Elba Colliery

Overview

Elba was a drift mine at Gowerton that existed to feed the Elba steelworks beside it, its coal going down a private railway to the furnaces. It was small — never more than about 150 men — and on the morning of 21 January 1905 an explosion of firedamp killed eleven of the fifty below ground, among them a door boy of fourteen. The mine was abandoned afterwards.

History

The drift was over 700 yards long and was developed in 1881 by Pearse and Co. to work the Swansea Three Foot and Six Foot seams. There was a sale of plant at the mine in 1885 and it went out of production. By 1896 it was working again under Wright, Butler and Co. Ltd with 83 men, a figure that had risen to 150 by 1900. Baldwin's bought the mine and the steelworks in 1902. The coal was bituminous and went to the company's own steelworks, carried there by private railway. The Elba works had begun about 1872 under Alfred Sterry, Roger Beck and a Mr Healy; after that venture failed the Elba Tinplate Works was reopened in 1878 by Colonel John Roper Wright, Isaac Butler and Beck using Siemens expertise, and Wright, Butler and Co. Ltd grew out of the Elba Steel Works Company formed that year. By 1905 only the Swansea Six Foot was being worked, ventilated by a Waddle fan made at Llanelli. In the early hours of Saturday 21 January 1905 firedamp exploded (see Disasters, below), killing eleven of the nearly fifty men below ground and burning or shocking most of the rest. The mine was abandoned after it. Another drift was opened on the same site and employed 165 men in 1911, but the Mines Inspectors' return for 1910 gives only 30 people working the Penscallen seam, and this working too was closed soon after.

Geology

Elba worked the western part of the South Wales coalfield at Gowerton, taking the Swansea Three Foot and Six Foot seams from a drift, and by 1910 the Penscallen. The coal was bituminous and went straight to the steelworks beside the mine.

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

Workings

A drift over 700 yards long, driven in 1881, with a private railway carrying the coal to the Elba steelworks. By 1905 only the Swansea Six Foot was worked and the mine was ventilated by a Waddle fan manufactured at Llanelli. A second drift was opened on the same site after the 1905 explosion.

Closure

The mine was abandoned after the explosion of 21 January 1905. A successor drift on the same site employed 165 men in 1911 and closed soon afterwards.

What remains

The name survives at Gowerton in the playing fields and sports complex built on the steelworks ground. No account of the colliery site itself as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record.

Nearby mines

• Berthlwyd Colliery — 1.7 km W
• Killan Colliery — 2.4 km S
• Brynlliw Colliery — 3.4 km N
• Morlais Colliery — 4.4 km NW, Carmarthenshire
• Mynydd Newydd Colliery — 4.8 km E

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Elba Colliery explosion
  21 January 1905 · Explosion · 11 fatalities
  Firedamp exploded in the Elba drift at Gowerton in the early hours of Saturday 21 January 1905, described as one of the worst explosions ever to occur in the western part of the South Wales coalfield. Nearly fifty men had gone below at the start of the shift. Eleven died, three of them found alive and dying soon afterwards, and most of the rest were burned or badly shocked. The last bodies were not recovered until the Monday.

Recorded claims

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

• The drift was over 700 yards long, developed in 1881 by Pearse and Co. to work the Swansea Three Foot and Six Foot seams. Its bituminous coal went by private railway to the company's own steelworks. ¹
• Welsh Coal Mines says a defective lamp was held responsible for the explosion. The Durham Mining Museum gives the cause as an explosion of firedamp with the ignition caused by contraband — that is, by something a man took below that he should not have. (disputed) ^1,2
• By 1905 only the Swansea Six Foot seam was being worked and the mine was ventilated by a Waddle fan manufactured at Llanelli. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Elba Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Elba Colliery, 21 January 1905 — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Elba Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026