Dyffryn Main Colliery

Overview

The Main Colliery Company's pits around Bryncoch, north of Neath, successors to the Bryncoch pit that the Neath Abbey Coal Company sank to an unprecedented 200 yards between 1806 and 1810. Bryncoch flooded out in 1843, and when it was reopened water broke in again in 1859 and drowned twenty-six. The Duffryn Main No. 1 pit followed in 1892 at 450 yards, then Nos. 3 and 4 and 7 and 8, and the group raised over eight million tons between 1897 and 1918 before closing in 1929.

History

Early in the 1800s the owners of the Neath Abbey Ironworks, Quakers who in 1806 had leased the minerals of the Dyffryn estate, formed the Neath Abbey Coal Company. Between 1806 and 1810 it sank the Pwll Mawr and Bryncoch pits, Bryncoch to an unprecedented depth for the time of nearly 200 yards. The pit was dogged by water from the start and was abandoned to flooding in 1843. Fox, Redwood and Co. drained it in 1854 and began production again, but on the morning of 6 April 1859, with eighty men and a number of horses underground, a huge body of water broke into the workings; more than fifty men ran ahead of the flood, the water rose eighty feet up the shaft by the afternoon, and it was five months before the first body was recovered. Twenty-two bodies were brought out and four were never found (see Disasters, below). The Neath Abbey Coal Company held the colliery again by 1869, and Bryncoch stopped producing in the 1870s. By 1880 the Dyffryn Main and Neath Abbey United Collieries Company was working Bryndewi, Cwmdu, Dyffryn Main and West Brithdir; renamed the Dynevor Duffryn Colliery Company, it sank Duffryn Main No. 1 to 450 yards in 1892. By 1894 the Main Colliery Company Ltd owned No. 1, with 319 men under the manager Richard Thomas, alongside Court Herbert, Brithdir, Tir Edmund and Waunceirch; No. 1 employed 389 in 1896. On 4 August 1896 an explosion blamed on a faulty safety lamp killed seven (see Disasters, below). In 1901 the old Bryncoch pit was restarted as Duffryn Main No. 6 in the Wernffraith seam, Nos. 3 and 4 were sunk between 1901 and 1904, and Nos. 7 and 8 were open by 1910. The workforce reached 985 in 1908, and Nos. 1 and 2 alone employed 1,052 in 1909. Between 1897 and 1918 the Main Company's collieries raised more than eight million tons with about two thousand men, but output fell away rapidly in the 1920s and the colliery closed in 1929.

Geology

Worked seams of the western South Wales Coalfield: the Graigola and Victoria seams at No. 1 and No. 7, the Hughes seam at Nos. 3 and 4, and the Wernffraith at No. 6.

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

Workings

A group of numbered pits: the old Bryncoch pit (1806-10, nearly 200 yards; restarted as No. 6 in 1901), Pwll Mawr, Duffryn Main Nos. 1 and 2 (No. 1 sunk to 450 yards in 1892), Nos. 3 and 4 (sunk 1901-04) and Nos. 7 and 8 (open by 1910). In 1923 No. 1 employed 322 in the Graigola and Victoria, Nos. 3 and 4 employed 471 in the Hughes seam, No. 7 111, and No. 6 only five.

Closure

Production went into rapid decline during the 1920s and the colliery closed in 1929.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of surviving colliery remains.

Related mines

• Cwrt Herbert Colliery — Both owned by the Main Colliery Company Ltd of Neath in the 1890s, under the same manager, Richard Thomas.
• New Wernddu Colliery — Both worked by the Main Colliery Company in the Dyffryn Clydach area north of Neath.
• Rhydding Colliery — Rhydding's Wernffraith workings appear on combined plans with the Main collieries at Bryncoch.
• Tir Edmund Colliery — Worked by the same companies: offered for tender with the Main colliery in 1876, run together in 1880, and both Main Colliery Company pits in 1894.

Disasters & major incidents

• Bryncoch Colliery inundation, 1859
  6 April 1859 · Flooding / Inundation · 26 fatalities
  A few hours into the shift on Wednesday 6 April 1859 water from a large area of old workings broke into the Main Colliery at Bryncoch, near Neath, with about eighty men and boys underground. More than fifty ran before the flood to the shaft; twenty-six did not get out, among them the overman, who was washed away trying to warn them. Pumping took five or six months, and the first body was not recovered until 23 September; four were never found.
• Dyffryn Main Colliery overwind, 1878
  26 February 1878 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities
  On 26 February 1878 the cage carrying seven night-shift men up the shaft at the Bryncoch Main Colliery, near Neath, was overwound into the headgear. Two men fell to the bottom and were killed and another was badly hurt; the inquest returned accidental death.
• Main Colliery tramway accident, 1890
  11 September 1890 · Haulage / Transport · 2 fatalities
  Early on Thursday 11 September 1890 a loaded journey of the Main Colliery Company's trams, pushed by a locomotive along the tramway to Dynevor Wharf near Neath, overturned when the wheel of the front tram broke. William Smith and William Waite, who had jumped on the front trams to ride to work, were crushed and killed.
• Duffryn Main Colliery explosion, 1896
  4 August 1896 · Explosion · 7 fatalities
  On the morning of 4 August 1896 roof falls where pillars were being taken out in No. 1 pit of the Main Colliery at Bryncoch, near Neath, released a great volume of gas. The officials raised the alarm and some 175 men were drawn up within twenty minutes, but a fireman and four others went back to warn a father and his two sons working deep in the No. 2 South-East, and at about eleven the gas exploded at a partially protected Davy lamp. Seven died. The jury praised the rescuers, and the owners replaced the Davy lamps.
• Dyffryn Main Colliery railway collision, 1906
  20 September 1906 · Haulage / Transport · 3 fatalities

  Three platelayers riding a trolley on Main Colliery's private railway at Bryncoch, near Neath, were killed on 20 September 1906 when a locomotive ran into them on a sharp bend.

  On 20 September 1906 ten men of the platelayers' gang at Main Colliery, Bryncoch, near Neath, were riding a trolley on the colliery's private railway, about two miles long, when a locomotive returning to the colliery ran into them at a sharp bend. The collision was violent enough to kill three of them, John Nichols, 47, Thomas Brown, 57, and John Dunn, and to injure others: four slightly by one account, seven by another.

• Dyffryn Main Colliery roof fall, 1919
  8 April 1919 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A collier and his son were killed together by a fall of roof in the Graigola seam at the Main (Bryncoch) Colliery near Neath on 8 April 1919.

Recorded claims

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

• The owners of the Neath Abbey Ironworks formed the Neath Abbey Coal Company, which sank the Pwll Mawr and Bryncoch pits between 1806 and 1810; the Quakers Fox, Price and others had leased the Dyffryn estate minerals in 1806. ^1,2
• The Bryncoch pit reached nearly 200 yards, an unprecedented depth for the period, but was abandoned to flooding in 1843. ¹
• On 6 April 1859 water broke into the workings with 80 men underground; 22 bodies were recovered, the first on 23 September, and 4 were never found. ¹
• In 1894 the Main Colliery Co. Ltd owned Duffryn Main No. 1 (239 below ground, 80 above) with Brithdir, Court Herbert, Tir Edmund and Waunceirch under Richard Thomas; No. 1 employed 389 in 1896. ^3,1
• The Dynevor Duffryn Colliery Company sank Duffryn Main No. 1 to 450 yards in 1892. ¹
• Between 1897 and 1918 the Main Company's collieries produced over eight million tons, employing about two thousand men. ^1,2
• The colliery closed in 1929 after production declined rapidly in the 1920s. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Bryncoch colliery (Dyffryn Main) — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Dyffryn Clydach: a guide (part 5) — Dyffryn Clydach local history guide
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum - Main Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum

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