Cwmciwc Colliery

Overview

A small gas-coal colliery at Brynna near Llanharan, opened in 1904 on the coalfield's southern outcrop, where the seams are broken and in places vertical. Worked by the Gas Coal company and then Meiros Collieries, it employed about 200 men at its peak, abandoned the No. 3 Rhondda seam in 1921 and lay idle until the early 1930s.

History

Cwmciwc Colliery lay at Brynna, near Llanharan, close to the southern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield. It was bounded to the north by a thrust beyond which the seams were unworkable, and it met some of the most difficult ground in the coalfield: the seams were badly broken and towards the north sometimes vertical, and those below the Six-Feet were in general unworkable.

It was opened in 1904 by Davies and Company, who employed 19 men in 1907. In 1908, when it had 20 men underground and 4 at the surface, it belonged to the Gas Coal Colliery Company of St Mary Street, Cardiff, with E. H. Thomas as manager by 1909; NMRS records it in 1911 as Andrews and Masters' Gas Coal Company's, with 58 men. On 20 January 1911 the collier James Birtwistle was killed when a stone he threw knocked out a post and brought down the roof of a wide heading. The company had become Meiros Collieries Limited by 1915, and the colliery employed 200 men in 1913-16 under a manager named Hopkins; in 1915 a Brynna collier, paid 2s 3d a yard, sued the Cwmciwc Colliery Company at Bridgend County Court for compensation for a broken collar bone. In December 1916 an inquest heard that George Henry Challenger had been crushed by a fall of roof while making a new sump.

E. McIntyre was manager in 1918, with 65 men underground and 18 at the surface. In July 1918 a clean seam three and a half feet thick was struck. The colliery employed 150 men in 1920, but it abandoned the No. 3 Rhondda seam in March 1921, and from 1923 to 1932 it was listed with nobody employed; a further abandonment plan, of the No. 2 and No. 3 Rhondda and New seams, is dated 1927. Meiros Collieries went into voluntary liquidation in 1932.

Geology

Near the southern outcrop of the coalfield, bounded to the north by a thrust; the seams are badly broken and sometimes vertical, and those below the Six-Feet are in general unworkable. The No. 2 and No. 3 Rhondda seams were worked.

Workings

Worked by stalls and wide headings in the No. 3 Rhondda seam, with the No. 2 Rhondda and a 'New' seam on the 1927 abandonment plan.

Closure

The No. 3 Rhondda seam was abandoned in March 1921; the colliery was listed with no men employed from 1923 to 1932, and a further abandonment plan is dated 1927.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Meiros Colliery — Both worked by Meiros Collieries Limited of Llanharan.
• Werntarw Colliery — Both owned by Meiros Collieries Limited; the 1918 report of the Cwmciwc seam names Werntarw as the company's other colliery.

Recorded claims

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

• Cwmciwc Colliery was opened in 1904. ¹
• The seams are badly broken and sometimes vertical, and those below the Six-Feet seam are in general unworkable. ^2,1
• It employed 200 men in 1913-16. ^2,1
• Meiros Collieries Limited owned the colliery by 1915. ^2,3
• A clean seam three and a half feet thick was struck in July 1918. ³
• The No. 3 Rhondda seam was abandoned in March 1921. ^2,1,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Cwmciwc Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Llanharan Colliery - Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
3. (primary) Glamorgan Gazette, 26 July 1918: Coal winning at Cwmciwc Colliery, Brynna — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: CWM CIWC (No 3 Rhondda, abandoned 1921) — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) 'Llanharan miners' death: inquest at Brynna', The Glamorgan Gazette, 15 December 1916 — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: CWM CIWC (No 2 and No 3 Rhondda and New, abandoned 1927) — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) Glamorgan Gazette, 30 April 1915: Brynna, collier's claim from Cwmciwc Colliery Company — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)
8. (secondary) 1916 fatalities — Welsh Coal Mines

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