Garngoch Colliery

Overview

Glasbrook Brothers' steam-coal pits at Gorseinon, north-west of Swansea: No. 1 sunk around 1870 to the Swansea Five Feet at 205 yards, No. 2 added in 1888 and No. 3 in production by 1906, connected underground but worked separately. Six colliers died in an explosion at naked lights in 1880. The pits passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 and closed one by one, the last, No. 3, in 1965.

History

Glasbrook Brothers sank Garngoch No. 1 around 1870 to work the Swansea Five Feet seam at 205 yards. On 7 July 1880, with the pit worked by naked lights, gas that had gathered in a stall left idle after a fall that morning fired at the colliers' lamps and killed six, among them a boy of fourteen (see Disasters, below). The company added No. 2 pit in 1888, and No. 3 was in production by 1906; the pits were connected below ground but worked independently. In 1894 the Glasbrooks returned Garngoch with 211 men under the manager Charles Richard. By 1908 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 employed 288, 454 and 195. On 26 February 1909 the manager of No. 3, Sydney Rees Morgan, was killed trying to free a slipping haulage brake. A drift, No. 4, was driven in 1914 and worked from the No. 1 shaft yard. In 1923 No. 1 worked the Six Feet and Four Feet seams and No. 3 the Five Feet; the pits employed 1,021 in 1940. By 1945 No. 1 had temporarily stopped production. Under the National Coal Board from 1947, No. 1 raised 45,000 tons and No. 3 100,000 tons that year; No. 1 closed in 1952, No. 2 in 1955 and No. 3 in 1965.

Geology

Steam and manufacturing coal from the Swansea Five Feet, Six Feet and Four Feet seams of the western South Wales Coalfield.

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

Workings

Three pits, No. 1 (c. 1870, 205 yards to the Swansea Five Feet), No. 2 (1888) and No. 3 (in production by 1906), connected underground but worked independently, and a drift, No. 4 (1914), worked with the No. 1 shaft. Electric haulage was in use by 1909.

Closure

The National Coal Board closed No. 1 in 1952, No. 2 in 1955 and No. 3 in 1965; the sources read give no reasons.

What remains

No report of surviving colliery remains has been found.

Nearby mines

• Mynydd Newydd Colliery — 1.5 km E
• Weigfach Colliery — 2.1 km E
• Elba Colliery — 3.4 km W
• Killan Colliery — 3.7 km SW
• Brynlliw Colliery — 4.6 km NW

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

Disasters & major incidents

• Garngoch Colliery explosion, 1880
  7 July 1880 · Explosion · 6 fatalities
  On 7 July 1880 firedamp exploded in the Swansea Five Feet seam at Garngoch Colliery, Gorseinon, 205 yards down, killing five colliers and a boy of fourteen. The pit was worked with naked lights. Two of the men were driving a stall through to another that had been left idle that morning after a fall, and gas was thought to have gathered there behind the fall and fired at their lamps, though the overman had found the place clear half an hour earlier.
• Garngoch Colliery roof fall, 1888
  6 April 1888 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  On 6 April 1888 two repairers at Garngoch Colliery, Gorseinon, William Hughes, aged nineteen, and John Jones, forty-one, were killed by a fall of roof while they were re-timbering the main road in the Five Feet seam. Nothing more is recorded in the sources read.

Recorded claims

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

• Glasbrook Brothers sank No. 1 around 1870 to the Swansea Five Feet at 205 yards; No. 2 followed in 1888 and No. 3 was in production in 1906. ^1,2
• An explosion of firedamp on 7 July 1880 killed six colliers: John Lewis, Daniel Rees, Thomas Hugh, William Morgan, David Rosser and the boy Daniel Watkins, 14. ^1,2
• In 1894 Glasbrook Brothers returned Garngoch with 150 men below ground and 61 on the surface under Charles Richard. ^2,3
• The No. 3 manager, Sydney Rees Morgan, was killed on 26 February 1909 when he was drawn into a haulage drum while trying to free a slipping brake. ^1,2
• Welsh Coal Mines says No. 2 was not working in 1923; the Durham Mining Museum returns 376 employed there that year. (disputed) ^1,2
• No. 1 closed in 1952, No. 2 in 1955 and No. 3 in 1965. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Garngoch colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum - Garngoch Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum - Glasbrook Bros. Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum

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