Moreton Colliery

Overview

An anthracite colliery at Moreton near Saundersfoot, worked from about 1770 to 1887, where a woman and two boys fell to their deaths in the shaft in 1847 and firedamp explosions killed three in 1860 and two boys in 1870.

History

Moreton Colliery, near Saundersfoot in the Pembrokeshire anthracite field, was opened about 1770. In 1777 it employed thirty men, paid eightpence or ninepence a day, and eight women at fourpence. It had three pits, each about 300 feet deep, two to the Rock and Timber Veins and the third to the Lower Level seam.

In 1839 Septimus Stephen Williamson, born at Holywell in north Wales, took a mineral lease of Moreton with several others, and he stayed involved in the Moreton Coal Company until the 1880s; when he died in 1898 he was probably the wealthiest man in nineteenth-century Saundersfoot. The pit was a dangerous one. In July 1847 Martha John of Prouts Park and two boys, all about thirteen, fell to their deaths while being lowered down the shaft, her presence underground being against the Act of 1842. On 20 October 1860 firedamp exploded at seven in the morning, probably at a naked light or faulty lamp, in a pit about twenty fathoms deep, killing three men and badly burning a dozen more. In the late 1860s the upcast shaft was deepened to the Lower Level seam, reached at 316 yards, and in the autumn of 1870 another explosion in the new pit killed two boys, Owen Richards, 14, of Norchard and Thomas Jones, 13, of Jeffreston, and burnt eight others.

Vickerman and Co. owned the colliery in 1880, the Saundersfoot and Tenby Collieries Ltd from 1882, and the Moreton Coal Company from 1884, with D. Price as manager. It closed in 1887.

Geology

Pembrokeshire anthracite: the Rock and Timber Veins and the Lower Level seam.

Workings

Three pits of about 300 feet in the eighteenth century; the upcast was deepened to the Lower Level seam at 316 yards in the late 1860s.

Closure

The Rock and Timber workings were abandoned in 1882 and 1885; the colliery closed in 1887.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Bonville's Court Colliery — Moreton's workings are on joint abandonment plans with Bonvilles Court, Cants, Foxhole and Tower.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The 1870 explosion happened on 18 October 1870. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• In 1777 it employed thirty men at 8d or 9d a day and eight women at 4d. ¹
• It had three pits of about 300 feet, two to the Rock and Timber Veins and one to the Lower Level seam. ¹
• An explosion in the autumn of 1870 killed two boys, Owen Richards and Thomas Jones, and burnt eight others; the inquest found accidental death. ^1,2
• The 1870 explosion happened on a Friday morning at the new pit of Mr C. C. Williamson, reported on 8 October. ³
• The 1870 explosion happened on 18 October 1870. (disputed) ¹
• The Rock and Timber workings were abandoned in 1882 and 1885. ^4,5
• The colliery closed in 1887. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Bonville's Court Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines, from the Inspector of Mines lists
2. (primary) Pembrokeshire Herald, 21 October 1870: The late explosion at Moreton Colliery — National Library of Wales, Welsh Newspapers
3. (primary) Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 8 October 1870: Terrible colliery explosion — National Library of Wales, Welsh Newspapers
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: MORETON, Rock and Timber seams, abandoned 1882 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: MORETON, Rock Timber seam, abandoned 1885 — British Geological Survey

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