Glanamman Colliery

Overview

A small anthracite shaft and slant at Glanamman, also called Tyllwyd, that barely employed twenty men before 1914 but was expanded after 1929 by the Glanamman Anthracite Collieries Company to over 200. It was one of the old slants the National Coal Board closed within a year of nationalisation, shutting on 31 January 1948 as part of its drive against the Swansea Area's losses.

History

The mine abandoned the Tyllwyd or Middle seam as early as December 1898. In 1900 it had a single shaft 144 feet deep and 7 feet across, working the Triquart or Tyllwyd seam by pillar and stall with naked lights. In 1908-09 the Amman Valleys Collieries Company of London owned it, with 16 men underground and 3 at the surface under K. B. Foster, and in 1913 it employed 20. In January 1914, also called Tyllwyd or Old Tyllwyd, it abandoned the Lower Tyllwyd seam, and in August 1928 a new slant was abandoned when it failed to find workable coal. In 1929 the Glanamman Anthracite Collieries Company of Swansea, with D. J. Thomas as chairman, took it over as its only holding and greatly expanded it: by 1934 it employed 200 men underground and 27 at the surface, raising 60,000 tons from the Middle and Lower seams, with its own washery. It had 210 men in 1940; by 1943-45 it belonged to the Varteg Anthracite Collieries and employed 111 in the Middle Tyllwyd seam. At nationalisation it was placed in the NCB's Swansea Area, which lost £4,300,000 in 1947, the heaviest loss of any area. Its old slants had grown to over a mile long, and the Board chose to close most of them; Glanamman shut on 31 January 1948. Thomas Llewellyn, a collier, had been killed in 1890 when he was dragged up to the pulley while ascending the shaft.

Geology

Worked the Tyllwyd (Middle), Triquart and Lower Tyllwyd anthracite seams, and later the Middle and Lower seams.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A shaft 144 feet deep and 7 feet in diameter (1900), worked by pillar and stall with naked lights; later slants, one of them abandoned in 1928 without finding coal. The colliery had its own washery in the 1930s.

Closure

Closed by the NCB on 31 January 1948 in its reorganisation of the loss-making Swansea Area, whose old slants had become too long to work economically. NMRS gives 300 men at closure but 119 in its 1948 statistics.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Glynmoch Colliery — 0.7 km W
• Gellyceidrim Colliery — 1.3 km E
• Cawdor Colliery — 1.7 km SE
• Garnant Colliery — 1.7 km E
• Noyadd Colliery — 3.2 km E

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

Recorded claims

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

• The mine abandoned the Tyllwyd or Middle seam in December 1898; in 1900 it had one shaft 144 feet deep and 7 feet in diameter, working the Triquart or Tyllwyd seam by pillar and stall with naked lights. ¹
• Glanamman was an anthracite slant mine working by 1913, owned by Amman Valley Collieries Ltd of London; in 1929 it was taken over and expanded by Glanamman Anthracite Collieries Ltd, and it was closed by the NCB during 1948 after nationalisation. ²
• In 1934 it employed 200 men underground and 27 at the surface producing 60,000 tons from the Middle and Lower seams. ¹
• It was shut on 31 January 1948 with 300 men, one of the old Swansea Area slants the NCB chose to close. (disputed) ¹
• NMRS statistics give 116 men in 1947 and 119 in 1948. (disputed) ¹
• Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plans titled 'Glanamman' (Tyllwyd, 1898) and 'Glanamman or Tyllwyd, Tyllwyd Old' (Lower Tyllwyd, 1914) match NMRS's abandonment dates; others are dated 1925 ('coal not proved') and 1942 (Glanamman No. 2). ^3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Glanamman Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society (Ray Lawrence)
2. (secondary) Coal mining in Gwauncaegurwen and Cwmgors and local area (Glyn-Moch Colliery; Ystrad, Glanaman) — Gareth Hicks, GENUKI
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: GLANAMMAN (1898) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: GLANAMMAN OR TYLLWYD, TYLLWYD OLD (1914) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 16 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026