International Colliery, Abercrave

Overview

The anthracite slant under Mynydd y Drum beside Abercrave, at the northern rim of the coalfield, opened by a French company and international by nature, its 1890s workforce counting Portuguese, Germans, French, Belgians and Spaniards among the Welsh. Receivers, a French owner in Rouen, an auction in 1913, Welsh Anthracite and Amalgamated Anthracite followed; it worked in combination with Abercrave from the 1940s and closed with it on 31 May 1967.

History

The International Anthracite colliery was at work in 1888 near the northern outcrop of the coalfield, just inside Breconshire, served by the Neath and Brecon Railway. From 1887 to 1891 it was in the hands of the International Water and Sewage Purification Company; in 1893 it passed to French importers, listed to 1897 as the French Anthracite Company, La Compagnie Française des Anthracites du Pays de Galles, with a French manager qualified in this country and a small colony of French miners whose descendants were still in Abercrave in the 1960s. John Walters managed it in 1893, when it employed 243, and 206 underground with 37 on the surface in 1896, the men of six nations working the Peacock or Brass vein by longwall with naked lights, a furnace for ventilation, the slant as intake and coal road and a thirty-foot shaft as return. A labourer of 71, Edward Morgan, was crushed between drams on a double parting in 1896. The Neath and Brecon signed a siding agreement with the Duc de Stacpoole in November 1898, but by the end of that year the owner was F. F. Depeaux of Rouen, whose 1904 divorce divided the colliery's assets with his wife; his International Anthracite Association of 1903, renamed with steam coal in 1908, went into receivership until the colliery was put to auction in 1913, with 254 employed in 1908 and 187 in 1913. The Abercrave Colliery Company bought it for £30,000 in 1913, and 320 were employed in 1915. Llwynllafrod Anthracite Collieries held it in 1923 with 262 men in the Four Feet, Nine Feet, Big Vein, Peacock and White seams; the Two Feet was abandoned in April 1926 and the Maesderi or Peacock slant gave up the White and Eighteen Feet in September 1925. It passed to Welsh Anthracite Collieries and by 1932 to Amalgamated Anthracite, with 435 employed in 1933 and 384 in 1937. It was closed from 1940 to 1945 and then worked in combination with Abercrave under Abercrave and International Collieries Ltd with about seventy men, absorbed into Abercrave after nationalisation, and closed with it on 31 May 1967.

Geology

Anthracite of the northern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield under Mynydd y Drum: the Peacock (Brass or Bute), Nine Feet (Big Vein), Four Feet, Two Feet, White and Eighteen Feet seams.

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

Workings

A slant as intake and coal road with a thirty-foot return shaft six feet square; longwall on the Peacock vein in 1901 with naked lights and furnace ventilation; a second slant, Maesderi or Peacock, abandoned 1925. Employment: 243 in 1893, 242 in 1899, 373 in 1910, 187 in 1913, 320 in 1915, 141 in 1918, 284 in 1924, 435 in 1933, 384 in 1937, 70 in 1943 and 1945, 63 in 1947.

Closure

Closed temporarily from 1940 to 1945, then worked in combination with Abercrave and absorbed into it after nationalisation; both closed on 31 May 1967 with the loss of 450 jobs.

What remains

Not described in the sources read; the site lies on the flank of Mynydd y Drum east of the village.

Not recorded in the sources read.

Related mines

• Abercrave Colliery — Neighbouring slants under Mynydd y Drum, worked in combination from the 1940s and closed together in 1967.

Nearby mines

• Abercrave Colliery — 1.1 km E
• Seven Sisters Colliery — 2.9 km S, Neath Port Talbot
• Onllwyn Colliery — 3.0 km SE, Neath Port Talbot
• Yniscedwyn Colliery — 3.3 km SW
• Penwyllt Quarry — 5.3 km N

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.

• At work by 1888; closed with Abercrave on 31 May 1967. ^1,2
• From 1893 the colliery belonged to French importers as the French Anthracite Company, with a French manager and a colony of French miners; F. F. Depeaux of Rouen owned it from 1898. ^1,2
• In 1896 the 243 men included Portuguese, German, French, Belgian and Spanish miners as well as Welsh. ²
• Sold at auction in 1913 to the Abercrave Colliery Company for £30,000 after five years in receivership. ^1,2
• 373 employed in 1910, 435 in 1933, 384 in 1937 and 70 in 1945. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Abercrave – Abercraf Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) International Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Welsh Coal Mines fatalities 1896 — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (secondary) Abercraf — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
5. (secondary) Abercrave and International Collieries Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
6. (secondary) Fatalities 1927 — Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026