Morfa Colliery

Overview

Vivian and Sons' colliery at Taibach, sunk in the 1840s to feed their copper smelter and worked until October 1913. It was a famously gassy pit and killed 168 men and boys in six accidents, including 87 in a single morning in 1890. The men called it the pit of ghosts.

History

Vivian and Sons opened Morfa in the 1840s — the official returns give 1847 and Welsh Coal Mines 1849 — to supply their copper smelting works at Taibach, which they also owned. It had two pits, Abbot and Grange, and worked the Cribbwr and Four Feet seams for coking, household and manufacturing coal. Employment ran from 315 in 1894 to 386 in 1900 and down to 199 by 1910. The colliery's reputation was made by its explosions. Six men died in an explosion of gas on 11 December 1850. Four more on 26 November 1858, one of them carrying a homemade key to his safety lamp in his pocket and the top of the lamp removed — an outlawed practice that saved the walk to the underground lamp room. Forty died on 17 October 1863, the ignition probably caused by a safety lamp. On 14 February 1870 a quantity of blasting powder was ignited while the shaft was being deepened, killing thirty. The worst came on the morning of 10 March 1890, when about 250 men were below ground. Firedamp and coal dust were ignited by shot firing. A hundred or so survivors walked to the pit bottom unaided; a roof fall in a main heading blocked the search for the rest, and rescuers were still clearing it the next morning when five young boys climbed through a gap over the top of it, having made their way out over the bodies of their workmates. Twelve hours further in the rescuers found John Franks alive. On the Wednesday a fire broke out, some of the rescue party got lost in the roadways, and one of them, Brownsell, was brought out unconscious from smoke and afterdamp and died soon after. It took a week to recover all the bodies. The jury found the explosion caused by shot firing igniting a body of gas. Morfa closed in October 1913.

Geology

The Cribbwr and Four Feet seams of the western South Wales coalfield. The pit was well known to be very gassy, which is the thread running through its whole history.

Workings

Two pits, Abbot and Grange, the latter at SS775864. Between two thirds and three quarters of the workforce was below ground. The shaft was being deepened in February 1870 when blasting powder ignited and killed thirty of the men at work on it.

Closure

The colliery closed in October 1913, after sixty-four years of production.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery stands. Its memorial is in the heart of the Tata steelworks site at Port Talbot and commemorates the 168 lives lost in six mining accidents during the colliery's sixty-four years of production.

The memorial inside the steelworks site.

Nearby mines

• Cribbwr Fawr Colliery — 5.5 km SE, Bridgend
• Cwmavon Copper Works — 6.0 km N
• Ynisdavid Colliery — 6.9 km N
• Cornelly Quarries — 7.1 km SE, Bridgend
• Park Slip Colliery — 9.8 km E, Bridgend

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

Recorded claims

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

• Vivian and Sons opened the colliery sometime in 1849, and its produce fed the nearby copper smelter works at Taibach, which was also owned by Vivian and Sons. ¹
• The official returns date the colliery's opening to 1847 and its closure to October 1913, with Abbot Pit and Grange Pit, Vivian and Sons as owner, coking, household and manufacturing coal from the Cribbwr and Four Feet seams, and employment of 315 in 1894, 325 in 1896, 386 in 1900, 320 in 1905 and 199 in 1910. (disputed) ²
• The memorial, in the heart of the Tata steelworks site at Port Talbot, commemorates the 168 lives lost in six mining accidents during the colliery's sixty-four years of production. ³
• On the morning of 10 March 1890 firedamp and coal dust were ignited by shot firing with about 250 men below. Around a hundred survivors walked out unaided. A roof fall blocked the search until, the next morning, five young boys climbed through a gap above it, having come out over the bodies of their workmates; John Franks was found alive twelve hours further in. A fire on the Wednesday scattered the rescue party, and one of them, Brownsell, died of smoke and afterdamp after being brought up. All the bodies were recovered a week after the explosion. ¹
• Reports of strange happenings and ghostly sightings were commonplace at this colliery, and in the weeks before the 1863 explosion they became more frequent; it was commonly believed among the workforce that they were harbingers of disaster. Afterwards they grew rarer except for one apparition of a dog which appeared out of nowhere and vanished again, called the red dog of Morfa. The colliery became known throughout the coalfield as the pit of ghosts. ¹
• Four men were killed in an explosion on 26 November 1858: Aaron Charlton, David Hughes, Isaac Griffiths and his brother-in-law John Williams. The top of one victim's safety lamp had been removed and a homemade key to fit the lamp's lock was found in his pocket — an outlawed and dangerous practice that saved a walk to the underground lamp room where the lamp could be relit in comparative safety. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Morfa Colliery Port Talbot — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Morfa Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (observational) Morfa Colliery Memorial (Geograph 7912305) — Geograph

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026