Caerau Colliery

Overview

A colliery at the head of the Llynfi valley, opened in 1889 by North’s Navigation Collieries and worked until 1977. It had two steam-coal pits and, from 1903, a house-coal pit; in 1913 it held the record output for the whole South Wales coalfield, and by 1918 its workforce had risen to 1,839. The village of Caerau grew around it and outlived it.

History

Caerau Colliery was opened in 1889 by North’s Navigation Collieries, the company that dominated the Llynfi valley. The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 records 533 men employed in the Caerau South pit producing steam coal. A No. 3 house-coal pit followed in 1903, and by 1908 there were 1,170 men in the two steam-coal pits and 57 in the house-coal pit. In 1913 the colliery held the record output for the South Wales area — the peak year of the coalfield as a whole, when South Wales raised more coal than it ever would again. By 1918 the workforce had risen to 1,839. The colliery worked on through nationalisation and closed in 1977, having outlasted most of the Llynfi valley pits.

Geology

The South Wales coalfield at the head of the Llynfi valley, where steam coal and house coal were both worked — the colliery had separate pits for each, the steam-coal pits from 1889 and the house-coal No. 3 pit from 1903. The individual seams are not recorded.

Workings

Two steam-coal pits, one of them known as the South pit, and a third pit sunk to house coal in 1903. No shaft depths are recorded.

Closure

Caerau closed in 1977. Nothing is recorded of the reasons, beyond the general contraction of the Llynfi valley pits through the 1960s and 1970s.

What remains

The colliery site has been cleared and the village of Caerau remains at the head of the valley. The wider Llynfi valley has been extensively reclaimed since the last of its pits closed.

None identified.

Related mines

• Caedefaid Colliery — North's Navigation closed Caedefaid in 1908 and moved to Caerau's new No. 3 Pit, which worked a similar range of seams.
• Coegnant Colliery — Both were Llynfi valley steam-coal pits owned by North's Navigation Collieries, which took Coegnant over in 1889 and sank Caerau in the same year, working the same series of seams three miles apart.

Disasters & major incidents

• Caerau Colliery roof fall, 1925
  5 October 1925 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A second fall buried an overman and a repairer clearing a roof fall at Caerau Colliery, Maesteg, on 5 October 1925; both suffocated before they could be freed.

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 'Caerau' (catalogue SWA1012, Caerau, dated 1967); 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) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Caerau Colliery was opened in 1889 by North’s Navigation Collieries. ¹
• The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 records 533 men employed in the Caerau South pit producing steam coal; by 1908 there were 1,170 men in the two steam-coal pits and 57 in the house-coal pit, and by 1918 the workforce had risen to 1,839. ¹
• Further development saw the sinking of the No. 3 house-coal pit in 1903. ¹
• This colliery held the record output for the South Wales area in 1913. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Caerau' (catalogue SWA1012, Caerau, dated 1967); 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) ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Caerau Colliery, Llynfi Valley — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: CAERAU — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (secondary) Caerau, Bridgend — Wikipedia

Record created: 7 September 2026 · Last researched: 7 September 2026