Glyn Neath Colliery

Location	Glyn-neath, Neath Port Talbot — 51.7702, -3.6295 (approximate)
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	By 1923–Unknown (still working 1937).
Maximum depth	Unknown — a drift mine, not a shaft.
Operators	Glyn Neath Collieries Limited (1923–1937)

Overview

A drift mine at Glyn-neath in the Vale of Neath working four separate seams, growing to 420 men by 1937. A 24-year-old screens worker was killed in a machinery accident here in August 1927.

History

Glyn Neath Colliery was a drift mine worked in the Upper-Five-Feet seam, locally called the Lower Bluers, a mixed band of coal and dirt; it also worked the Nine-Feet, Bute and Gellideg seams. Owned by the Glyn Neath Collieries Limited from at least 1923, when it employed 136 men, it was managed by Joseph Howells by 1934 and had grown to 420 men by 1937. On 31 August 1927, a 24-year-old screens worker died after becoming entangled in machinery. NMRS names him M.S. George and the colliery as Glyn Neath; the Welsh Coal Mines fatalities register instead records a screen man named George Wilfred Williams, 24, dying the same day at the nearby Cwmrhydygau Colliery, Glynneath, caught in a driving wheel by an electric plant and whirled round the shaft. Given the matching date, age and trade, this is almost certainly the same death, recorded under two different names and two different colliery names by the two sources; both versions are given here rather than one silently preferred.

Geology

Worked the Upper-Five-Feet (Lower Bluers), Nine-Feet, Bute and Gellideg seams of the South Wales Coalfield.

Workings

A drift working four seams: the Upper-Five-Feet (Lower Bluers), Nine-Feet, Bute and Gellideg.

Closure

Unknown; the colliery was still working with 420 men in 1937, the last year recorded in the source read for this pass.

What remains

Unknown.

Nearby mines

Rhondda Mountain Colliery — 0.2 km SW
Aberpergwm Colliery — 1.3 km N
Maes Marchog Colliery — 2.0 km W
Graig y Fforest No.2 Colliery (Pinetrees) — 2.9 km SW
Rhigos Colliery — 3.0 km SE

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.

Worked the Upper-Five-Feet (Lower Bluers), Nine-Feet, Bute and Gellideg seams; owned by the Glyn Neath Collieries Limited from at least 1923 (136 men), managed by Joseph Howells by 1934, growing to 420 men by 1937. ¹
A 24-year-old screens worker died in a machinery accident on 31 August 1927; NMRS names him M.S. George at Glyn Neath Colliery, while Welsh Coal Mines' fatalities register instead names George Wilfred Williams at the nearby Cwmrhydygau Colliery, both matching on date, age and trade. (disputed) ^2,1
Managed by Joseph Howells by 1934, during the Glyn Neath Collieries Limited ownership. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Small Collieries at Resolven — Northern Mine Research Society (reference)

NMRS's entry on Glyn Neath Colliery, its seams and its 1923–37 manpower.

View source

Fatalities 1927 — Welsh Coal Mines (reference)

The Welsh Coal Mines fatalities register's record of a screen man's death by machinery entanglement at Glynneath on 31 August 1927.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Small Collieries at Resolven — Northern Mine Research Society
(secondary) Fatalities 1927 — Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 14 September 2026 · Last researched: 15 September 2026