North Tunnel Colliery

Overview

A Dowlais Iron Company level working the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam under manager T. Phillips in the late 1870s, very likely the same pit recorded elsewhere simply as "Tunnel" among the shared workings of the wider Dowlais Collieries complex.

History

North Tunnel Colliery worked the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam under the ownership of the Dowlais Iron Company, managed by T. Phillips in 1878; no further dates for it survive in that account. A pit named simply "Tunnel" appears repeatedly in a separate account of the wider Dowlais Collieries complex's shared seam workings — among the pits working the Lower-Four-Feet seam (abandoned August 1908, its top section July 1917), the Little or Seven-Feet seam (July 1917), the Rhas Las or Nine-Feet seam (May 1917) and the Red Vein (October 1917). Given the matching Four-Feet-family seam and the same district, this "Tunnel" is very likely North Tunnel Colliery continuing under a shortened name into the 1900s and 1910s, though this has not been independently confirmed.

Geology

Worked the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam; possibly also the Lower-Four-Feet, Little/Seven-Feet, Rhas Las/Nine-Feet and Red Vein seams if identical with "Tunnel".

Workings

A level working the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam; possibly the same pit later sharing the Lower-Four-Feet, Little/Seven-Feet, Rhas Las/Nine-Feet and Red Vein seams with the wider Dowlais Collieries complex.

Closure

No closure date is recorded for North Tunnel itself; if it is the "Tunnel" of the wider complex, that pit's seam workings continued into 1917.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Dowlais Ironworks — One of the Dowlais Iron Company levels working the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam to feed the Dowlais Ironworks.

Nearby mines

• Tommo Colliery — 0.4 km SE
• Morgan's Colliery — 0.5 km S
• Blaen Rhas Colliery — 0.6 km S
• Meredith's Colliery — 0.7 km SW
• Fochriw Colliery — 0.8 km SE, Caerphilly

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.

• Worked the Big Vein (Four-Feet) seam under the Dowlais Iron Company, managed by T. Phillips in 1878. ¹
• A pit named simply "Tunnel" is recorded sharing the Lower-Four-Feet, Little/Seven-Feet, Rhas Las/Nine-Feet and Red Vein seams with the wider Dowlais Collieries complex into 1917; very likely the same pit as North Tunnel, though not independently confirmed. (uncertain) ²
• Part of the wider Dowlais Collieries complex, the umbrella name for everything worked for the Dowlais Iron Works. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Small collieries of the Dowlais Cwmbargoed & Penydarren areas — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dowlais Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society

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