Gwyn's Colliery

Overview

A small Pontardawe level that outlived an unexplained three-year gap in working to end up under the same company as the district's largest colliery, Tareni.

History

Gwyn's Colliery was a small level worked for manufacturing and steam coals, opened in 1902 with 19 men employed, before working was discontinued for reasons not recorded for at least 1903 to 1905. It reopened under the ownership of the South Wales Primrose Coal Company, employing 37 men by 1910, falling to 18 by 1912 and back to 37 by 1913 under manager J. Standidge. By 1927/8 the workforce had fallen to 7 men, and in 1928 the mine was transferred to the Tareni Colliery Company — the much larger concern that had just been incorporated to take over the neighbouring Tareni Colliery — after which Gwyn's Colliery disappears from the record entirely. The Tareni Colliery Company that absorbed it was a real and locally prominent concern in this period: a Pontardawe newspaper report from May 1915 recorded a rumour, which it denied, that Tareni Colliery itself was about to close because of a wartime export embargo — evidence of how closely the fortunes of the valley's collieries, Gwyn's included, were tied to Tareni's.

Related mines

• Cwmnantllwyd Colliery — Both worked by the South Wales Primrose Coal Company.

Nearby mines

• Boundary Level — 0.5 km S
• Cwmceiros Colliery — 0.6 km S
• Cwmnantllwyd Colliery — 0.8 km S
• Graigola Colliery — 0.9 km SW
• Primrose Colliery — 2.1 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.

• Opened in 1902 (19 men), working was discontinued for unrecorded reasons for at least 1903-05, then reopened under the South Wales Primrose Coal Company (37 men by 1910, manager J. Standidge by 1913), falling to 7 men by 1927/8 before being transferred to the Tareni Colliery Company in 1928, after which it disappears from the record. ¹
• A Pontardawe newspaper report from May 1915 records a rumour, denied at the time, that the nearby Tareni Colliery was about to close over a wartime export embargo — contemporary evidence of Tareni Colliery's real local prominence in the period shortly before it absorbed Gwyn's Colliery in 1928. ²
• The mine's grid reference, 74500720, places it in the immediate Pontardawe area alongside the district's other small Primrose Coal Company-linked workings. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Small collieries in the Pontardawe area — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) New Colliery Company (Dyffryn Tawe Collieries, Ltd.) — Llais Llafur, 15 May 1915

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