North End Colliery

Overview

A level near Tonmawr in the Afan Valley, opened about 1911, which employed around a hundred men in the Wenallt seam in the 1920s; its company went into liquidation in 1928, and Jones and Bevan worked it until the mid-1930s, with a small licensed No. 2 level still at work in 1969.

History

North End was a level near Tonmawr, in the Afan Valley, opened about 1911 under the management of J. Beamand. In March 1913 an agreement was made with John Beamand, a colliery proprietor of Pontrhydyfen, for a siding at the colliery, and that year the North End Colliery Company of Swansea employed 60 men there. The company stayed outside the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners' Association. Under J. H. Pugh as manager the workforce was 89 in 1915-16 and 78, 66 of them underground, in 1918. Re-formed in 1920 as the North End Colliery (1920) Limited of Swansea, it produced 24,000 tons of coking, house and manufacturing coal from the Wenallt seam in 1923 with 94 men, and employed 121 in 1928. In March 1928 the London Gazette announced a meeting of the creditors of the company, then in voluntary liquidation. Jones and Bevan were the owners by 1932, when the colliery had its own washery, and in 1934 the company agreed with the Great Western Railway for sidings near Tonmawr station. The colliery closed in the mid-1930s, when Jones and Bevan moved their interests to the West End No. 2 Level. In 1957-60 a No. 2 North End level was working the Wenallt seam as a licensed mine under J. P. Bevan of Cwmavon, with six men underground and three at the surface, and it still employed eight in 1969.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures: the Wenallt seam, yielding coking, house and manufacturing coal.

Workings

A level (adit) with its own washery by 1932, served by sidings agreed in 1913 and, with the Great Western Railway, in 1934; later a small No. 2 level.

Closure

Closed in the mid-1930s when Jones and Bevan moved to the West End No. 2 Level; a licensed No. 2 North End level was working in 1957-60 and in 1969.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• North End was opened about 1911 and employed 60 men in 1913 under the North End Colliery Company of Swansea. ^1,2
• In March 1913 an agreement was made with John Beamand, colliery proprietor of Pontrhydyfen, for a siding at North End Colliery near Tonmawr. ¹
• In 1923 the North End Colliery (1920) Limited produced 24,000 tons from the Wenallt seam. ^1,2
• In March 1928 the North End Colliery Company (1920) Limited was in voluntary liquidation. ¹
• It closed in the mid-1930s when Jones and Bevan moved their interests to the West End No. 2 Level. ¹
• In 1957-60 a No. 2 North End level worked the Wenallt seam as a licensed mine under J. P. Bevan of Cwmavon; it employed eight men in 1969. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Whitworth Colliery, Tonmawr — Welsh Coal Mines (Glamorgan West) — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) North End Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026