Killan Colliery

Overview

Two drifts above Dunvant on the Gower side of Swansea, the Penlan and the Penclawdd, opened in 1899. On 27 November 1924 water burst out of an old level into the Penlan workings with sixty-seven people underground. Five died, and the Inspector found the colliery's own plan was wrong.

History

Killan was formed of two drifts, the Penlan and the Penclawdd, the first of them opened by the Killan Colliery Company in 1899. By 1908 the mine was owned by Holmes and Company and employed 344 men at Penclawdd and 117 at Penlan. It had trouble with water from the start. On 28 May 1914 the Penlan slant flooded suddenly from the old workings of the Rhydyfaid colliery above it, and David Davies of Caebanol and Sidney Jeffreys of Station Road, both married with two children, were drowned; only two other men were underground at the time, in charge of the electric pumps, where usually over 120 worked below ground. The force of the water carried the empty trams out of the parting and they wedged in the timber, which is the only reason they did not run away down the slant. By 1918 the colliery employed 654 men, most of them from Dunvant and the villages round it. It was supplying the Grovesend steel and tinplate works by 1924 and was part of the Fuller group; one of its drifts was then 1,500 yards long. The 1923 return gives 384 employed, producing house coal from the Penclawdd seam. The 1924 inrush finished it. The colliery closed in 1925.

Geology

The colliery worked the Penlan and Penclawdd seams of the western South Wales coalfield above Dunvant. The Penlan dips north east at between one in one and a half and one in three, outcrops at the surface under a thick bed of sandstone, and its workings are wet — the fact behind both the 1914 flooding and the 1924 disaster. The ground west of the main slant is cut by two large faults roughly parallel to it, the first about 350 yards out and the second at 1,200 yards, and reaching the coal beyond the first needed expensive cross-measures drifts through some two hundred yards of dead ground.

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

Workings

Two drifts, the Penlan and the Penclawdd, one of them 1,500 yards long by 1924. Off the Main Slant, driven almost due north, levels ran east and west at intervals of about a hundred yards, with single stalls or top holes driven to the rise off them and connecting crosscuts forming pillars. Levels were developed in pairs for ventilation, and the top holes were holed through to the level above only when necessary, to keep the water in defined courses. Fourteen levels were opened to the east and seven to the west, and a pumping station stood on the Main Slant at No. 5 West.

Closure

The colliery closed in 1925, having never recovered from the inrush of November 1924.

What remains

No account of the site as it is now was found in the sources read. A memorial to those who died in the 1924 disaster stands at Dunvant and was restored for the centenary in 2024.

No account of surviving remains was found in the sources read.

Redevelopment

Not established.

Nearby mines

• Elba Colliery — 2.4 km N
• Berthlwyd Colliery — 3.0 km NW
• Mynydd Newydd Colliery — 4.6 km NE
• Weigfach Colliery — 5.0 km NE
• Brynlliw Colliery — 5.8 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.

• There were two drifts forming Killan colliery, the Penlan and the Penclawdd, the first of which the Killan Colliery Company opened in 1899; in 1908 the mine was owned by Holmes and Company and employed 344 men at Penclawdd and 117 at Penlan. ¹
• On 28 May 1914 the Dunvant Penlan colliery was flooded by a sudden inrush of water from the old workings at Rhydyfaid colliery, drowning David Davies of Caebanol, Killay, and Sidney Jeffreys of Station Road, Killay, both married with two children; only two other men were in the mine, in charge of the electric pumps, where usually over 120 worked below ground. ¹
• In 1918 the mine employed 654 men, mostly from Dunvant and the local area; by 1924 it was supplying fuel to the Grovesend steel and tinplate works and was part of the Fuller group, with one of the drifts 1,500 yards long; a list of 1923 gives 384 employed producing house coal from the Penclawdd seam. ¹
• The Penlan seam dips north east at between one in one and a half and one in three, outcrops on the surface under a thick bed of sandstone, and the workings are wet. West of the Main Slant a large fault some 350 yards out throws the seam down, so that cross-measure drifts had to be driven through a belt about two hundred yards wide of dead ground to recover it; a second large fault lies 1,200 yards from the slant. ²
• An inrush of water took place in the Penlan seam at about half past five on the evening of 27 November 1924, by which five lives were lost; sixty-seven people were in the mine at the time. The debris blocked Nos. 6 and 7 West Levels, the scouring water undermined supports and brought down falls, and silt blocked the suction pieces of the pumps and put them out of commission. ²
• The Inspector found the colliery plan was not as accurate as required by section 20(1) of the Coal Mines Act: workings between No. 6 and No. 7 West Levels had not been surveyed and were put on the plan from information supplied by the manager. He wrote that he did not accept the manager's statement that he knew Wolsey's top hole was within a few feet of No. 4 Level, and that his belief was that through the plan being inaccurate the manager enjoyed a false sense of security. No boring whatever was done. ²
• The jury found that workings in No. 6 Level had approached within forty yards of No. 4 Level to the knowledge of the manager and the agent, but could not agree whether either was guilty of want of reasonable and ordinary precaution; it found the five deaths accidental. Informations were laid against the agent Joseph Tanner and the manager William John over alleged breaches of sections 20(1) and 68 of the Coal Mines Act 1911. ²
• Dunvant Community Council installed a memorial in Dunvant car park in 1996 to commemorate those who lost their lives. Its text had become illegible over time, and Swansea Council's Gower National Landscape team, with local councillors and community groups, restored it in time for the centenary in November 2024 — the structure unchanged, with new bilingual signage, funded by the Welsh Government's Sustainable Landscapes, Sustainable Places fund. ³
• On Sunday 24 November 2024 at half past three, Dunvant's Ebeneser Chapel held a service for the community to mark the hundredth anniversary of the disaster, with the Dunvant Male Choir. ³
• The memorial names the men who died on 27 November 1924 as Wilfred John, seventeen; Willie Goulding, twenty-two; Charles Evans, thirty; Archie Davis, twenty-eight; and Phil Godbeer, thirty-two. The Inspector of Mines' report of 1924 names them as Wilfrid John, fifteen; James Goulding, twenty-one; Charles Evans, thirty-nine; Archie Davies, twenty-eight; and Philip Godbeer, thirty-two. (disputed) ^2,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Killan colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Inundation of water at Killan Colliery, 27 November 1924 — 1924 Mines Inspectors Report, Swansea Division (No. 7), by W. J. Charlton, H.M. Inspector of Mines — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Restored memorial commemorates 100th anniversary of mine disaster — City and County of Swansea

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