Gelli Colliery

Overview

The Globe, at Gelli in the Rhondda Fawr: a house coal pit of 1870 that was deepened to the steam coal in the late 1870s and thereafter worked as two separate pits side by side, under Thomas and Griffiths and then Cory Brothers, until it closed in January 1962.

History

Edmund Thomas sank this pit in 1870 to the No. 3 Rhondda seam as a house coal working, driving levels as well as shafts, and it was known from the start as the Globe. A correspondent of the Derby Mercury went underground in November 1873 and described three pumping engines standing in the workings, the first of them 852 yards in, a twelve-inch steam cylinder and a six-inch pump forcing ten thousand gallons an hour a hundred and seventeen feet up through 485 yards of pipe, its steam brought 404 yards from a boiler outside the heading; the machines were working unattended, their keeper regaling himself in the open air. The pumping engine had taken the medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition. In May 1877 Thomas and Griffiths advertised in the Western Mail for tenders to sink two pits of about 350 yards to the steam coal, and for a million fire bricks; the pit reached the Red Vein that year at 1,134 feet 4 inches. Two sinkers, John Morgan and Isaac Morris, were killed by a falling bucket during the work. From then until the 1930s Gelli was really two collieries on one site, a house coal pit and a steam coal pit with separate managers, and five men died and sixteen were badly burned in an explosion in the Globe pit on 21 August 1883. Control passed in December 1883 to Cory Brothers' Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company, and the partnership of Edmund Thomas and George Griffiths was formally dissolved on 28 February 1884. The colliery was served by the Taff Vale Railway and had room for 393 full and 424 empty wagons in its sidings in 1898. Eight hundred men struck over a price list in September 1910, and the dispute dragged on until July 1913, when fewer than a hundred were still out and it was abandoned. The house coal pit was given up by 1938. Under the National Coal Board the pit worked the Five-Feet and later the Gellideg, employing 666 men in 1954, and it closed on 13 January 1962 for economic reasons.

Geology

The Middle and Lower Coal Measures of the South Wales coalfield. The house coal pit worked the No. 3 Rhondda and the Two-Feet-Nine, the steam coal pit the Red Vein and the Six-Feet; the Four-Feet was abandoned in the early 1930s because of a weak roof, the Six-Feet and Yard were exhausted, and work then went into the Five-Feet and Lower Five-Feet. An attempt on the Gorllwyn failed in 1936 and the Nine-Feet was found disturbed.

Workings

Two pits worked side by side as separate units. The house coal pit was the No. 2 shaft, alongside the No. 3; the Bodringallt shaft was 371 yards deep and joined the Nebo level, 450 yards away, by a landing at the Pentre seam 64 yards down; the upcast ventilation shaft was joined to the Abergorchy by a landing 241 yards down and was deepened in 1914-15 to the Gellideg at 1,667 feet 7 inches. Colliers were paid by the tram, each marking his own with chalk before it was weighed at the surface.

Closure

The house coal pit had been abandoned by 1938. The steam coal pit passed to the National Coal Board's South Western Division in 1947 and closed on 13 January 1962 for economic reasons.

What remains

Disused. The site is within the built-up village of Gelli in the Rhondda Fawr.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Dinas Colliery — John Chubb, killed as undermanager at Gelli in 1883, had been undermanager at Dinas at the time of the 1879 disaster there.
• Tynybedw Colliery — Worked with Gelli as one undertaking: Thomas and Griffiths' Gelli and Tynybedw Steam Coal Company, then Cory Brothers' Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company.

Nearby mines

• Bodringallt Colliery — 0.4 km NW
• Pentre Colliery — 1.6 km NW
• Tynybedw Colliery — 2.2 km NW
• Glamorgan Colliery — 2.3 km SE
• Blaenclydach Colliery — 2.4 km S

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

Nothing of the colliery is identified as an accessible feature; the shafts were abandoned with the pit in 1962.

Disasters & major incidents

• Gelli Colliery explosion, 1883
  21 August 1883 · Explosion · 5 fatalities
  An explosion in the Globe, the steam coal pit at Gelli in the Rhondda Fawr, on 21 August 1883 burned twenty-one men, five of whom died. The jury found accidental death but held that the ventilation was defective and that the management had been negligent, and when a widow sued, the court held that no compensation was payable where the plaintiff had contributed to the accident.

What's uncertain

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

• Two sinkers, John Morgan and Isaac Morris, were killed when a full bucket fell on them during the sinking to the steam coal; Welsh Coal Mines gives their ages as 39 and 30, the NMRS fatality list as 25 and 35. (disputed) ^1,2

Recorded claims

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

• Edmund Thomas sank the pit in 1870 to the No. 3 Rhondda seam as a house coal working, and it was deepened in 1877 to the Red Vein of the steam coal seams, found at 1,134 feet 4 inches. ^1,2
• A Derby Mercury correspondent in November 1873 described three pumping engines working unattended in the levels, the first of them forcing ten thousand gallons an hour a hundred and seventeen feet up through 485 yards of pipe; the pumping engine had won the medal for progress at the Vienna Exhibition. ¹
• Thomas and Griffiths advertised in the Western Mail on 24 May 1877 for tenders to sink two pits of about 350 yards each to the steam coal, and for one million fire bricks. ¹
• Two sinkers, John Morgan and Isaac Morris, were killed when a full bucket fell on them during the sinking to the steam coal; Welsh Coal Mines gives their ages as 39 and 30, the NMRS fatality list as 25 and 35. (disputed) ^1,2
• Five men died of their injuries and sixteen others were badly burned after an explosion in the Globe pit on 21 August 1883; the inquest heard the pit described as 380 yards deep and employing 400 men, and returned accidental death while holding that the ventilation was defective and that management had been negligent. ^1,2
• Among the dead was John Chubb, 44, the undermanager, who had been undermanager at Dinas Colliery at the time of the 1879 disaster there, had gone to America and returned, and had been promoted to the steam coal pit two months before the explosion. ^1,2
• Colliers were paid by the tram, each marking his own with chalk before it was weighed at the surface and a numbered ticket issued; because the house coal and steam coal pits were separate units they used the same numbered tickets, and in November 1882 four colliers in the Six-Feet seam cashed tickets belonging to two men in the house coal pit and were sent for trial by jury. ¹
• On 21 July 1887 the manager ordered Morris Cummins out of a cage carrying nine men when the limit was eight; Cummins refused, was fined twenty shillings, and his representative in court, the miners' leader Mabon, threw his pencil and notebook to the floor in disgust. The fine was not paid. ¹
• After a fortnight's strike in 1889 the owners agreed to monthly instead of weekly contracts. ¹
• The colliery passed in December 1883 from Thomas and Griffiths' Gelli and Tynybedw Steam Coal Company to Cory Brothers' Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company; the London Gazette of 11 March 1884 recorded the dissolution of the Thomas and Griffiths partnership on 28 February 1884. ^1,2
• Served by the Taff Vale Railway, the colliery had sidings capacity in 1898 for 393 full wagons, 424 empty and 201 others. ¹
• Eight hundred men came out over a price list in September 1910; by 18 July 1913 fewer than a hundred were still on strike and it was abandoned. ¹
• Gelli Colliery closed on 13 January 1962 for economic reasons, having employed 538 men underground and 128 on the surface in 1954 on the Five-Feet and Gellideg seams. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

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

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