Cwrt Herbert Colliery

Overview

A steam-coal colliery just east of Neath Abbey, near workings the Parsons family began in 1793, whose village of Cwrt Herbert grew up around it. Its No. 1 shaft was sunk in 1870 to the Graigola seam at 154 yards through the Victoria seam. Under the Main Colliery Company it employed around three hundred men, and five colliers died in 1906 when gas reached a gob fire. It closed in January 1929.

History

Cwrt Herbert, or Court Herbert, lay a little east of Neath Abbey near earlier workings begun by Richard Parsons in 1793, and his son John Parsons owned the colliery in 1845. The Dynevor Coal Company held it by 1869. The No. 1 shaft, the upcast, was sunk in 1870, elliptical and 19 feet by 12, to the Graigola seam at 154 yards, passing through the Victoria seam at 125; a second shaft, 14 feet in diameter, went to 150 yards, and coal from both seams was wound from the lower landing in the Graigola. By 1880 the owners were the Dynevor Duffryn Colliery Company, and by 1894 the Main Colliery Company, which also worked Duffryn Main, Brithdir and other Neath pits under the manager Richard Thomas; Cwrt Herbert employed 246 that year and 283 in 1896, raising steam and manufacturing coal. On 1 June 1906 an accumulation of gas reached a gob fire, to which the colliery was prone, and exploded, killing five colliers (see Disasters, below). Employment reached 341 in 1910 and was 315 in 1918, and in 1923 the pit worked the Graigola and Victoria seams. It closed in January 1929.

Geology

Worked the Graigola seam and the Victoria seam above it, 125 yards down, in the western South Wales Coalfield; the Victoria was 4 feet 9 inches thick in 1888, worked by pillar and stall, and prone to gob fires.

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

Workings

Two shafts: No. 1, the upcast, elliptical, 19 by 12 feet and 154 yards deep to the Graigola; a second, 14 feet in diameter and 150 yards deep. Coal from both seams was wound from the Graigola landing.

Closure

The colliery closed in January 1929; the sources give no reason.

What remains

The village of Cwrt Herbert, which grew up to serve the colliery, remains. Nothing is recorded of surviving colliery remains.

Related mines

• Dyffryn Main Colliery — Both owned by the Main Colliery Company Ltd of Neath in the 1890s, under the same manager, Richard Thomas.
• New Wernddu Colliery — Both owned by the Main Colliery Company, and both abandoned the Graigola and Victoria seams in January 1929.
• Tir Edmund Colliery — Both controlled by the Dynevor Coal Company in 1882 and owned by the Main Colliery Company, under the same manager, in 1894.

Disasters & major incidents

• Cwrt Herbert Colliery roof fall, 1892
  20 July 1892 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  A fall of roof killed two colliers at the start of the night shift at Cwrt Herbert Colliery, Neath, on 20 July 1892.

  Two colliers, Shaddick, of Pentreffynnon, Skewen, and William Thomas, of Neath, had just begun the seven o'clock night shift at Cwrt Herbert on Wednesday 20 July 1892 when a 'roll' of the roof came down on them. Shaddick was killed at once. Thomas was got out and taken home at about midnight, and died soon after. Both were married, Shaddick with five children and Thomas with three.

• Cwrt Herbert Colliery explosion, 1906
  1 June 1906 · Explosion · 5 fatalities
  At ten to four on the afternoon of Friday 1 June 1906 gas reached a gob fire in the Four Feet seam at Cwrt Herbert Colliery, near Neath Abbey, and exploded in two flashes near the deepest part of a slant running 800 yards from the pit bottom. Four colliers were seriously injured and five fatally burned, among them two fathers and their sons, dying over the following eight days. The fire could not be controlled, and the workings were flooded.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Welsh Coal Mines gives 269 employed in 1923; the Durham Mining Museum returns 332. (disputed) ^1,2

Recorded claims

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

• Cwrt Herbert lay near workings begun by Richard Parsons in 1793, and John Parsons owned the colliery in 1845. ^1,2
• No. 1 shaft was sunk in 1870, elliptical 19 by 12 feet, to the Graigola seam at 154 yards through the Victoria at 125; the second shaft was 14 feet in diameter and 150 yards deep. ¹
• In 1894 the Main Colliery Co. Ltd returned Court Herbert with 216 underground and 30 at the surface under Richard Thomas, alongside Duffryn Main, Brithdir and Tir Edmund. ^2,3
• On 1 June 1906 gas reached a gob fire and exploded, killing Hopkin Jenkins, 51, John Jenkins, 19, Elias Jones, 62, Isaiah Jones, 31, and William Jones, 37. ^1,2
• Welsh Coal Mines gives 269 employed in 1923; the Durham Mining Museum returns 332. (disputed) ^1,2
• The colliery closed in January 1929. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cwrt Herbert Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Court Herbert Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Main Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 13 September 2026 · Last researched: 14 September 2026