Crimea Colliery

Overview

A small Ystalyfera colliery in the Swansea Valley, also called the Cyfing pit, worked only from 1854 to 1862 by Thomas Walters of Swansea. An explosion in August 1858 killed six men, three from one family. Its stone pumping and winding engine houses, chimney and tramroad to the Swansea Canal survive as a scheduled monument.

History

Crimea Colliery, also known as the Cyfing pit, lay at Ystalyfera in the upper Swansea Valley, west of the main valley road, and was named in the year of the Crimean War. It worked for only eight years, from 1854 to 1862, for Thomas Walters of Swansea, with Rees Thomas as manager. It had a stone-built steam pumping engine house, a winding engine house and a chimney, and a short tramroad ran down to a tipping stage and quay on the Swansea Canal, 200 metres south of what became the canal's dry dock at Lock 17.

The pit had raised little coal when, in 1858, blowers of gas were met; an explosion about four months earlier had burned a man's son. The shaft was divided by a brick brattice four and a half inches thick into a downcast and an upcast two and a half by ten and a half feet, with a furnace at the top, and the air was coursed through five stalls with few doors. In August 1858 the twelve men in the pit sat smoking by naked lights near the shaft bottom before starting work, and gas from the unventilated western workings exploded, killing six, among them the overman, David Jones, and his two young sons (see Disasters, below). The inspectors found the working 'unsafe, defective and dangerous', and the owner and agent were fined.

The colliery closed in 1862 and the site has been abandoned since. Among regenerating woodland the substantial ruins of the pumping house, winding house and chimney survive, with the embankment of the tramroad and a complete mid-nineteenth-century colliery surface layout; the colliery and its canal quay are a scheduled monument.

Geology

Gassy coal of the upper Swansea Valley; blowers of gas were met in the workings.

Workings

A single shaft divided by a brick brattice into downcast and upcast, ventilated by a furnace at the top; a western district with a slope and five stalls; steam pumping and winding engines; a tramroad to a quay on the Swansea Canal.

Closure

Worked from 1854 to 1862, then abandoned.

What remains

Substantial ruins of the stone pumping engine house, winding engine house and chimney stand among woodland west of the main Swansea Valley road, with the tramroad embankment; a scheduled monument.

Pumping engine house, winding engine house, chimney, tramroad embankment and canal quay.

Redevelopment

None; the site has been abandoned since 1862.

Disasters & major incidents

• Crimea Colliery explosion, 1858
  August 1858 · Explosion · 6 fatalities
  In August 1858 firedamp exploded in the Crimea or Cyfing pit at Ystalyfera, belonging to Thomas Walters of Swansea, as twelve men who had been sitting and smoking by naked lights near the shaft bottom rose to start work. Six were killed, among them the overman, David Jones, and his sons of fourteen and twelve, and three were injured. The inspectors found the western workings unventilated.

Recorded claims

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

• Crimea Colliery worked from 1854 to 1862. ^1,2
• The Cyfing colliery at Ystalyfera, owned by Thomas Walters of Swansea, was also known as the Crimea Pit. ^3,4
• An explosion in August 1858 killed six men. ^3,4,5
• The ruins of its pumping engine house, winding engine house and chimney are substantially intact. ^1,2
• Crimea Colliery and Canal Quay is a scheduled monument (GM453). ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coflein: Crimea Colliery and Canal Quay, Ystalyfera (NPRN 94711) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
2. (secondary) Wikipedia: List of scheduled monuments in Neath Port Talbot — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) NMRS: Cyfing Colliery Explosion, Swansea, 1858 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) The Merthyr Telegraph, 21 August 1858: Explosion of fire damp, six men killed — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) Monmouthshire Merlin, 4 September 1858: The recent colliery explosion at Ystalyfera — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)

Record created: 11 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026