Nantmelyn Colliery

Overview

A Cwmdare colliery sunk by Mordecai Jones in 1856, run to liquidation by 1895, then reopened and renamed Bwllfa No. 2 -- growing to employ over a thousand men before closure in 1957.

History

Nantmelyn Colliery's shaft began sinking in 1856 under Mordecai Jones, and the mine was worked by the Aberdare Merthyr Colliery Company until that company went into liquidation in 1895. It was reopened in 1898 by the Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare Steam Coal Company, which renamed it Bwllfa No. 2 Colliery, folding it into the same numbered-pit system as the neighbouring Bwllfa Colliery (Bwllfa No. 1). Under its new name the colliery grew substantially: in 1907-08 it employed 557 men underground and 100 on the surface under manager E. Pugh, rising to 657 by 1909-11; by 1913 the wider operation, including the Brickyard, Gorllwyn and New Drifts workings, employed 973 men, and by 1916 1,090. The colliery finally closed in 1957, when coal extraction ceased across the wider Dare valley, and the site was demolished and landscaped in the early 1970s, becoming part of Dare Valley Country Park. Welsh Coal Mines dates Mordecai Jones's opening of the pit to 1860, four years after the sinking began; under the Bwllfa name it worked the Yard, Gellideg and New seams in the 1920s and still employed 572 with the New Drift No. 4 in 1945.

Geology

Coal of the South Wales field in the Cynon valley; the seams worked are not recorded.

Workings

Renamed Bwllfa No. 2 Colliery after its 1898 reopening; by 1916 the wider operation (including the Brickyard, Gorllwyn and New Drifts workings) employed 1,090 men.

Closure

Closed in 1957 when coal extraction ceased across the Dare valley; the site was demolished and landscaped in the early 1970s into Dare Valley Country Park.

What remains

Demolished and landscaped in the early 1970s; the site now forms part of Dare Valley Country Park.

No original colliery structures survive; the site is now parkland.

Related mines

• Bwllfa Dare Colliery — Renamed Bwllfa No. 2 in 1898 and worked with Bwllfa No. 1 by the same company.
• Merthyr Dare Colliery — Catalogued on the same abandonment plans and owned by the same Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare companies.

Disasters & major incidents

• Nantmelyn Colliery roof fall, 1893
  22 December 1893 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A fall of rock in an untimbered heading at Nantmelyn Colliery, Cwmdare, on 22 December 1893 killed at least two colliers, one of them seventeen.
• Nantmelyn Colliery roof fall, 1895
  12 November 1895 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A fall of roof at Nantmelyn Colliery, Cwmdare, on Tuesday 12 November 1895 killed the collier John Dean outright and so badly injured his workmate William Williams that he died the same day.

Recorded claims

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

• Nantmelyn Colliery's shaft was sunk from 1856 by Mordecai Jones and worked by the Aberdare Merthyr Colliery Company until its 1895 liquidation; it was reopened in 1898 by the Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare Steam Coal Company, which renamed it Bwllfa No. 2 Colliery. ¹
• Employment grew from 557 underground and 100 surface workers in 1907-08 to 1,090 men across the wider operation (including the Brickyard, Gorllwyn and New Drifts workings) by 1916. ²
• Welsh Coal Mines has Bwllfa No. 2, also known as Nant Melin, opened by Mordecai Jones in 1860, employing 231 in 1896, 657 in 1908 and 931 with the New Drift No. 4 and the Gorllwyn level in 1918; in 1923 it worked the Yard, Gellideg and New seams with 388 men underground, and in 1945 the pit and New Drift No. 4 employed 572. ³
• The Mining Remediation Authority's abandonment plans catalogue the pit as 'Nantmelyn or Bwllfa No. 2' with the Brickyard, Longrange, Kirkhouse, Forest, Bryn Gwyn, Graig and Gorllwyn levels (SWR1911, Gorllwyn seam) and with the Merthyr Dare and Llwynhelig levels and Bwllfa Nos. 1 and 3 (SWR1905, Gorllwyn and Gorllwyn Fach seams). ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cwmdare — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Nantmelyn Colliery, Aberdare — Loquis
3. (secondary) Bwllfa Colliery (Welsh Coal Mines) — welshcoalmines.co.uk
4. (primary) Nantmelyn or Bwllfa No. 2 abandonment plans SWR1911 (BGS mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 1 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026