Garth Merthyr Colliery

Overview

The Garth pit a mile south of Maesteg in the Llynfi valley, sunk by John Brogden and Sons in the mid-1860s and through four failures and four companies before Elder Dempster's shipping money made it a steam coal colliery; nine men and boys died when a cage was overwound in 1897, and the shafts were filled in 1968 to build a housing estate.

History

John Brogden and Sons took the land at Garth and sank two pits, of fourteen and twelve feet diameter, to the Caedefaid seam at 140 yards. Because the workings lay south of the anticlinal ridge at the southern edge of the coalfield the ground was difficult, and the colliery's first quarter-century was a series of rescues: an explosion and the fire that followed forced the owners to flood the pit in 1867, and it then stood idle for nearly a year, though by 1877 it was raising 350 tons a day; a trade recession stopped it for fourteen months in 1880 and 1881; Brogden's empire went into receivership in 1878, and the company formed in 1882 to take it on was in liquidation by 1885 with the colliery closed. In 1888 John and Richard Cory, Ebenezer Lewis and James Barrow formed the Garth Merthyr Colliery Company and deepened the shafts to the steam coal, reaching the Six-Feet at 250 yards and the Red Vein at 270. In 1900 Sir Alfred Jones bought Garth and Oakwood together for his Elder's Navigation Collieries, a subsidiary of the Elder Dempster shipping line, which then held 1,600 acres of mineral rights and workable seams totalling 58 feet. The shafts were deepened again in 1901 to the Lower Four-Feet at 369 yards and became the downcasts for Oakwood's upcast; the two pits together raised 400,000 tons of coal and 75,000 tons of coke from sixty ovens, and employed 930 men. The company was renamed Celtic Collieries in 1910, and in 1920 the colliery came under North's Navigation Collieries. At about five o'clock on the afternoon of 11 June 1897 a cage bringing up the day shift was overwound, the rope snapped and the cage fell to the bottom of the shaft, killing all nine men and boys in it, four of them aged sixteen or under. The colliery abandoned its last seams in 1926 and 1927 and closed in 1930. The shafts were filled in 1968 and the surface levelled for the Mill View housing estate.

Geology

The South Wales coalfield south of the anticlinal ridge at its southern edge, which made for difficult ground. The shafts were sunk first to the Caedefaid at 140 yards, with landings at the Victoria at 62 yards and the Yard at 102; later workings took in the Six-Feet at 250 yards, the Red Vein at 270 and the Lower Four-Feet at 369, and by 1930 the pit was on the Two-Feet-Nine, Nine-Feet, Upper Four-Feet and Seven-Feet. The Garth levels also worked the Upper and Middle Blackband ironstone veins.

Workings

Two shafts on a mineral take of 490 acres. The South Pit, the No. 1, was fourteen feet in diameter and was the downcast, used for winding coal; the North Pit, the No. 2, was twelve feet and served as upcast and pumping shaft. From 1901 both were downcasts for Oakwood Colliery's upcast. In 1899 the colliery had 7,256 yards of underground roadway in use and kept 33 horses to pull 201 trams. Numerous levels, Allen's, Lewis's and Hopkins's among them, were worked under the Garth name and closed between 1917 and 1919.

Closure

The New Seam was abandoned in March 1926 and the Lower Four-Feet in May 1927, and the colliery closed in 1930, when it still employed 493 men underground and 97 on the surface. The shafts were filled in 1968.

What remains

Gone. The shafts were filled in 1968 and the surface flattened; the Mill View housing estate stands on the site.

None. The colliery surface was levelled for housing after the shafts were filled in 1968.

Redevelopment

The Mill View housing estate at Garth, of about 170 houses off Bridgend Road, stands on the colliery surface.

Related mines

• Gin Pit, Maesteg — An earlier working in the same Llynfi valley at Maesteg.
• Oakwood Colliery — Bought with Garth by Sir Alfred Jones in 1900, and from 1901 the upcast shaft to which the Garth pits were the downcasts.
• St John's Colliery — The other large Maesteg colliery, which shares group mine plans with Garth.

Nearby mines

• Oakwood Colliery — 0.9 km NW
• St John's Colliery — 1.9 km NE
• Gin Pit, Maesteg — 2.5 km NW
• Coegnant Colliery — 3.5 km N
• Lluest Colliery — 3.6 km E

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

Nothing survives to visit; the shafts were filled in 1968 and the ground is built over.

Disasters & major incidents

• Garth Merthyr Colliery overwinding, 1897
  11 June 1897 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 9 fatalities
  At about five o'clock on the evening of Friday 11 June 1897 a cage bringing the day shift up the Garth shaft at Maesteg was wound past the landing into the headgear; the rope pulled out of its socket and the cage fell to the bottom, killing all nine men and boys in it. Three of the nine were fourteen. The winding engine had no automatic apparatus to prevent overwinding, and the Inspector declined to recommend that detaching hooks be made compulsory.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The colliery was sunk by John Brogden and Sons, in two pits of fourteen and twelve feet diameter, to the Caedefaid seam at 140 yards; the NMRS dates the opening to 1865 and Welsh Coal Mines has Brogden beginning the sinking in 1864. (disputed) ^1,2
• The shafts were deepened to the Six-Feet seam at 250 yards and the upcast to the Red Vein at 270 yards; the NMRS gives the year as 1883 in one passage and 1889 in another, the latter tied to the Garth Merthyr Colliery Company formed in 1888. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was sunk by John Brogden and Sons, in two pits of fourteen and twelve feet diameter, to the Caedefaid seam at 140 yards; the NMRS dates the opening to 1865 and Welsh Coal Mines has Brogden beginning the sinking in 1864. (disputed) ^1,2
• An explosion and the fire that followed forced the owners to flood the pit in 1867; it then stood idle for almost a year, but by 1877 was producing 350 tons of coal a day. ¹
• Brogden's went into receivership in 1878, the receiver formed the Lynvi and Tondu Company, the Garth Merthyr Steam Navigation Collieries Limited of 1882 was in liquidation by 1885 with the colliery closed, and in 1888 John and Richard Cory, Ebenezer Lewis and James Barrow formed the Garth Merthyr Colliery Company. ¹
• The shafts were deepened to the Six-Feet seam at 250 yards and the upcast to the Red Vein at 270 yards; the NMRS gives the year as 1883 in one passage and 1889 in another, the latter tied to the Garth Merthyr Colliery Company formed in 1888. (disputed) ¹
• Sir Alfred Jones bought Garth together with Oakwood Colliery in 1900 for Elder's Navigation Collieries Limited, a subsidiary of the Elder Dempster shipping line, which then held 1,600 acres of mineral rights and workable seams totalling 58 feet in thickness; the company was renamed Celtic Collieries Limited in 1910. ¹
• After the shafts were deepened to the Lower Four-Feet at 369 yards in 1901 the Garth pits served as the downcast shafts to Oakwood Colliery's upcast, the two together raising 400,000 tons of coal and 75,000 tons of coke from sixty ovens and employing 930 men. ¹
• At about five o'clock on the afternoon of Friday 11 June 1897, as the engineman Thomas Thomas wound up the day shift, the fifth or sixth cage overwound at the top, the rope snapped and the cage fell to the bottom of the shaft; nine men and boys were killed, among them Edgar Howells aged 13 and two 14-year-olds, J. G. Thomas and George A. Kerman. ^1,2
• The limit was ten men to a cage; the hitcher counted eleven, ordered one man out and the others pushed Rees from the cage, then recounted and found nine and told him he could get back in. He was so offended by the treatment that he refused and stayed at the pit bottom. ²
• The first body recovered was that of Lewis Guest, married only twelve months, and the last that of John Howells at a quarter past nine that night; the dead were then delivered to the wrong houses, and the police moved them to the right ones in the early hours of Saturday morning. ²
• In 1899 the colliery worked the Upper Four-Feet, Truro, Six-Feet, Red and Nine-Feet seams for 450 tons a day, had 7,256 yards of underground roadway in use and kept 33 horses to pull 201 trams, and raised 60,516 tons of large coal and 32,750 tons of small. ¹
• In 1896 the Garth Merthyr Colliery Company employed 437 men underground and 67 on the surface under the manager Jonah Davies, the Inspector of Mines returning 504 men producing both house and steam coal. ^1,2
• The New Seam was abandoned in March 1926 and the Lower Four-Feet in May 1927, the colliery closed in 1930 with 493 men underground and 97 on the surface, the shafts were filled in 1968 and the surface was flattened for the Mill View housing estate. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Garth Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Garth Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026