Caerbryn Colliery

Overview

An anthracite colliery at Caerbryn, between Penygroes and Llandybie in the Amman valley coalfield of Carmarthenshire, sunk around the 1850s beside the incline railway between Tirydail and Cross Hands. It was worked in turn by Perry Williams, by David Jones and Company, by the French Anthracite Company of Swansea, which had over 300 men there in 1896, and from the 1900s by the Caerbryn Colliery Company and its successor the Caerbryn Anthracite Colliery Co. Ltd, under the Ammanford coal-owner W. N. Jones. The old pit had ceased production by 1923, when the coal came from two slants, and the concern passed into the Amalgamated Anthracite combine in 1926 and closed in the 1930s.

History

The colliery was sunk around the 1850s on the anthracite measures between Penygroes and Llandybie, its coal going out on the incline rail track between Tirydail and Cross Hands, and was separated underground from the later Emlyn Colliery by the Hendre fault. Griffith Evans was killed there by a powder explosion in 1863. Perry Williams owned it in 1869; by 1896 it was in the hands of the French Anthracite Co. Ltd of Swansea and employed over 300 men. A drift known as Caerbryn No. 2 was opened in 1908, and by 1918 it employed 133 men while 199 worked in the pit and 93 on the surface. The concern was by then the Caerbryn Colliery Co. Ltd, whose chairman, Lieutenant-Colonel W. N. Jones of Dyffryn, Ammanford, was in March 1919 appointed chairman of the Swansea board of the coal-owners' association: he also chaired the Rhos, Carway and Gwendraeth Valley colliery companies and had sat on Carmarthenshire County Council for thirty years. Petty theft from the colliery, of a sack of coal from the crusher by a lampman and of timber by a Penygroes workman, occupied Ammanford police court in 1918. By 1923 the owner was the Caerbryn Anthracite Colliery Co. Ltd, registered at Caerbryn, Llandebie, with Jones and J. C. Napier of Swansea as directors and H. Morgan as manager; the old pit had ceased production, and the coal came from the No. 2 Slant, working the Rock, Green and Yard seams, and the New or No. 3 Slant in the Pumpquart and Stanllyd. The directory gives 158 underground and 49 on the surface at No. 2 and 66 and 13 at No. 3, where Welsh Coal Mines gives 69 and 160 for the same year. In 1926 the mine became part of the Amalgamated Anthracite combine, and the South Wales Miners' Federation had a lodge there. It closed in the 1930s. The national mine-plans catalogue holds a further Caerbryn abandonment plan, for a seam named Wenallt, dated 31 March 1960, which may record a later small working on the take.

Geology

Caerbryn worked the anthracite seams of the Amman valley, the eastern part of the Gwendraeth-Amman anthracite district of the South Wales coalfield, where the coal lies in steeply worked sedimentary beds. The seams named at the mine, the Rock, Green, Stanllyd and Pumpquart, carry local names: the abandonment plans equate the Rock with the Four Feet, the Little Yard with the Upper Six Feet, the Green or Upper Pumpquart with the Lower Six Feet, the Stanllyd with the Upper Nine Feet, the Middle Pumpquart or Gras Uchaf with the Middle Nine Feet, the Triquart with the Lower Nine Feet and the Charcoal with the Bute. The take was bounded underground from Emlyn Colliery by the Hendre fault.

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

Workings

An old shaft, the 'pit', with an upcast and intake, and from 1908 slants driven into the seams from the surface: the No. 2 Slant and the New or No. 3 Slant carried all the output by 1923, the pit having stopped. The abandonment plans record the upcast, intake and slants from the old pit to the Stanllyd, and a Duffryn drift and slant with unnamed pits in the Pumpquart, Triquart and Charcoal seams. Coal went out on the Tirydail to Cross Hands incline.

Closure

Closed in the 1930s after passing into the Amalgamated Anthracite combine in 1926; no account of the closure itself has been found. A Wenallt seam abandonment plan dated 31 March 1960 suggests a later small working on the take.

What remains

No account of what remains at the site has been located in this pass.

Nearby mines

• Emlyn Colliery — 1.0 km NW
• Wernos Colliery — 3.0 km E
• Ammanford Colliery — 3.3 km E
• Cross Hands Colliery — 3.6 km W
• Betws Colliery — 3.9 km E

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was sunk around the 1850s on the incline rail track between Tirydail and Cross Hands. ¹
• Caerbryn was separated underground from Emlyn Colliery by the Hendre fault. ¹
• The seams worked were the Rock, Green, Stanllyd and Pumpquart; the abandonment plans give their South Wales equivalents from the Four Feet to the Bute. ^1,2
• Griffith Evans was killed in the mine by a powder explosion in 1863. ¹
• Perry Williams owned the colliery in 1869; by 1896 the French Anthracite Co. Ltd held it and employed over 300 men. ¹
• Caerbryn No. 2 drift opened in 1908 and by 1918 employed 133 men, with 199 in the pit and 93 on the surface. ¹
• In March 1919 the chairman of the Caerbryn Colliery Co. Ltd, Lieutenant-Colonel W. N. Jones of Dyffryn, Ammanford, was appointed chairman of the Swansea board of the coal-owners' association. ^3,4
• In 1923 the Caerbryn Anthracite Colliery Co. Ltd, registered at Caerbryn, Llandebie, with directors W. N. Jones and J. C. Napier, worked the No. 2 Slant with 158 underground and 49 on the surface and No. 3 with 66 and 13, under the manager H. Morgan. ⁵
• Welsh Coal Mines gives 69 men at the No. 2 Slant, working the Rock, Green and Yard, and 160 at the New (No. 3) Slant in the Pumpquart and Stanllyd in 1923, with the pit having ceased production. (disputed) ^1,5
• The mine became part of the Amalgamated Anthracite combine in 1926, and the South Wales Miners' Federation had a lodge there. ¹
• The colliery closed in the 1930s. ¹
• The mine-plans catalogue holds a Caerbryn abandonment plan for a Wenallt seam dated 31 March 1960. (uncertain) ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Caerbryn Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Caerbryn: upcast, intake and slants, old pit to Stanllyd, abandonment plan (mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (primary) Ammanford news: Mr W. N. Jones appointed chairman of the Swansea board of the Coalowners' Association (Amman Valley Chronicle, 27 March 1919) — The Amman Valley Chronicle and East Carmarthen News, via Welsh Newspapers Online
4. (primary) Captains of Industry: West Wales coalowners' chairman (Cambria Daily Leader, 27 March 1919) — The Cambria Daily Leader, via Welsh Newspapers Online
5. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum: Caerbryn Anthracite Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) Caerbryn: Wenallt abandonment plan, 31 March 1960 (mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026