National Colliery

Overview

A Rhondda Fach colliery, locally nicknamed 'Cwtch', whose 1905 explosion killed all but three of the 122 men and boys working the Nine Feet seam that morning — one of the deadliest disasters in the history of British coal mining.

History

National Colliery was sunk around 1880 by Mathew Cope and Henry Tennet at Pont Rhyd y Cwch in the Rhondda Fach valley — a name that survived informally as the colliery's local nickname, 'Cwtch', even after the surrounding settlement was renamed Wattstown, after Edmund Hannay Watts, one of its later owners. Ownership changed before any coal was produced, passing to the United National Steam Company. Two shafts were sunk to the Six Feet seam at 454 yards; the upcast shaft was deepened in 1894 to reach the Lower Five Feet seam at 555 yards. By the 1920s the colliery was working the Nine Feet, Five Feet and Gellideg seams at No. 1 Pit and the Nine Feet, Two Feet Nine and Four Feet seams at No. 2 Pit.

On 11 July 1905, an explosion tore through the Nine Feet seam workings, killing all but three of the 122 men and boys at work there that morning — 119 dead, 33 of them under the age of fifteen (see Disasters, below). The colliery continued working for over sixty years afterward. It merged with Standard Collieries in 1912 to form United National Collieries Co. Ltd, later becoming part of Ocean United National; employment across the twentieth century fluctuated between around 760 and 1,500 workers. National Colliery finally closed in 1968.

Geology

Coal of the South Wales field in the Rhondda Fach: the Six Feet seam at 454 yards, and the Nine Feet, where the 1905 explosion killed all but three of the 122 men and boys at work.

Workings

Worked from two shafts, sunk to the Six Feet seam at 454 yards and deepened in 1894 to reach the Lower Five Feet seam at 555 yards, later drawing coal from the Nine Feet, Five Feet, Gellideg, Two Feet Nine and Four Feet seams at its two pits.

Closure

Closed in 1968.

What remains

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• National Colliery explosion, 1887
  1887 · Explosion · 39 fatalities
  At 6.40 p.m. on 18 February 1887 an explosion swept the Four Feet seam of the National Colliery at Wattstown in the Rhondda, a dry, dusty and gassy pit where shots were fired in the roads. Thirty-nine died; the last parts of the workings were not reached for five days.
• National Colliery explosion, 1905
  11 July 1905 · Explosion · 119 fatalities
  A firedamp explosion in the Nine Feet seam workings at National Colliery, Wattstown, on the morning of 11 July 1905 killed 119 of the 122 men and boys at work there, one of the worst disasters in the history of the South Wales coalfield.
• National Colliery roof fall, 1913
  18 December 1913 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
  A timberman and his assistant ripping down the roof of a haulage road at National Colliery, Wattstown, were killed on 18 December 1913 when a large piece fell out.

Recorded claims

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

• National Colliery was sunk around 1880 by Mathew Cope and Henry Tennet at Pont Rhyd y Cwch, surviving locally as the nickname 'Cwtch' even after the settlement was renamed Wattstown. ¹
• Two shafts were sunk to the Six Feet seam at 454 yards; the upcast shaft was deepened in 1894 to reach the Lower Five Feet seam at 555 yards. ¹
• The colliery merged with Standard Collieries in 1912 to form United National Collieries Co. Ltd, later becoming part of Ocean United National. ¹
• National Colliery closed in 1968. ¹
• On 11 July 1905, an explosion in the Nine Feet seam workings killed all but three of the 122 men and boys at work there, 119 dead in total. ^2,3

Sources

1. (secondary) National Colliery Wattstown — welshcoalmines.co.uk
2. (secondary) National Colliery Explosion - Wattstown - 1905 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) National Colliery disaster — Wikipedia

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 27 August 2026