Llancaiach Colliery

Overview

One of the earliest of Thomas Powell's South Wales coal ventures, opened in 1811 just north of Nelson, part of his wider mining interests around Gelligaer and served from 1841 by its own dedicated branch of the Taff Vale Railway.

History

Llancaiach Colliery was opened by Thomas Powell in 1811, just to the north of the village of Nelson and south of Llancaiach Fawr Manor, as part of his wider mining interests around Gelligaer — a different area of the South Wales Valleys from the Rhondda, where his contemporary Walter Coffin was operating at Dinas. In 1841, when it was owned by Messrs Duncan & Co., it employed 56 men and boys, 13 of them under 13 years old; its shaft ran 84 yards to the Mynyddislwyn seam, and the next year the Royal Commission heard its overseer say that the children below were half starved and never grew like other children. From 1841 the colliery was served by its own dedicated branch line of the Taff Vale Railway, the Llancaiach Branch, designed by Brunel and running from Navigation (Abercynon) to link Powell's Gelligaer workings to the wider rail network. By 1847 it belonged to Powell's Gelligaer Coal Company, whose profits from small pits like this helped him into deep mining in the Cynon Valley; the Worthingtons held it from the 1850s, and the Gelligaer Colliery Company then worked it with the neighbouring Gelligaer Colliery, installing in 1869 a Cornish pumping engine to lift 1,350 gallons a minute from 104 yards. Operational problems continued, and in May 1887 the manager was told to close the pit at once; Llancaiach and Gelligaer stopped together, and the colliery closed in 1887.

Geology

The colliery worked the Mynyddislwyn seam of the South Wales coalfield.

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

Workings

A shaft 84 yards deep to the Mynyddislwyn seam; in 1841 coal was wound by a steam winder to a point 24 yards below the surface and taken out through a level lower down the hillside. From 1869 a Cornish engine pumped the Llancaiach and Gelligaer workings from 104 yards.

Closure

Closed in 1887 after 76 years of working. Troubled by water, the Gelligaer Colliery Company survived a winding-up petition in 1879, but in May 1887 the manager was ordered to close the pit immediately, and Llancaiach and Gelligaer stopped together.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Gelligaer Colliery — Worked together by the Gelligaer Colliery Company, sharing a Cornish pumping engine from 1869, until both closed in May 1887.

Recorded claims

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

• Llancaiach Colliery was opened by Thomas Powell in 1811, part of his wider mining interests around Gelligaer, a different area from the Rhondda coalfield worked by his contemporary Walter Coffin. ^1,2
• From 1841 the colliery was served by its own dedicated Llancaiach Branch of the Taff Vale Railway, running from Navigation (Abercynon). ¹
• A collier, Hopkin Richard, fell down the shaft to his death in June 1849; a twelve-year-old boy, S. Osbourne, was killed by a fall of roof in May 1850 — both single-fatality incidents, neither meeting this archive's disaster threshold. ²
• In 1841, owned by Messrs Duncan & Co., the colliery employed 56 men and boys, 13 of them under 13; its shaft was 84 yards deep to the Mynyddislwyn seam, and coal was wound by a steam winder to a point 24 yards below the surface, then taken out by a level lower down the hillside. ³
• The Royal Commission of 1842 recorded the overseer, Richard Andrews, saying that the children below were half starved and never grew like other children. ³
• By 1847 the colliery belonged to Thomas Powell's Gelligaer Coal Company; J. & G. Worthington held it in 1858 and G. S. Worthington in the 1860s, and it then passed to the Gelligaer Colliery Company, which worked it with the neighbouring Gelligaer Colliery under the general management of Whitfield Ralph. ³
• In 1869 a Cornish engine supplied by Loam and Son of Liskeard with Harvey and Company of Hayle, at a cost of £2,400, was installed to raise 1,350 gallons a minute from 104 yards at the Gelligaer and Llancaiach collieries. ³
• After a petition to wind up the company was dismissed in 1879, operational problems continued, and in May 1887 the manager was instructed to close the pit at once; Llancaiach and the adjacent Gelligaer colliery ceased work together. ³
• The 3-mile Llancaiach branch of the Taff Vale Railway, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1841 from a junction south of Abercynon to carry the Llancaiach collieries' coal to Cardiff. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Llancaiach Colliery — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Nelson area mine workings — Llancaiach Colliery — Treharris District
3. (secondary) Llancaiach Colliery (Gelligaer, Llancaiach and Top Hill collieries) — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (secondary) Llancaiach Branch — Wikipedia
5. (secondary) POWELL, THOMAS (1779?-1863), coal-owner — Dictionary of Welsh Biography

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 18 September 2026