Leeswood Green Colliery

Overview

A Flintshire cannel pit at Leeswood, four miles from Mold, whose English underground manager banned Welsh below ground and then cut wages: the men marched him to the station in May 1869, and when two of them were jailed for it the soldiers fired on the crowd at Mold and killed four people. Two more colliers died here in 1872, choked by blackdamp.

History

Collieries were developed at Leeswood — Coed-llai — from the early years of the nineteenth century: Leeswood Hill, Leeswood Valley, Leeswood Green and Leeswood Main. What made the village briefly rich was cannel, a hard, bright coal that could be distilled for oil, and the companies here are named for it. A list of 1869 gives Leeswood Green under the Leeswood Green Cannel Co. Ltd; the official return of 1880 gives 'Leaswood Green, Wrexham, Leaswood Cannel and Gas Coal Co., Limited'; by 1896 it is Leeswood Green Nos. 1, 2 and 3 under Thomas Parry and Co. of Mold, ninety-nine people employed, raising house and steam coal; and it reappears in 1923 under the Leeswood Green Colliery Co. Ltd with forty-two people, working the Powell seam for house, steam and manufacturing coal. In 1863 an underground manager from the north-east of England, John Young, was brought in to replace a Welshman. By 1869 the men had a list of grievances against him: that he refused them proper roof timbers, that he spoke disrespectfully of the Welsh colliers as a body, that he gave the easy stalls to imported English miners, and — the charge the riot is remembered for — that he had banned the use of Welsh underground. Coal prices were down that year, and a notice of a wage reduction for turning out dirty cannel took effect on 17 May. On the 19th more than two hundred men confronted Young, demanded the old rate, and marched him to the railway station with his fare paid to England; his house at Cae Gwial was stripped and its contents carried off. Young placed himself under police protection and laid charges. Eight colliers were charged with assaulting him; two ringleaders, Ishmael Jones and John Jones, were sentenced on 2 June to a month's hard labour and the rest were fined. A crowd of over a thousand had gathered at Mold to hear the verdict, and the Chief Constable of Flintshire had brought in police from across the county and fifty men of the 2nd battalion of the 4th King's Own from Chester. As the prisoners were walked the two hundred yards from the County Hall to the station, stones were thrown; the soldiers opened fire on the crowd and four people were killed, two of them women. Three years later, on 26 July 1872, two more Leeswood men died at the Green pit itself, choked by blackdamp through deficient ventilation (see Disasters, below).

Geology

The pit worked the cannel and coal of the Flintshire coalfield, on the eastern edge of the Welsh massif where the Coal Measures run north from Wrexham through Mold to the Dee. Cannel is a hard, dull-black coal, rich in hydrogen and formed from algal muds, which burns with a bright flame and — the reason for the boom here — can be distilled for oil and gas. The Leeswood ground lies between two large faults running north to south, and the 1923 return names the Powell seam.

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

Workings

By 1896 the colliery was worked as Nos. 1, 2 and 3, employing ninety-nine people; by 1923 it was down to forty-two on the Powell seam. The Julia Pit, on the west side of the fault that separated this ground from the Leeswood Main workings, was worked by the Leeswood Green Colliery Co. until August 1862 and by the Leeswood Cannel and Gas Coal Co. thereafter. The 1872 deaths turned on ventilation the inquest found deficient.

Closure

The colliery was still returned in 1923 with forty-two people employed. No closure date has been established from the sources read.

What remains

No description of what survives of the Green pit has been found. Leeswood is a village of some two thousand people; the tramway that latterly served the Phoenix Collieries in the same ground is now a gully behind the community centre.

None identified in the sources consulted.

Redevelopment

None recorded in the sources consulted.

Related mines

• Leeswood Main Colliery — Adjacent Leeswood workings separated by the western of the two faults that bound this ground, with the Julia Pit between them: it was worked by the Leeswood Green Colliery Co. until August 1862 and by the Leeswood Cannel and Gas Coal Co. after that, and the latter company subscribed to the relief fund after the Flue Pit disaster.

Nearby mines

• Leeswood Main Colliery — 0.4 km N
• Brymbo Colliery — 7.4 km S, Wrexham
• Llay Main Colliery — 8.1 km SE, Wrexham
• Minera Lead Mines — 8.1 km SE, Wrexham
• Brynmally Colliery — 9.1 km SE, Wrexham

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Disasters & major incidents

• Leeswood Green Blackdamp Deaths, 1872
  26 July 1872 · Gas / Asphyxiation · 2 fatalities
  Two Leeswood men, Morgan Edwards and Frank Jones, were killed at the Leeswood Green pit on 26 July 1872, the cause of death recorded as choked by blackdamp caused by deficient ventilation. Frank Jones left a wife and a number of children.

Recorded claims

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

• A list of 1869 gives Leeswood Green under the Leeswood Green Cannel Co. Ltd; the 1880 return gives 'Leaswood Green, Wrexham, Leaswood Cannel and Gas Coal Co., Limited'; 1896 gives Nos. 1, 2 and 3 under Thomas Parry and Co. with ninety-nine employed; 1923 gives the Leeswood Green Colliery Co. Ltd with forty-two on the Powell seam. ^1,2
• John Young, the English underground manager, was charged by the men with favouring imported English colliers with easy stalls, speaking disrespectfully of the Welsh colliers as a body, refusing them proper roof timbers, and being instrumental in a wage reduction; a further account adds that he had banned the use of Welsh underground. ^2,3,4
• Two ringleaders, Ishmael Jones and John Jones, were sentenced to a month's imprisonment on 2 June 1869; as they were escorted from the County Hall to the railway station the crowd threw stones, the soldiers opened fire, and four people were killed, two of them women. ^2,3
• The Annual Register says notice of a reduction for turning out dirty cannel took effect on the 17th and that Young was ejected on the 19th; the Leeswood Community account says the notice was posted on 1 May, that the reduction was due to start on 17 May when three hundred men did not turn up, and that he was confronted two days later. (disputed) ^3,4
• Leeswood was the centre of attention during the Mold Riot of 1869, in which the owners of a local coal mine refused to allow the speaking of Welsh in the mines. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
2. (secondary) Leeswood Collieries — Welsh Coal Mines
3. (primary) Fatal Riot at Mold, from the Annual Register for 1869, 2 June 1869 — Annual Register, transcribed by the Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) The Mold Riots, by Colin Ashbury, from Leeswood, Past and Present — Leeswood Community
5. (secondary) Leeswood — Wikipedia

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 8 September 2026