Goitre Colliery

Overview

A small Clydach level, also called Old or Hen Goitre, worked by the substantial Graigola Merthyr Company until the mid-1920s.

History

Goitre Colliery, also known locally as Old or Hen Goitre -- distinguishing it from any later working of the same name at Clydach -- was a small level in the Swansea Valley owned by the Graigola Merthyr Company, employing 70 men in 1910 and 56 men in 1911. It abandoned the Hughes seam in November 1925. Grace's Guide independently confirms the Graigola Merthyr Company as a real colliery-proprietor and patent fuel manufacturing firm of Cambrian Place, Swansea, which had collieries and large fuel works when it was acquired by D. R. Llewellyn in 1918. The abandonment plan of its Hughes seam workings, titled 'Goitre Old or Hen Goitre', survives in the national mine plans catalogue.

Geology

Worked the Hughes seam, abandoned in November 1925.

Workings

A small level owned by the Graigola Merthyr Company.

Closure

Abandoned the Hughes seam in November 1925.

Recorded claims

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

• Also called Old or Hen Goitre, the mine was owned by the Graigola Merthyr Company, employing 70 men in 1910 and 56 men in 1911, and abandoned the Hughes seam in November 1925. ¹
• Grace's Guide independently confirms the Graigola Merthyr Company as a real colliery-proprietor and patent fuel manufacturing firm of Cambrian Place, Swansea, which had collieries and large fuel works when it was acquired by D.R. Llewellyn in 1918. ²
• The mine was known locally as Old or Hen Goitre, distinguishing it from any later working of the same name at Clydach. ¹
• A Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Goitre Old or Hen Goitre' records the Hughes seam abandoned in 1925. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Small collieries in the Pontardawe area — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Graigola Merthyr Co — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Goitre Old or Hen Goitre — British Geological Survey

Record created: 15 September 2026 · Last researched: 16 September 2026