Cwmnantllwyd Colliery

Overview

A long-lived Pontardawe level opened by the Primrose Coal Company around 1865, still working eighty years later under a company of local directors.

History

Cwmnantllwyd Colliery was opened around 1865 by the Primrose Coal Company, ventilated from 1881 by a Schiele-type fan and managed by D. Davies from 1884. By 1896/7 it was owned by the South Wales Primrose Coal Company, employing 17 men under manager John G. Evans, growing to 61 men by 1907 and 81 men by 1909 under manager Thomas Lewis. A separate No.2 Drift was worked by David B. Hawkins of Pontardawe from 1911, and by 1913, known as Old Cwmnantllwyd, the mine employed 15 men under manager Lewis G. Evans. In May 1915 the colliery passed into the hands of the newly registered Duffryn Tawe Collieries Limited — a £55,000 company formed to carry on business as colliery and quarry proprietors and patent fuel manufacturers, one of whose founding subscribers, O. Jones of Cwmnantllwyd Farm, Pontardawe, was himself a colliery fireman. The company was not a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association and still owned the mine in 1921. By 1935 it had passed to the Cwm Nant Llwyd Colliery Company, directed by William John Lewis, William John Hopkins and W. Jenkins from offices at Gellynedd, Pontardawe, employing 15 men and producing 4,000 tons of house coal a year from the Wernfraith seam; by 1940 this had grown to 19 men and 5,000 tons. The mine abandoned its Wernffraith (Primrose) seam workings in 1924 and its Pretoria seam workings in 1928, and consisted of a main drift and shaft plus at least two further air pits.

Related mines

• Cwmceiros Colliery — Adjacent Pontardawe-area levels sharing the Duffryn Tawe Collieries Limited operator; NMRS's own text wonders if they are the same site, but a local forum's account of the district treats them as separate workings in different seams.
• Gwyn's Colliery — Both worked by the South Wales Primrose Coal Company.
• Primrose Colliery — Both associated with the Primrose Coal Company/South Wales Primrose Coal Company lineage.

Nearby mines

• Graigola Colliery — 0.3 km W
• Boundary Level — 0.4 km NE
• Cwmceiros Colliery — 0.4 km NE
• Gwyn's Colliery — 0.8 km N
• Primrose Colliery — 1.7 km SE

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.

• Opened around 1865 by the Primrose Coal Company, the mine grew under the South Wales Primrose Coal Company from 17 men (1896/7) to 81 men (1909), then passed through Duffryn Tawe Collieries Limited (from 1915) to the Cwm Nant Llwyd Colliery Company by 1935, still working 19 men and producing 5,000 tons of coal a year in 1940. ¹
• Llais Llafur's contemporary report of Duffryn Tawe Collieries Limited's registration in May 1915 — a £55,000 company to trade as colliery and quarry proprietors and patent fuel manufacturers — names O. Jones of Cwmnantllwyd Farm, Pontardawe, a colliery fireman, among its founding subscribers, directly tying the new company to this mine's own locality. ²
• By 1935 the mine was owned by the Cwm Nant Llwyd Colliery Company, directed by William John Lewis, William John Hopkins and W. Jenkins from offices at Gellynedd, Pontardawe, producing 4,000 tons of house coal a year from the Wernfraith seam. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Small collieries in the Pontardawe area — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) New Colliery Company (Dyffryn Tawe Collieries, Ltd.) — Llais Llafur, 15 May 1915

Record created: 15 September 2026 · Last researched: 15 September 2026