the No. 3 Rhondda seam; William Berch and R. H. Miers were the owners in 1869, and another colliery opened by Bush and Company in 1875 was in the hands of the Forest Iron and Steel Company Limited by 1880. ¹
• Blaenclydach was a drift mine known as The Gorci. In 1897 it came to the Blaenclydach Colliery Company; in 1912 another drift was opened, also called the Gorky, while the Old Blaenclydach came under the Brookvale House Coal Company and was renamed Brookvale. ¹
• The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives 35 men employed on house and manufacturing coal; the workforce was 408 by 1918 and 606 at the New Drift in 1923 on the Pentre seam. Powell Duffryn took the colliery over during the 1930s, employing 576 in 1938 and 414 in 1945. The Lists of Mines give 645 employed in 1910, 661 in 1933 and 315 in 1947, when the colliery produced 50,000 tons. ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Blaenclydach Level' (catalogue SWR1357, No.2 Rhondda, dated 1903); 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) Blaenclydach — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Blaenclydach Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: BLAENCLYDACH LEVEL — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

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