Broom Colliery

Overview

An anthracite colliery near Thomas Chapel, first worked in the 1850s and reopened in 1933 with coal cutters and conveyors, employing 200 men and raising about 30,000 tons a year until a fault ended it in 1938.

History

Broom Colliery, near Thomas Chapel in the Pembrokeshire anthracite field, was first opened in the 1850s and had stopped producing coal by the late nineteenth century. It was reopened in 1933, and by 1936 it employed 200 men and produced an average of 30,000 tons a year using modern methods, with coal-cutting machines and mechanical conveyors.

Its coal was carried on the reopened mineral line to a new screening plant at Bonvilles Court, where 44 men graded it. By the end of 1938 the Bramblehill fault had become too great an obstacle, and the colliery was dismantled. Its workings in the Lower Level and Kilgetty seams, with Broom Upper, Hackett and Thomas Chapel, were abandoned in 1938.

Geology

Pembrokeshire anthracite: the Lower Level and Kilgetty seams, cut off by the Bramblehill fault.

Workings

Mechanised in the 1930s with coal cutters and conveyors; coal went by mineral railway to the screening plant at Bonvilles Court.

Closure

Dismantled at the end of 1938 when the Bramblehill fault proved too great an obstacle; its seams were abandoned that year.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bonville's Court Colliery — Broom's coal was screened at the new plant at Bonvilles Court in the 1930s.
• Thomas Chapel Colliery — Broom and Thomas Chapel share a 1938 abandonment plan.

Recorded claims

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

• First opened in the 1850s, it had ceased production by the late nineteenth century. ¹
• It was reopened in 1933 and by 1936 employed 200 men, producing about 30,000 tons a year with coal cutters and conveyors. ¹
• Its coal went by the reopened mineral line to a new screening plant at Bonvilles Court employing 44 men. ¹
• It was dismantled at the end of 1938, defeated by the Bramblehill fault. ¹
• The Lower Level and Kilgetty workings of Broom, Broom Upper, Hackett and Thomas Chapel were abandoned in 1938. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Bonville's Court Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines, from the Inspector of Mines lists
2. (primary) Broom / Broom Upper / Hackett / Shipping Upper / Thomas Chapel or Hayes New (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan R13542, via BGS catalogue item 21864323) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

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