Caedu Colliery

Overview

One of the earliest collieries in the Ogmore Valley, a drift opened by John Brogden and Sons in 1865 into the No. 2 Rhondda seam, later worked by the Llynfi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company, which abandoned the seam in 1891; the stone walls of two of its buildings survive.

History

Caedu, also written Cae Du, was one of the earliest mines in the Ogmore Valley. John Brogden and Sons opened it in 1865 into the No. 2 Rhondda seam, as a drift with an upcast ventilation shaft, linked underground to the neighbouring Fforchwen level. The Brogdens still owned it in 1869-70, and by 1878 it belonged to the Llynfi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company, formed in 1872 with a capital of £500,000 to take over the old Llynvi Iron and Coal Company and other interests, with Alexander Brogden as chairman and his brother Henry as managing director. The trade depression and the new steel-making processes adopted elsewhere forced that company into receivership in 1880, and in 1888 a group under Colonel North bought the concern, which became North's Navigation Collieries. At Caedu the No. 2 Rhondda seam carried 40 inches of top coal, 18 inches of rashes and 10 inches of bottom coal; it was abandoned in June 1891. The colliery's dead included a nineteen-year-old haulier run over by trams in January 1874, colliers killed by falls of roof and coal through 1878-85, a twelve-year-old door boy run over by trams in 1884, and a sixty-year-old man crushed between trucks and a wall at the screens in 1883, two days after starting work there.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures: the No. 2 Rhondda seam, in section 40 inches of top coal, 18 inches of rashes and 10 inches of bottom coal.

Workings

A drift into the No. 2 Rhondda seam with an upcast ventilation shaft, connected to the neighbouring Fforchwen level.

Closure

The No. 2 Rhondda seam was abandoned in June 1891.

What remains

The mortared stone walls of two colliery buildings survive: one 8.5 by 6 metres with a rougher cell at its south end and iron posts within the walls, the other a two-celled building of 6.5 by 6 metres and 10 by 5.5 metres with metre-thick walls.

Remains of two stone mine buildings recorded in 2011.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Tondu Colliery — Both owned by John Brogden and Sons: Tondu by 1856-59, Caedu from its opening in 1865 (Healey Hero; NMRS).

Recorded claims

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

• Caedu was opened in 1865 by John Brogden and Sons to the No. 2 Rhondda seam, as a drift with an upcast ventilation shaft linked to the neighbouring Fforchwen level. ¹
• It belonged to John Brogden and Sons in 1869-70 and to the Llynfi, Tondu and Ogmore Coal and Iron Company in 1878. ¹
• The No. 2 Rhondda seam was abandoned at Caedu in June 1891. ¹
• Two mortared stone buildings of the former Cae Du Colliery survive, one with iron posts within its walls and one of two cells. ^2,3
• In January 1874 a nineteen-year-old haulier at Caedu Colliery was killed by drams. ^4,1
• In 1883 John Watkins, aged 60, was crushed between trucks and a wall at the screens of Caedu Colliery, Tynewydd, two days after starting there. ⁵

Sources

1. (secondary) Caedu Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Coflein: Caedu Colliery, Mine Building I (NPRN 516276) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
3. (secondary) Coflein: Caedu Colliery, Mine Building II (NPRN 516277) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
4. (secondary) 1874 fatalities — welshcoalmines.co.uk
5. (secondary) Fatalities 1883 — Welsh Coal Mines

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