Old Duffryn Colliery

Overview

Thomas Powell's first deep pit at Cwmbach, Aberdare, sunk from 1840 as the Tirffounder Pit and later known as the Old or Upper Duffryn. It shipped the first Welsh steam coal to France, lost 28 men and boys in the explosion of August 1845, and worked until 1925.

History

Thomas Powell had worked levels in the Monmouthshire valleys before he turned to the almost untouched Cynon Valley. In February 1840 he began sinking the Tirffounder Pit at Cwmbach, the first deep mine there, and reached the Four-Feet seam at 247 feet 4 inches in 1842. It was the first of the Powell Duffryn pits, and from it the first Welsh coal was sent to France, to the sugar refineries of Nantes. It became known as the Duffryn, and later the Old or Upper Duffryn.

On 2 August 1845, about three years after the coal was won, an explosion of firedamp in one heading killed everyone working there, 28 men and boys by the newspaper count and 29 by later reckoning. The pit was worked with candles and its old stalls were walled up as they were finished. The inquest jury found the ventilation, though as good as the system allowed, unequal to keeping the men safe, and Powell paid for the funerals. Some accounts place this explosion at the neighbouring Cwmbach Colliery (see Disasters, below).

Powell gave up his collieries in 1863, and the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company was formed in 1864 to work them. The Old Duffryn was never large: it raised 28,991 tons in 1864 and 27,498 tons with 71 men in 1870, only 10,581 tons in 1871, and employed 80 men in 1879. By 1884 it had worked out the Four-Feet and was opening the Two-Feet-Nine. It closed in 1925.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures steam coal. The pit worked the Four-Feet seam and the Upper Four-Feet, which carried 65 inches of coal, 3 inches of dirt and 10 inches of coal, and later the Two-Feet-Nine.

Workings

An elliptical downcast shaft 14 feet by 10, also used for pumping, with a furnace upcast. In 1845 the air was carried by an airway to the face of each heading and returned along the main level; the pit was lit by candles.

Closure

Closed in 1925, after the Four-Feet had been worked out by 1884 and the Two-Feet-Nine opened.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Cwmbach Colliery — Neighbouring pits at Cwmbach; the 1845 explosion is attributed to the Duffryn by the newspapers and to Cwmbach Colliery by NMRS.
• Lower Duffryn Colliery — Both Thomas Powell's Duffryn pits at Aberdare, later worked by the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company.
• Middle Duffryn Colliery — Both Thomas Powell's Duffryn pits at Aberdare, later worked by the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Cwmbach Colliery explosion, 1845
  2 August 1845 · Explosion · 28 fatalities
  An explosion of firedamp in a single heading at Cwmbach, near Aberdare, on 2 August 1845 killed 28 men and boys aged nine to 78, the first great colliery disaster of the Aberdare valley.

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 toll of the 1845 explosion is also given as 29. (uncertain) ^3,1

Recorded claims

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

• Thomas Powell began sinking the pit, then called the Tirffounder Pit, in February 1840 and struck the Four-Feet seam in 1842 at 247 feet 4 inches. ¹
• Thomas Powell sank the first deep mine at Cwmbach, Aberdare, in 1840. ^1,2
• The colliery was later known as the Old or Upper Duffryn. ^3,1
• It was the first of the Powell Duffryn pits, and the first Welsh coal exported to France, for the sugar refineries of Nantes, came from it. ¹
• An explosion of firedamp on 2 August 1845 killed 28 men and boys working in one heading. ^3,4
• The toll of the 1845 explosion is also given as 29. (uncertain) ^3,1
• In 1845 the downcast shaft was 328 feet deep and the colliery was worked with candles. ³
• The colliery produced 28,991 tons in 1864, and in 1870 employed 71 men producing 27,498 tons. ¹
• The Four-Feet seam had been worked out by 1884, when the Two-Feet-Nine was being developed. ¹
• The colliery closed in 1925. ¹
• A plan of the Old Duffryn's Two Feet Nine and Four Feet workings, with Treaman, Aberaman and Middle Duffryn, is catalogued as abandoned in 1911. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Duffryn Old Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Co. Ltd. (Rhondda Cynon Taf heritage trail) — Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council
3. (secondary) The Aberdare Valley Colliery Disasters 1845-1861 — People's Collection Wales
4. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: fatalities, 1845 — Welsh Coal Mines
5. (primary) TREAMAN / ABERAMAN / DUFFRYN MIDDLE / DUFFRYN OLD, Two Feet Nine and Four Feet seams: mine plan catalogue entry (abandoned 1911) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026