Lower Graigola Colliery

Overview

A Clydach colliery of the Lower Graigola Colliery Company, linked to the Cwmdu and Maesmelyn slants, which employed up to 66 men during the First World War and abandoned the Graigola seam in 1926.

History

Lower Graigola Colliery lay at Clydach in the Swansea Valley. It was worked by the Lower Graigola Colliery Company of Pontardawe, which was not a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association. It employed 30 men in 1912, 51 in 1915 and 66 in 1916, its largest workforce, with J. L. Evans as manager through the war years; in 1915 its employees sent a wreath to the funeral of William Bowen, alongside those of the neighbouring Upper Graigola Colliery.

It was linked to the Cwmdu and Maesmelyn slants and worked the Four-Feet, Five-Feet and Twenty Inch seams as well as the Graigola. Employment stayed between 45 and 59 from 1918 to 1922. In December 1919 David Lewis of Birchgrove, a deacon at Saron Church, was seriously injured by a fall of coal and stone at the colliery and taken to Swansea Hospital.

Numbers fell to 16 in 1924 and 12 in 1926. The Lower Graigola, Old Cwmdu and Middle workings abandoned the Graigola seam in April 1926.

Geology

The Graigola, Four-Feet, Five-Feet and Twenty Inch seams.

Workings

Linked to the Cwmdu and Maesmelyn slants; the Lower Graigola, Old Cwmdu and Middle workings.

Closure

The Graigola seam was abandoned in April 1926.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Upper Graigola Colliery — Neighbouring Graigola collieries at Clydach whose workmen sent wreaths together to the same 1915 funeral.

Recorded claims

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

• Owned by the Lower Graigola Colliery Company of Pontardawe, not a member of the coal owners' association. ^1,2
• Employed 66 men in 1916. ¹
• J. L. Evans was manager from 1915 to 1920. ¹
• In December 1919 David Lewis of Birchgrove was seriously injured by a fall of coal and stone at the colliery. ³
• The Graigola seam was abandoned in April 1926. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Small collieries in the Pontardawe area — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) The Late Mr Wm. Bowen (Llais Llafur, 4 September 1915) — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)
3. (primary) At the Lower Graigola Colliery (Llais Llafur, 27 December 1919) — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)

Record created: 15 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026