Mountain Colliery

Overview

A drift at Pen-heol-garreg, Merthyr Tydfil, opened by the Plymouth Iron Company in 1871 and worked on and off for over half a century afterwards.

History

Mountain Colliery was opened in 1871 by the Plymouth Iron Company, one of the four great Merthyr ironworks concerns, whose works had passed from Anthony Hill to the partnership of Fothergill, Hankey and Bateman on Hill's death in 1862. The mine worked until 1875, then lay idle until 1880, when the Crawshay Brothers — the family behind the rival Cyfarthfa Ironworks — took it back up, reopening old levels to work the pillars of coal left behind by the first working. Under Crawshay management the mine was worked through the following decades: managed by D. Abrahams from 1896, it employed 67 men in 1907, fell to just 6 in 1908, then grew steadily to 146 men by 1913, 239 by 1915, and settled around 116-120 men through 1918-19 and into the early 1920s, with Matthew Truran as general manager across all the Crawshay Brothers' mines. By 1927 it had passed to Thomas' Merthyr Collieries, managed by John Davies and employing 106 men — the last record of it found.

Nearby mines

• Albert Colliery — 1.2 km N
• Gellideg Colliery — 1.2 km NW
• Rhydycar Colliery — 1.2 km W
• Ynysfach Colliery — 1.2 km W
• Cornel Wain Colliery — 1.3 km W

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.

• Opened in 1871 by the Plymouth Iron Company and worked until 1875, then reopened in 1880 by the Crawshay Brothers of Cyfarthfa to work the pillars left by the first working, employing between 6 and 239 men across the following decades under managers D. Abrahams and, by 1927, John Davies for Thomas' Merthyr Collieries. ¹
• The Plymouth Ironworks that opened the mine had passed from Anthony Hill, who adopted the Bessemer process, to the partnership of Fothergill, Hankey and Bateman on his death in 1862, and closed for good in 1882 — the colliery interests continuing under other owners after the works itself shut. ²
• Independent local-history material on "Hill's Plymouth Collieries" describes the mining side of the Plymouth concern as a long-lived, locally remembered employer in its own right, distinct from the ironworks itself, still being worked by named local miners generations after the works had closed. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Small Collieries around Merthyr Tydfil — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Plymouth Ironworks — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Hill's Plymouth Collieries — The Melting Pot (Merthyr Tydfil's History and Culture)

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