Cwmgwrach Colliery

Location	Cwmgwrach, Vale of Neath, Neath Port Talbot — 51.7194, -3.6244 (approximate)
Commodities	Anthracite, Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	Early 1800s; Empire colliery 1898–c. 1960
Maximum depth	No shaft depth applies to the levels and drifts that made up the colliery, and no figure for the Empire pit has been located.
Operators	Empire Collieries Ltd (1898–?), Cwmgwrach and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd (1915–1925), C. and E. Collieries Ltd (1930–1947), National Coal Board (1947–?)

Overview

Cwmgwrach is one of the older mining grounds of the Vale of Neath: coal was being worked here from the early 1800s, and an explosion in 1820 killed five people, two of them girls aged six and twelve. The colliery proper began in 1898 when Empire Collieries Ltd reopened the Cwmgwrach Nos. 1 and 2 levels, and the Caerbryn and Empire Collieries Co. sank the Empire colliery into the old level in 1903. Two more drifts followed in 1924 and 1927 and the workforce passed a thousand. Under the National Coal Board it raised 150,000 tons of anthracite in 1947.

A stony track climbing through bare winter woodland towards the old coal levels on the hillside above Cwmgwrach in the Vale of Neath — Track to the old coal levels above Cwmgwrach Alan Hughes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

History

There has been mining at Cwmgwrach since the early 1800s, including a mine owned by E. W. Protheroe in 1815. An explosion on 9 June 1820 killed five people, among them two girls — Elizabeth Pendry, aged six, and Annie Tonks, aged twelve (see Disasters, below). A list of 1869 records the Cwmgwrach level under N. E. V. Vaughan. The modern colliery dates from 1898, when Empire Collieries Ltd started the Empire Colliery by reopening the Cwmgwrach Nos. 1 and 2 levels. The Caerbryn and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd sank the Empire colliery into the old Cwmgwrach level in 1903, and by 1908 it employed 102 people; the workforce was 360 by 1918. Two further drifts, Cwmgwrach 2 and 3, were opened in 1924 and 1927, and the workforce grew quickly to over a thousand. The Cwmgwrach and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd held the colliery from 1915 to 1925 and C. and E. Collieries Ltd from 1930 to 1946. The Lists of Mines return 500 people in 1923 and 930 in 1933, 1937, 1940 and 1947, when the colliery raised 150,000 tons of anthracite for the National Coal Board; 766 were working in 1945.

Geology

Cwmgwrach worked the anthracite of the Vale of Neath, on the northern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield. The seams named for the workings on this ground are the Six Feet, Nine Feet, Upper Four Feet and Bluers, and anthracite, steam and manufacturing coals were all raised from them.

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

Workings

Levels and drifts rather than deep shafts: the Cwmgwrach Nos. 1 and 2 levels reopened in 1898, the Empire colliery sunk into the old level in 1903, and the Cwmgwrach 2 and 3 drifts opened in 1924 and 1927. The Empire pit later served as the upcast ventilation shaft for Blaengwrach.

Closure

The National Coal Board is recorded as operating the mine from 1947 to about 1960. The Board began work during the 1950s on a new drift nearby, which opened in 1962 as the Blaengwrach mine and worked the Six Feet seam; that mine closed in 1983. A coal tip at Cwmgwrach has since needed safety works to reduce the risk of landslip.

What remains

The colliery is gone and its ground carries forestry tracks and footpaths to the old coal levels above the village. The colliery tip has required safety works to reduce the risk of landslip.

Nearby mines

Rhigos Colliery — 3.2 km N
Glyncorrwg Colliery — 3.7 km S
Glenrhondda Colliery — 4.1 km SE, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Dunraven Colliery — 4.3 km SE, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Fernhill Colliery — 4.4 km SE, Rhondda Cynon Taf

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.

There has been mining activity at Cwmgwrach since the early 1800s, including a mine owned by E. W. Protheroe in 1815, and a list of 1869 records the Cwmgwrach level under N. E. V. Vaughan. ¹
An explosion on 9 June 1820 killed five people, of whom two were girls: Elizabeth Pendry, aged six, and Annie Tonks, aged twelve. ¹
In 1898 Empire Collieries Ltd started the Empire Colliery by reopening the Cwmgwrach Nos. 1 and 2 levels, and the Caerbryn and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd sank the Empire colliery into the old Cwmgwrach level in 1903. ¹
Two more drifts, Cwmgwrach 2 and 3, were opened in 1924 and 1927 and the workforce quickly grew to over a thousand; 766 were working in 1945. ¹
The Lists of Mines return 500 people in 1923 and 930 in 1933, 1937, 1940 and 1947, when the colliery raised 150,000 tons of anthracite. ²
The colliery passed through Empire Collieries Ltd, the Caerbryn and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd, the Cwmgwrach and Empire Collieries Co. Ltd and C. and E. Collieries Ltd to the National Coal Board in 1947. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Blaengwrach, Cwmgwrach and Empire collieries — Welsh Coal Mines (reference)

The three connected workings on one page: the early nineteenth-century mining and the 1820 explosion, the 1898 reopening of the levels, the 1903 Empire sinking, the later drifts, and the Blaengwrach mine that followed in 1962.

View source

Durham Mining Museum: Cwmgwrach Colliery (reference)

Owners, output and employment for each Lists of Mines year, with the names and circumstances of seven people killed at the colliery.

View source

Sources

(primary) Blaengwrach, Cwmgwrach and Empire collieries — Welsh Coal Mines, with notes by Tony Cooke
(primary) Durham Mining Museum: Cwmgwrach Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Lists of Mines
(observational) Track to the old coal levels above Cwmgwrach (photographed 2021) — Geograph Britain and Ireland, Alan Hughes

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