Cwmnantmoel Colliery

Overview

A small slant near Brynamman in the upper Amman Valley, worked by a local company through the 1920s, the war years and into the National Coal Board era, near whose old workings a missing man's skeleton was found in 1947.

History

Cwmnantmoel was a small slant in the upper Amman Valley near Brynamman. Its older workings near the later drift were last worked in 1894. The Cwmnantmoel Colliery Company was working the old slant by 1923, when it employed four men underground and one at the surface; it abandoned the Middle seam in October 1924 but employed 27 men in 1928. The Cwmnantmoel Colliery Company (1928) Limited was based at Wernbwll, Tairgwaith, Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, with J. Lewis, I. J. Thomas and W. Thomas as directors. On 6 March 1929 Daniel Williams, a 42-year-old collier, was killed when a stone gave way as he prepared a place for a prop. In 1930 the slant worked the Lower seam with five men underground and two at the surface under I. J. Thomas, and the Lower and Middle veins were abandoned that year. It reappears in the war years, with 15 men in 1940, 6 in 1942 and 12 in 1944, and in 1947 a small level was being worked under licence from the National Coal Board by the same company. In 1947 Isaac Thomas, one of the owners, his son David and David Davies, exploring the disused workings near the drift with a view to developing them, crawled to their furthest point and found a skeleton about 50 yards from the surface. The inquest took it to be William Rees, a speculator in quarries and collieries who had disappeared in 1933.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures of the upper Amman Valley: the Middle and Lower veins.

Workings

An old slant (drift) worked to 1930, with older disused workings nearby last worked in 1894, and a small licensed level in 1947.

Closure

The Middle seam was abandoned in October 1924 and the Lower and Middle veins in 1930; the colliery worked again in the 1940s and a small level was licensed from the National Coal Board in 1947.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1923 the Cwmnantmoel slant was worked by the Cwmnantmoel Colliery Company with four men underground and one at the surface. ¹
• The Middle seam was abandoned in October 1924, and the Lower and Middle veins in 1930. ^1,2
• On 6 March 1929 Daniel Williams, a 42-year-old collier, was killed when a stone gave way as he prepared a place for a prop. ^1,3
• In 1947 a small level was worked under licence from the National Coal Board by the Cwmnantmoel Colliery Company. ¹
• In 1947 one of the owners, exploring the disused workings near Cwmnantmoel Drift with a view to development, found a skeleton about 50 yards from the surface, taken at the inquest to be William Rees, missing since 1933; the workings had last been worked in 1894. ⁴

Sources

1. (secondary) Cwmnantmoel Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) BGS mine plans: Cwmnantmoel, Lower and Middle Vein, abandoned 1930 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: fatalities 1929 — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (secondary) 1947 (Welsh mining fatalities by date) — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026