Buttery Hatch Colliery

Overview

A Mynyddislwyn-seam level near Maesycwmmer, opened about 1833 and still working in the 1930s. Thomas Powell, later founder of Powell Duffryn, was taken to court for driving its roadway under Tredegar Estate land.

History

Buttery Hatch, first called the Tre-lyn level, was opened to the Mynyddislwyn seam about 1833. That year Thomas Powell, the Newport coal exporter, and his partner Thomas Prothero leased the mineral rights from John Hodder Moggridge. To reach the coal Powell needed to drive under the Plas farm of Sir Charles Morgan's Tredegar Estate. Refused a sale, and after a row with the estate's agent Frederick Justice in 1834, he drove the roadway anyway. In 1840 the estate found it out, and the court awarded £1,400 for coal taken, a shilling for the spoiled take, and £20 wayleave. Powell later outmanoeuvred Prothero's sons for the whole of Buttery Hatch.

In 1842 the Children's Employment Commission found 22 working there, among them seven-year-old Joseph Richards. By 1884 H. Roberts was owner and manager, and the nearby Trelyn mine became Lower Buttery Hatch. It employed 61 in 1902. Under the Pengam Colliery Company it employed 76 and raised 15,000 tons in 1923, and in 1935 William Perch Ltd employed 120 there.

Geology

Upper Coal Measures (Pennant) of the eastern South Wales coalfield: the Mynyddislwyn seam.

Workings

A level into the Mynyddislwyn seam, later with a Lower Buttery Hatch level; its roadway under the Plas lands was used as a watercourse.

Closure

Still working in 1935 with 120 men. The closure date and reason are unknown.

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.

• Opened to the Mynyddislwyn seam about 1833. ¹
• The Tredegar Estate won £1,400 damages after Thomas Powell drove the level's roadway under its Plas farm without leave. ¹
• In 1923 it employed 76 and produced 15,000 tons. ¹
• Its plans show workings in the Mynyddislwyn seam. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gelligroes Colliery - Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Mine plan: Buttery Hatch, Mynyddislwyn — British Geological Survey

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026