Etna Colliery

Overview

A small Gilfach Goch mine opened in 1901 as Dylas Isha Colliery on the No. 2 Rhondda seam, later worked as a slant with the Glynogwr level by Glenavon Garw Collieries until 1928.

History

Etna Colliery was a small mine at Gilfach Goch, in the Ogmore valley, opened in 1901 as Dylas Isha Colliery to work the No. 2 Rhondda seam, there about four feet thick. By 1910 it belonged to the Etna Colliery Company, and in 1911 an inrush of water from old workings killed a father and son (see Disasters, below).

In 1918, owned by the Blaenclydach Colliery Company and listed again as Dyla Isha, it employed 32 men underground and 10 on the surface. By 1923 it had passed to Glenavon Garw Collieries Ltd and was worked as a slant alongside their Glynogwr level about 150 yards away, the two together employing 234 men underground and 61 on the surface on manufacturing and house coal from the No. 2 and No. 3 Rhondda seams, under the manager Joseph Evans.

Etna abandoned the No. 2 Rhondda seam in January 1928.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures. The mine worked the No. 2 Rhondda seam, about four feet thick, and by 1923 the No. 3 Rhondda as well.

Workings

Opened to the No. 2 Rhondda seam; in 1923 a slant worked together with the Glynogwr level about 150 yards to its south-east.

Closure

The No. 2 Rhondda seam was abandoned in January 1928. A combined 'Glynogwr, Etna' abandonment plan of the No. 2 Rhondda is dated 1 May 1950, after Glynogwr's own closure in 1949.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Glynogwr Colliery — Worked together by Glenavon Garw Collieries in 1923 (Glynogwr and the Etna slant), and planned together as 'Glynogwr, Etna'.

Disasters & major incidents

• Etna Colliery inrush, 1911
  24 March 1911 · Flooding / Inundation · 2 fatalities
  On Friday 24 March 1911 Evan Lewis, 44, and his son Thomas John, 14, were drowned when they tapped waterlogged old workings at the end of a heading in the Dulas Isaf (Dylas Isha) level, later Etna Colliery, at Gilfach Goch. Strikers from the Cambrian Combine dispute and soldiers stationed in the village joined the rescue.

Recorded claims

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

• Originally known as Dylas Isha colliery, it was opened in 1901 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam at a thickness of 4 feet. ¹
• By 1910 it was in the hands of the Etna Colliery Company; by 1918 the Blaenclydach Colliery Co. Ltd, employing 32 underground and 10 on the surface. ¹
• In 1923 Glenavon Garw Collieries Ltd employed 234 underground and 61 on the surface at Glynogwr and Etna (slant), working the Nos. 2 and 3 Rhondda seams. ¹
• Etna abandoned the No. 2 Rhondda seam in January 1928. ¹
• Abandonment plans are catalogued for 'Etna' (No. 2 seam) and for 'Glynogwr, Etna' (No. 2 Rhondda, abandoned 1 May 1950). ^2,3
• The Glenavon Garw Company bought Glynogwr in 1911 and was managed there by Joseph Evans into the 1930s. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Etna Colliery, Glynogwr Colliery - Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS mine plans: Glynogwr, Etna (No. 2 Rhondda, abandoned 1 May 1950) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (primary) BGS mine plans: Etna (No. 2 seam) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (secondary) Glynogwr Colliery - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026