Gwersyllt Colliery

Overview

A Denbighshire coalfield colliery at Gwersyllt, north of Wrexham, whose working from the mid 1840s is what turned the settlement into a village. It passed from Thomas Clayton to the Westminster Brymbo Coal and Coke Co. and then the Westminster Colliery Co., and for a time was so closely tied to its neighbour that the 1900 List of Mines returns no separate figure for it, the workforce being included with Westminster Colliery. Employment peaked at 546 in 1910. It closed in 1925, and the ground it stood on has largely been reclaimed for housing.

History

The Denbighshire coalfield runs from Oswestry to north of Wrexham, and in its heyday carried thirty-eight collieries employing over 12,000 men and raising more than 2.6 million tons of coal a year. Gwersyllt lies at its northern end, two and a half miles north-north-west of Wrexham. The growth of the settlement is directly tied to coal: mining at the Gwersyllt and Westminster collieries began in the mid 1840s and the village grew with it. In 1896 the Gwersyllt coal mine, then owned by Edward Griffiths, employed 185 people, 167 of them below ground, and it had been in operation by 1881. The Durham Mining Museum gives the owners as Thomas Clayton, the Westminster Brymbo Coal and Coke Co. Ltd and the Westminster Colliery Co. Ltd, and the closure as 1925. Its Lists of Mines returns show the relationship with the neighbouring Westminster colliery plainly: in 1896 Gwersyllt is returned as employing nobody and marked as pumping, and in 1900 it is returned with no figure at all, the note reading that it is included with Westminster Colliery. It comes back as a working pit with 163 in 1905, rises to 546 in 1910 with 350 below ground and 196 on the surface, falls to 285 in 1915, and stands at 328 in 1923, two years before closure. The seams worked are named in the returns and change over time: the Brassey, Crank Coal and Main Coal in 1905; the Crank Coal, Powell and Two Yard in 1910; and the Crank, Powell, Queen and Two Yard in 1915. The coal was sold as gas, household and steam coal. Gwersyllt's heavy industries of coal mining and manufacturing declined through the twentieth century, and most of the land they occupied has been reclaimed, largely as housing.

Geology

Gwersyllt worked the northern end of the Denbighshire coalfield, whose Coal Measures also carry the Etruria marl that made Ruabon famous for red brick and terracotta. The seam names in the colliery's returns are local ones — the Brassey, the Crank Coal, the Main Coal, the Powell, the Two Yard and the Queen — and the combinations change with almost every return, which suggests a pit working several coals in turn rather than one dominant seam.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The colliery's working life was closely bound to the neighbouring Westminster colliery, to the point that in 1900 the Lists of Mines could not separate the two workforces. In 1896 Gwersyllt is returned as employing nobody and standing on pumping duty, which is a role a pit takes when it is keeping a district's workings dry rather than winning coal itself. It returned to full production by 1905.

Closure

The Durham Mining Museum gives 1925 as the closure. The colliery was still a substantial employer two years earlier, with 328 on the books in 1923, but it had been through at least one earlier period of standing idle: the 1896 return marks it as pumping only, with nobody employed, and in 1900 its workforce is not returned separately at all but counted with Westminster. No account of the reasons for the 1925 closure was found in the sources read.

What remains

The colliery is gone and the ground reclaimed. Gwersyllt's former heavy industries have declined across the twentieth century and most of the land they occupied is now housing, though the wider area retains features of its mining past. No site-specific description of the Gwersyllt colliery ground was found in the sources read.

None recorded. The surviving industrial monuments of this part of the coalfield belong to other pits, notably the Grade II* listed and scheduled winding engine house of 1855-6 at Wynnstay, described as the oldest surviving architectural monument in the North Wales coalfield, and the buildings at Bersham.

Redevelopment

Most of the former colliery and manufacturing land at Gwersyllt has been reclaimed, mainly for housing.

Nearby mines

• Westminster Colliery — 0.8 km W
• Ffrwd Colliery — 1.9 km NW
• Brynmally Colliery — 2.3 km S
• Plas Power Colliery — 2.5 km SW
• Llay Main Colliery — 3.0 km NE

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 Durham Mining Museum records the owners as Thomas Clayton, the Westminster Brymbo Coal and Coke Co. Ltd and the Westminster Colliery Co. Ltd, and the closure as 1925. ¹
• The Lists of Mines return no employment for 1896, the colliery being marked as pumping, and none for 1900, when it is noted as included with Westminster Colliery. It then returns 163 in 1905, 546 in 1910 with 350 below ground, 285 in 1915 and 328 in 1923. ¹
• The seams returned are the Brassey, Crank Coal and Main Coal in 1905; the Crank Coal, Powell and Two Yard in 1910; and the Crank, Powell, Queen and Two Yard in 1915. The coal was sold as gas, household and steam coal. ¹
• The settlement at Gwersyllt and its growth are directly linked to the mining of coal at the Gwersyllt and Westminster collieries, which began in the mid 1840s. In 1896 the Gwersyllt coal mine, owned by Edward Griffiths, had 185 employees with 167 below ground, and it was in operation by 1881. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gwersyllt Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Denbighshire Collieries — Clwyd Family History Society

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026