Cilfrew Colliery

Overview

A level in the lower Dulais valley, opened by the Cilfrew Colliery Company beside the Cilfrew tinplate works, whose old pit closed in 1902 and whose new level of 1913 employed up to 270 men. It was sold for £1,500 in 1929 to a successor company that went into voluntary liquidation in May 1931.

History

The Cilfrew Colliery Company opened its colliery near the Cilfrew tinplate works, in the lower Dulais valley north of Neath. The company stayed outside the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association, and the colliery does not appear in the list of 1878. Its first working, the No. 1 or Old, is recorded as closed in 1902. In 1918 the company also owned Rhydding Colliery, near Neath, which was then listed as abandoned.

A new Cilfrew level was opened in 1913 to work the Glyngwilym and Hughes seams. In 1918 it employed 126 men underground and 25 on the surface under the manager T. R. Davies, and the workforce rose to 270 by 1925. The new mine is said to have closed in 1927, when the Glyngwilym seam was abandoned, and it was sold for £1,500 to the Cilfrew Colliery Company (1929) Ltd, owned by J. E. Jones, the old company's chairman.

The new company worked the Hughes vein with about 110 men, raising 60,000 tons of house and manufacturing coal in 1930, but on 22 May 1931 its members resolved that it could not continue by reason of its liabilities and put it into voluntary liquidation. The Hughes and Wenallt seams were abandoned that year. Remains of the colliery buildings and the incline to the level were photographed by Museum Wales staff.

Geology

The Glyngwilym, Hughes and Wenallt seams of the South Wales Coalfield.

Workings

The No. 1 or Old working, closed in 1902, and a new level opened in 1913, reached by an incline.

Closure

The Glyngwilym seam was abandoned in 1927 and the Hughes and Wenallt in 1931, when the Cilfrew Colliery Company (1929) Ltd went into voluntary liquidation.

What remains

Remains of colliery buildings and the incline to the level.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• The Cilfrew Colliery Company opened the colliery near the Cilfrew Tin Works; it did not join the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association. ^1,2
• The No. 1 or Old working is recorded as closed in 1902. ^1,2
• A new Cilfrew level was opened in 1913, working the Glyngwilym and Hughes seams. ¹
• In 1918 the colliery employed 126 men underground and 25 on the surface, with T. R. Davies as manager. ^1,2
• The colliery was sold for £1,500 to the Cilfrew Colliery Company (1929) Limited, owned by J. E. Jones, chairman of the old company. ^1,2
• In 1930 the colliery employed 109 men and raised 60,000 tons. ²
• On 22 May 1931 the Cilfrew Colliery Co. (1929) Ltd resolved to wind up voluntarily because it could not continue by reason of its liabilities. ¹
• The Glyngwilym seam was abandoned in 1927 and the Hughes and Wenallt seams in 1931. ^1,2
• Remains of buildings at Cilfrew Colliery and the incline to the level were photographed by National Museum of Wales staff. ³
• Plans survive of Cilfrew workings abandoned in an unnamed seam in 1902, in the Glyngwilym in 1927 and in the Wenallt (Hughes) in 1931. ^4,5,6

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cilfrew Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Cilfrew Colliery, Crynant, Dulais Valley — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (observational) Cilfrew Colliery, slide (2017.6/595) — Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
4. (primary) CILFREW, Glyngwilym: abandonment plan catalogue entry (1927) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) CILFREW, Wenallt (Hughes): abandonment plan catalogue entry (1931) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (primary) CILFREW, seam unnamed: abandonment plan catalogue entry (1902) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026