Eaglesbush Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the Eaglesbush estate a mile and a half from Neath, worked from the early nineteenth century and known equally as Eskyn. The men walked down a drift to the workings; there was no artificial ventilation beyond a small furnace at the surface, and naked lights were allowed in coal the owners themselves described as having a good deal of fire in it. On 29 March 1848 gas that had gathered in the old stalls exploded and killed twenty of the thirty men and boys at work. Sturvé's air pumps were installed afterwards. The colliery was still working in 1896 with forty men.

History

Coal was being produced in Cwm Cryddan near Eaglesbush House by 1802 and probably earlier, going out by tramroad and incline to a wharf on the Neath Canal by Halfway House. Leases of the Eskyn colliery were being surrendered to the Earl of Jersey in 1827, and in January 1845 Herbert Edward Evans of Eaglesbush leased to George Penrose of Eaglesbush Cottage, for fifty years from Lady Day 1835, a house, a counting house, the land on which Penrose had sunk a new coal pit, a farm, and the minerals under the Eaglesbush estate in the Two Foot vein, the Rotten or New vein and the Eskyn vein. Messrs Penrose and Evans were the proprietors when the Children's Employment Commission reported in 1842, working Eaglesbush together with the neighbouring Gnoll colliery. George Penrose told the commissioners that the Gnoll was entered by a shaft and Eaglesbush by a ladder way, with a separate shaft 400 yards off for raising coal; that the workings in both lay 42 fathoms down; that the Eaglesbush seam was four feet six inches thick against the Gnoll's twenty-two inches; and that in the Eaglesbush colliery there was a good deal of fire but no chokedamp, with explosions having taken place but no lives lost. Coal came out in barrows and slides pushed and dragged by boys and men, of two to two and a half hundredweight apiece. He took children on from eight to ten years of age, and objected to any earlier than ten so that they might have some chance of an education. The overman listed the recent accidents plainly: a boy killed falling from the tub, a pitman's head split open by rock, a broken leg, another man killed by a rock, and Griffith Griffiths burned by firedamp a week before with his skin quite burned off. On 29 March 1848 the accumulated gas in the old stalls exploded and killed twenty of the thirty at work (see Disasters, below). A pair of Sturvé's air pumps was installed afterwards, which greatly improved the ventilation. George Penrose was declared bankrupt in 1861; by 1869 the colliery was owned by J. B. Williams; and the Inspector of Mines list for 1896 has it in the hands of the Eaglesbush Hughes Vein Colliery Co. Ltd of Neath, employing forty men, eleven of them on the surface, and producing house and manufacturing coal.

Geology

The colliery worked the coals of the South Wales Coalfield beneath the Eaglesbush estate east of Neath, in seams the 1845 lease names as the Two Foot vein, the Rotten or New vein and the Eskyn vein, with the Hughes vein giving its name to the company working the ground by the 1890s. The seam worked in 1842 was four feet six inches thick, against twenty-two inches at the neighbouring Gnoll, and the workings lay 42 fathoms below the surface. The coal was fiery: the owner told the Children's Employment Commission there was a good deal of fire in the Eaglesbush pit though no chokedamp, and the 1848 explosion turned on gas that had gathered undisturbed in worked-out stalls.

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

Workings

The men walked down a drift into the workings rather than being wound down a shaft, though a ladder way and a separate coal-raising shaft 400 yards off were also in use in the 1840s, with a 30 horsepower winding engine and a 40 horsepower pumping wheel. The drift ran about 250 yards straight and then turned south, and in the turn stood the stalls where three to five men worked each. Main roads were about five feet six inches high. Coal was moved to the main road in barrows and slides pushed by boys and men. There was no artificial ventilation: the air passed over a small furnace at the surface near the outcrop, the quantity was small, and naked lights were allowed. Each workman furnished his own lamp and the company had nobody to inspect them, as a collier told the 1848 inquest. Sturvé's air pumps were installed after the explosion.

Closure

No reliable closure date has yet been located. The colliery was still at work in 1896 under the Eaglesbush Hughes Vein Colliery Co. Ltd, with forty men.

What remains

No description of what survives on the colliery site has been found. The line of the Eaglesbush Pits tramroad, which took the coal down to a wharf on the Neath Canal by Halfway House, is followed today by Gardner's Lane and Herbert Road, the latter being the incline, worked by an engine at its head near the Old Road.

None of the colliery identified. The Royal Commission records the course of its tramroad and incline as surviving in the modern street pattern of Gardner's Lane and Herbert Road.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Nearby mines

• Cwmavon Copper Works — 5.1 km SE
• Ynisdavid Colliery — 5.2 km SE
• Primrose Colliery — 7.1 km N
• Cefn Coed Colliery — 8.2 km NE
• Ynysarwed Colliery — 10.1 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Disasters & major incidents

• Eaglesbush Colliery Explosion, 1848
  29 March 1848 · Explosion · 20 fatalities
  Gas that had gathered in the old stalls of Eaglesbush Colliery near Neath exploded soon after three o'clock on the afternoon of Wednesday 29 March 1848, and the gas in the other stalls exploded after it. About thirty men and boys were at work and twenty were killed, most of them by afterdamp; some were found to have been trying to get out along a level with their way blocked by wagons. The colliery had no artificial ventilation and naked lights were allowed. The inquest returned accidental death.

Recorded claims

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

• Coal was produced in Cwm Cryddan near Eaglesbush House in 1802 and probably earlier, going out by tramroad and incline to a wharf on the Neath Canal by Halfway House. ¹
• In January 1845 Herbert Edward Evans of Eaglesbush leased to George Penrose, for fifty years from Lady Day 1835, the land on which Penrose had sunk a new coal pit together with the minerals under the Eaglesbush estate in the Two Foot vein, the Rotten or New vein and the Eskyn vein. ²
• George Penrose told the Children's Employment Commission that Eaglesbush was entered by a ladder way with a separate coal shaft 400 yards off, that the workings lay 42 fathoms down, that the seam was four feet six inches thick, and that there was a good deal of fire in the pit but no chokedamp. ²
• Penrose took children into employment from eight to ten years of age and said he objected to any being taken earlier than ten so that they might have some chance of acquiring the elements of education; the boys tramming there worked ten to twelve hours a day. ²
• The colliery had no artificial ventilation: the air passed over a small furnace at the surface near the outcrop of the seam, the quantity was small, and naked lights were allowed. A pair of Sturvé's air pumps installed after the 1848 explosion greatly improved it. ²
• George Penrose was declared bankrupt in 1861; by 1869 the colliery was owned by J. B. Williams, and the 1896 Inspector of Mines list has it under the Eaglesbush Hughes Vein Colliery Co. Ltd of Neath with forty men. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Eaglesbush Pits Tramroad (NPRN 407292) — Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
2. (secondary) Eaglebush Colliery, Neath — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026