Dunraven Colliery

Overview

A Blaencwm colliery in the Rhondda Fawr, opened around 1865 and passing through a confusing succession of owners -- including the Earl of Dunraven himself -- before its renaming to Tydraw Colliery around 1913 and eventual NCB closure in January 1959.

History

Dunraven Colliery was opened in Blaencwm, in the upper Rhondda Fawr, around 1865, although some sources place activity there as early as 1856, and a related colliery interest was already being auctioned as a working concern in September 1858. Its ownership through the 1860s-90s is genuinely tangled, and two detailed but not fully reconcilable accounts survive. One has David Davis and Sons as owner from around 1860 to 1865, Thomas Joseph -- a staunch Baptist from Heolyfelin, Aberdare -- holding the colliery through the mid-1860s to 1880s, the Dunraven United Collieries Co. Ltd appearing in records between 1869 and 1870, Watts and Company taking over in 1872, and the Earl of Dunraven himself recorded as owner in 1895-96. The other, from the Northern Mine Research Society's own account of the site, has Thomas Joseph as sole owner from 1858 until a bankruptcy in 1882 with liabilities of £130,000, the colliery then passing to the South Yorkshire Building Society (1882-91) and to F. R. Crawshay of Swansea, who bought it for £26,000 in January 1891 and was himself bankrupt by September 1893. Neither account has been reconciled against the other here. What both agree on is that Cory Brothers Ltd had acquired the colliery by 1913 at the latest, renaming it Tydraw Colliery -- the name under which it is generally catalogued in mining reference sources today, even though 'Dunraven' remained (and remains) its better-known local name. Employing 806 men in 1913, the renamed Tydraw passed to the National Coal Board on nationalisation in 1947 and closed in January 1959, employing 55 men on the surface and 278 underground at the time -- a full seven years before its Blaencwm neighbour, Glenrhondda Colliery, with which its closure has previously been mistakenly conflated in this record. The Blaencwm sites have since been landscaped, leaving little trace of their industrial past.

Geology

Coal of the South Wales field in the Rhondda; the seams worked are not recorded.

Workings

Nothing is recorded of the colliery's own specific underground workings.

Closure

Closed in January 1959, employing 55 men on the surface and 278 underground at closure -- corrected 2026-09-01 from an earlier, mistaken '1966, alongside Glenrhondda Colliery' claim; Glenrhondda itself closed in 1966, seven years later, and the two Blaencwm collieries' closures had been wrongly conflated in this record.

What remains

The site has been landscaped, leaving little trace of its industrial past.

Related mines

• Glenrhondda Colliery — Neighbouring Blaencwm collieries whose closures were previously mistakenly conflated in this archive -- corrected 2026-09-01; cross-linked so the correction is discoverable from either page.
• Tynybedw Colliery — Both held by Cory Brothers and Co. Ltd in the Rhondda.

Disasters & major incidents

• Dunraven Colliery cage collision, 1918
  10 March 1918 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities
  Two cages collided in the Tydraw Colliery shaft at Treherbert on 10 March 1918, throwing a fireman and an ostler some 150 yards to the bottom.

What's uncertain

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

• Dunraven Colliery's early ownership is not cleanly documented: David Davis and Sons (c.1860-65), Thomas Joseph (mid-1860s-1880s, with a 1866 liquidation), and the Dunraven United Collieries Co. Ltd (1869-70) all appear in records without a clear reconciliation of how these periods relate. (disputed) ¹
• An alternative, detailed account of the colliery's 1858-1893 ownership has Thomas Joseph as sole owner from 1858 until an 1882 bankruptcy (liabilities of £130,000), then the South Yorkshire Building Society (1882-91), then F. R. Crawshay of Swansea (1891, for £26,000, bankrupt by September 1893) -- distinct from, and not reconciled with, this record's other account naming David Davis and Sons, Watts and Company and the Earl of Dunraven across the same broad period. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Dunraven Colliery's early ownership is not cleanly documented: David Davis and Sons (c.1860-65), Thomas Joseph (mid-1860s-1880s, with a 1866 liquidation), and the Dunraven United Collieries Co. Ltd (1869-70) all appear in records without a clear reconciliation of how these periods relate. (disputed) ¹
• The Earl of Dunraven himself is recorded as an owner of the colliery in 1895-96, before Cory Brothers Ltd purchased it in 1913. ²
• Dunraven Colliery was renamed Tydraw Colliery by its owner Cory Brothers Ltd around 1913, and is generally catalogued under the Tydraw name in mining reference sources, though 'Dunraven' remained its better-known local name. ^3,4
• The colliery (by then renamed Tydraw) closed in January 1959, employing 55 men on the surface and 278 underground at the time -- not 1966, which was this record's own closure date for the neighbouring Glenrhondda Colliery, mistakenly attributed here as well in earlier research. ³
• An alternative, detailed account of the colliery's 1858-1893 ownership has Thomas Joseph as sole owner from 1858 until an 1882 bankruptcy (liabilities of £130,000), then the South Yorkshire Building Society (1882-91), then F. R. Crawshay of Swansea (1891, for £26,000, bankrupt by September 1893) -- distinct from, and not reconciled with, this record's other account naming David Davis and Sons, Watts and Company and the Earl of Dunraven across the same broad period. (disputed) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dunraven Colliery, Rhondda Cynon Taf — Mindat
2. (secondary) Blaencwm — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Tydraw Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) List of collieries in the Rhondda Valleys — Wikipedia

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026