Llwynymaen Colliery

Overview

The first large working of the Oswestry coalfield, a group of pits run from 1787 by the banker John Gibbons with 140 colliers at work by 1798, sold at his death and drowned out in the 1840s.

History

Coal had been got around Llwynymaen, between Oswestry and Trefonen, long before it was worked at scale. John Gibbons, one of the proprietors of the Oswestry Old Bank, bought part of the Llwynymaen estate and from 1787 took an active part in developing the Morda coalfield, in partnership with Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn and a man named Ireland. The Llwynymaen Company, in which Gibbons probably held eleven-sixteenths, made its first division of profits in 1788: £935. In 1790 a further coal work was bought from a Captain Jones for £2,200, three-quarters by Gibbons and a quarter by the vicar of Oswestry, and more coal was leased from Sir Watkin, until the colliery reached into Trefarclawdd and Llanforda as well as Oswestry. The Universal British Directory of the mid-1790s calls Gibbons proprietor of Llwynymain colliery. By 1798 the partners had 140 colliers at work, against seventy at the neighbouring Trefarclawdd; that year the colliers of Llwynymaen gave £4 0s 6d to the national loan raised against Napoleon. The first pit was sunk on the west side of the Trefonen road, nearly opposite the end of Chain Lane, with a machine house beside it; when that pit flooded another was sunk east of Llwynymaen. The pits produced lime coal and fire coal, and local clay was burnt into bricks with the small coal. In 1806 an engine was bought for £275 and brought by water to Shrewsbury and then overland at a further £15 17s 3d. The last note of coalmining in Gibbons's memorandum book is in 1809. The colliery was sold immediately after his death; by 1830 it was in the hands of Thomas Ireland and Company, who advertised Llwynymaen fire coal in 1831 and worked it until about 1840, when it suffered the usual fate and flooded.

Geology

The Oswestry coalfield, an outlier at the north-west edge of the Shropshire measures, yielding lime-burning coal and fire coal, with clay alongside it that was burnt into bricks.

Workings

A group of pits rather than one: the first on the west side of the Trefonen road nearly opposite Chain Lane, with a machine house beside it that still stands, and later pits to the east after the first flooded. A steam engine was installed in 1806.

Closure

Thomas Ireland and Company worked the colliery until about 1840, when it flooded; both accounts agree the working ended in the 1840s.

What remains

Disused. The spoil heap survives, and so does the machine house in Chain Lane.

The old machine house that served the first pit still stands in Chain Lane, a rare survival of such a building, and the pit's spoil heap remains.

Related mines

• Trefarclawdd Colliery — The neighbouring and rival colliery of the same period, with seventy colliers to Llwynymaen's 140 in 1798.

Recorded claims

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

• John Gibbons, a proprietor of the Oswestry Old Bank, bought part of the Llwynymaen estate and headed the Llwynymaen Company, in which he probably held eleven-sixteenths; its first dividend, in 1788, was £935. ^1,2
• From 1787 Gibbons and his partners carried out the first large-scale exploitation of the Oswestry coalfield. ¹
• By 1798 the Llwynymaen partners had 140 colliers at work, against seventy at the neighbouring Trefarclawdd colliery. ^1,2
• When the national loan against Napoleon was raised in 1798, 140 colliers of Llwynymaen contributed £4 0s 6d and seventy of Trefarclawdd £2 14s 6d. ²
• The first pit was sunk on the west side of the Trefonen road nearly opposite the end of Chain Lane, with a machine house beside it; when it flooded another pit was sunk east of Llwynymaen. ^1,2
• The coal is described as lime-burning coal or fire coal, and local clay was burnt into bricks using the small coal. ¹
• The colliery was sold immediately after Gibbons's death, the last reference to coalmining in his memorandum book being in 1809. ¹
• By 1830 the colliery was in the hands of Thomas Ireland and Company, who advertised Llwynymaen fire coal in 1831 and worked it until about 1840, when it flooded. ²
• The machine house that served the first pit still stands in Chain Lane and is a rare surviving example of such a building. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The Oswestry Coalfield and John Gibbons (British Mining No. 43) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Llwynymaen Collieries — Oswestry Borderland Heritage

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026