Coegnant Colliery

Overview

Coegnant Colliery was a steam-coal pit at Nantyffyllon, in the Llynfi valley north of Maesteg, sunk in 1882 and worked continuously until 1981. For most of its life it belonged to North's Navigation Collieries, the company that dominated the valley, and at its peak it employed well over 1,500 men in two shafts. It survived nationalisation, a major reconstruction in 1960 and the closure of most of its neighbours before the failure of its last coalface brought it down. The site is now a community woodland.

History

The Llynfi Coal and Iron Company began sinking Coegnant in 1882 to reach the Six Feet seam at 400 yards. Two shafts were sunk, North and South, with the North shaft used for winding. North's Navigation Collieries took the colliery over in 1889 and held it until nationalisation. The Inspector of Mines lists record 747 men in 1894 and 569 in 1896, rising to 901 by 1900. By 1905 the two pits were returned separately, with 1,193 men at the North Pit and 370 at the South, and the colliery was raising steam coal throughout. Accounts of the workforce on the eve of the First World War disagree: the Lists of Mines give 1,592 men in 1915, while a secondary account puts it at 1,900. A 1923 list records 2,040 men producing coal and ironstone from the Six Feet, Seven Feet and Upper and Lower New seams, and 1,662 were employed in 1933. Three men were killed in an underground accident in 1931. Employment had fallen to 1,119 by 1940 and to 722 in 1945. At nationalisation in 1947 the colliery passed to the National Coal Board's South Western Division and raised 130,000 tons of coking, household and steam coal.

Geology

Coegnant worked the Middle and Lower Coal Measures of the South Wales Coalfield, where the coal occurs as a stacked series of bedded seams separated by mudstones and sandstones and named individually rather than numbered. The seams are relatively thin and closely spaced, so a colliery of this kind moved between named seams over its life rather than following a single horizon, and the Llynfi valley pits were sunk deep enough to reach several in turn. The Yard seam worked at the end was only about 87 cm thick in the area of the last face.

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

Workings

The colliery worked the ordinary seams of the South Wales steam-coal series, among them the Six Feet, Seven Feet, Two Feet Nine, New Seam, Upper Nine Feet, Bute and Yard. A reconstruction in 1960 deepened one of the two shafts by a further 230 yards to reach lower coal. During the 1970s a workforce of 610 men produced 163,000 tons a year from the Upper Nine Feet and Bute seams. A surface feature remarked on by photographers was the headframe, which was encased in concrete rather than left as open steel or timber lattice. In its final years the colliery worked the Yard seam on two faces, Y1 and Y2.

Closure

The Y2 face in the Yard seam failed, and with it the colliery's remaining reserves at a workable thickness. Coegnant closed in 1981 after ninety-nine years, and most of the men were transferred to St John's Colliery further down the valley, which itself lasted only until 1985. The headframe was demolished shortly afterwards and collapsed onto the winding house as it came down.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery buildings survives. The site of the colliery and the adjoining Maesteg Washery is now the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland, a community woodland created by Natural Resources Wales with Welsh Government and private funding, opened in the mid-2010s. A colliery dram recovered from the hillside above the pit by people from Nantyffyllon stands beside the A4063 at the Maesteg boundary, with a plaque recording where it was found.

No colliery structures remain; the site is planted community woodland.

Redevelopment

Reclaimed and planted as the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland by Natural Resources Wales.

Related mines

• Caerau 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.
• Park Slip Colliery — Both were owned by North's Navigation Collieries, which held Park Slip from 1878 and Coegnant from 1889.

Nearby mines

• Caerau Colliery — 1.4 km NE
• Ffaldau Colliery — 4.9 km E
• Lluest Colliery — 5.7 km SE
• Ynisdavid Colliery — 6.7 km W, Neath Port Talbot
• Glyncorrwg Colliery — 7.2 km NE, 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.

• Sinking began in 1882 under the Llynfi Coal and Iron Company, to work the Six Feet seam at a depth of 400 yards, with two shafts named North and South. ¹
• The Lists of Mines record 1,592 people employed in 1915 (1,422 below ground, 170 at the surface). (disputed) ²
• A secondary account states that manpower had risen to 1,900 by the outbreak of the First World War. (disputed) ¹
• A reconstruction in 1960 deepened one of the two shafts by a further 230 yards. ¹
• During the 1970s a workforce of 610 men produced 163,000 tons a year from the Upper Nine Feet and Bute seams. ¹
• The site of the former colliery and the Maesteg Washery is now the Spirit of Llynfi Woodland, a community woodland created by Natural Resources Wales. ³
• The colliery's headframe was encased in concrete, described by one local photographic account as an almost unique feature among Welsh collieries. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coegnant Colliery, Nantyffyllon — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Coegnant Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Ceidwad y Pyllau Glo / Keeper of the Collieries — Natural Resources Wales
4. (observational) The Llynfi Valley Collieries — Digging up the Past
5. (observational) Coal dram alongside the Nantyffyllon boundary — Geograph

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026