Cawdor Colliery

Overview

An anthracite slant into the Red Vein on Mynydd y Betws above Glanamman and Garnant, worked at intervals from the 1830s. Reopened in 1871 and again in 1896, it grew under the North Amman Collieries to about 500 men in the 1920s, passed to Amalgamated Anthracite and abandoned the Red Vein in 1941.

History

A Cawdor Colliery on Mynydd y Betws was already working the Red Vein in the 1830s, and in 1862 Cawdor was one of five Pontardawe district collieries to sign the anthracite sliding scale. The slant known to the mines lists was opened into the Red Vein near its outcrop, where the seam was about 48 inches thick, by Morgan and Thompson in 1871. It stopped in 1874; the Cawdor Coal Company went bankrupt, and Charles Norton worked it under the same name in the 1880s. In 1893 the Cawdor Colliery Company was working the Red Vein by pillar and stall with naked lights and furnace ventilation; the mine was abandoned in 1894. In 1896 a new opening, also called North Amman, was worked by David Jones and Sons of Garnant with 40 men. In 1905 it was sold to Augustus Trapnell and Company, trading as the Cawdor and Garnant Collieries, which also owned Garnant Colliery; in 1908 Cawdor employed 194 men underground and 46 at the surface. After the Garnant Anthracite Collieries (1909-12) came the North Amman Collieries, under whose manager John Powell the workforce rose from 200 in 1913 to 478 in 1923. On 6 June 1918 John Jones, 63, a deacon of Tabernacle chapel, was killed by a fall of roof while working with his son. North Amman passed to Cleeves Western Valleys Anthracite and then to Amalgamated Anthracite, which recorded 499 men in 1930 although the Colliery Guardian reported it had been closed for the previous three years. It had its own coal preparation plant by 1934, was idle from 1935, and was never worked by the National Coal Board; the Red Vein was abandoned in 1941.

Geology

Worked the Red Vein anthracite seam, about 48 inches thick near its outcrop on Mynydd y Betws.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A slant driven into the Red Vein near its outcrop, worked by pillar and stall with naked lights and a ventilating furnace in 1893. Old maps show an air shaft near Pen-y-waun and a Cawdor Colliery tramway running down the mountain to the railway at Glanamman.

Closure

Earlier workings stopped in 1874 and were abandoned in 1894. The 1896 working was idle by 1935 and abandoned the Red Vein in 1941; no reason is given, and it was not worked by the NCB. Mines lists nonetheless give manpower figures into the 1940s and for 1950, which have not been reconciled with the abandonment.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Garnant Colliery — Both owned by the Cawdor and Garnant Collieries company from 1905; a local history suggests Garnant was at one time called 'New Cawdor'.

Nearby mines

• Gellyceidrim Colliery — 1.7 km N
• Glanamman Colliery — 1.7 km NW
• Garnant Colliery — 1.8 km NE
• Glynmoch Colliery — 2.0 km NW
• Cwmgorse Colliery — 3.1 km E, Neath Port Talbot

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 slant was opened into the Red Vein, about 48 inches thick, in 1871 by Morgan and Thompson; it stopped in 1874 and was abandoned in 1894. ¹
• Cawdor Colliery on Mynydd y Betws worked the Red Vein in the 1830s, and in 1862 was one of five Pontardawe district collieries to sign the anthracite sliding scale. ²
• Old maps show Cawdor Colliery at SN 675 114, with an air shaft near Pen-y-waun and a tramway down to Glanamman; the compiler calls it 'Old Cawdor' and thinks Garnant Colliery was at some point called 'New Cawdor'. (uncertain) ²
• NMRS gives the original slant at 076115 and the 1896 opening, also called North Amman, at 092115; neither is a valid six-figure reference as printed. (uncertain) ¹
• 1896 David Jones & Sons of Garnant (28 underground, 12 surface); 1905 Augustus Trapnell & Co. trading as Cawdor and Garnant Collieries Ltd; 1909-12 Garnant Anthracite Collieries; 1913-23 North Amman Collieries; then Cleeves Western Valleys Anthracite and Amalgamated Anthracite. ¹
• 1908: 194 underground and 46 surface; 1918: 356 underground and 82 surface under John Powell; 1923: North Amman Collieries, 407 underground and 81 surface (Red Vein). ²
• 1923: 401 underground and 77 surface; 1930: 499 men, although the Colliery Guardian of April 1930 said it had been closed for three years. (disputed) ¹
• A 1938 list records Cawdor (Slant) as idle since 1935. ²
• Cawdor was not worked by the NCB and abandoned the Red Vein in 1941. ¹
• On 6 June 1918 John Jones, 63, collier, was killed at Cawdor Colliery, Garnant, by a 4-cwt stone after a shot blew a dram off the rails. ³
• A Mining Remediation Authority plan (SWR572) groups 'Old Cawdor' with Blaengrenig, Twllgwyn and Cwmgorse workings in the Red seam, supporting the Blaengrenig and Mynydd y Betws location for the old Cawdor site. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cawdor Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society (Ray Lawrence)
2. (secondary) Coal mining in Gwauncaegurwen and Cwmgors and local area (Glyn-Moch Colliery; Ystrad, Glanaman) — Gareth Hicks, GENUKI
3. (secondary) 1918 (Welsh mining fatalities by date) — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: CWMGORSE, BLAENGRENIG NOS 1 & 2, TWLLGWYN, OLD CAWDOR ... — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

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