Oakwood Colliery (Pontrhydyfen)

Overview

A colliery of some sixty slants and pits for coal and ironstone on the hillside above Pontrhydyfen in the Afan valley, begun about 1848 by the English copper company at Cwmavon and worked by its successors down to Baldwins, then as the Oakwood Colliery Company's drift from 1912, where an explosion of gas and coal dust killed four men in November 1920; it closed in 1927.

History

Oakwood was never one pit but a series of slants and pits on the hillside above Pontrhydyfen, about sixty of them over time, driven for coal and for the ironstone that fed the works at Cwmavon. They were started about 1848 by the English company of copper miners that owned the Cwmavon copper works, and passed with the works to the Governor and Company of Copper Miners in the 1860s, the Cwmavon Estate and House Company in the 1880s, Wright, Butler and Company in the 1890s and Baldwins Limited in the 1900s. On 8 December 1853 rubbish falling down the balance pit shaft of No. 13 killed three, among them William Williams aged fourteen and John James aged thirteen. The slants were abandoned one by one from the 1850s: No. 10 ironstone in 1851, Nos. 13 and 29 in 1862, Nos. 11, 12 and 63 in 1863, Nos. 27 and 28 in 1866, No. 21 in 1867, No. 9 and No. 31 in 1876, No. 49 in 1877. In 1896 Wright, Butler employed 134 men underground and 16 on the surface under the manager Fred E. Jacob, raising manufacturing coal, and in 1908 Baldwins had 108 below and 16 above at Nos. 27 and 31.

The Oakwood Colliery Company opened a new slant in 1912 with 12 men, 45 by the NMRS count, and by 1918 had 308 men underground and 57 on the surface under W. Jones. In the early hours of Monday 18 November 1920, with 40 men below, a shot fired at the face of No. 15 heading set off an explosion of gas and coal dust. The fireman Idris James was burned but crawled out; the colliers James Davies and his son Handel, seventeen, and the assistant repairer Haydn Nicholas died of the afterdamp at the face, and the repairer David William Davies died of burns at Aberavon Hospital on the 22nd. The Home Secretary told the Commons on 22 November, from the inspector's first report, that three had been killed and two injured, and the inquest jury found that the explosion was caused by the shotfiring, which may have released a blower.

Under the Tymaen Colliery Company from 1923 the drift raised coking, house and manufacturing coal from the Wernpistyll and Field Vein seams, with 450 men in 1922, 333 in 1923, 364 in 1924 and about 300 in 1925. It closed in 1927 with 186 men.

Geology

Coal and ironstone of the Afan valley: the Yard, Four Feet, Five Feet, Upper and Lower Four Feet, Big, Fiery, White, Clay, Jonah, Golden, Tormynydd, Wernddu, Wernpistyll and Field seams and the Black Band ironstone, worked from slants on the hillside.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

About sixty numbered slants and a few pits driven into the hillside between 1848 and 1877, with balance pits at the earlier workings; the Nos. 27 and 31 slants in the 1900s and the Oakwood Colliery Company's new slant of 1912, where No. 15 heading was the site of the 1920 explosion.

Closure

Closed in 1927 under the Tymaen Colliery Company with 186 men; no reason is recorded.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Cwmavon Copper Works — The Oakwood slants were driven from 1848 by the copper company that owned the Cwmavon works, to feed them with coal and ironstone, and passed with the works through the Governor and Company, the Cwmavon Estate company and Wright, Butler.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Oakwood Colliery Company employed 45 men in 1912 when it opened the new slant. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The Oakwood slants and pits were started about 1848 by the English company of copper miners that owned the Cwmavon copper works. ^1,2
• On 8 December 1853 rubbish falling down the balance pit shaft at No. 13 killed three, including William Williams, 14, and John James, 13. ^1,2
• The owners were the Governor and Company of Copper Miners by 1869, the Cwmavon Estate and House Company by 1884, Wright, Butler and Company by 1896 and Baldwins Limited by 1908. ^1,2
• In 1896 Wright, Butler and Company employed 134 men underground and 16 on the surface under the manager Fred E. Jacob, producing manufacturing coal. ¹
• The Oakwood Colliery Company opened a new slant in 1912, employing 12 men there that year, and 308 underground and 57 on the surface by 1918 under the manager W. Jones. ¹
• The Oakwood Colliery Company employed 45 men in 1912 when it opened the new slant. (disputed) ²
• On 18 November 1920 an explosion of gas and coal dust after a shot in No. 15 heading killed four men: James Davies, 43, his son Handel, 17, Haydn Nicholas, 24, and David William Davies, 40, who died of burns on the 22nd. ^1,3
• The Home Secretary told the Commons on 22 November 1920 that the explosion had killed three persons and injured two, one of them the fireman who had just fired a shot. ⁴
• The colliery employed 450 men in 1922, 333 in 1923, 364 in 1924 and 186 when it was abandoned in 1927. ²
• From 1923 the Tymaen Colliery Company of Oakwood Chambers, Port Talbot, worked the Wernpistyll and Field Vein seams for coking, house and manufacturing coal, with 300 men in 1925. ¹
• Samuel Bennett, a collier aged 55, was killed at Oakwood on 15 July 1914. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Oakwood slants, Pontrhydyfen; Cwmmawr Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Oak Wood Colliery, Pontrhydyfen — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines fatalities, 1920 — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (primary) Oakwood Drift Colliery, Pontrhydyfen (Hansard, HC Deb 22 November 1920 vol 135 c3) — Hansard
5. (secondary) NMRS deaths database: Samuel Bennett, Oakwood, 1914 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 20 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026