Pant-y-Waun Colliery

Overview

Two levels near the northern outcrop of the coalfield at Dowlais, working the Black Vein seam under Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in the early twentieth century, the peak years of the vast Dowlais Ironworks that they fed.

History

Pant-y-Waun Colliery consisted of a series of two levels near the northern outcrop of the coalfield at Dowlais, opened around 1873. It worked the Black Vein seam, employing 135 men in 1912 and 157 in 1913 under the ownership of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited, before being abandoned in May 1924. The Dowlais Ironworks the colliery fed had been founded in 1759 and, at its Victorian peak in 1845, ran 18 blast furnaces, employed 7,300 people and produced 88,400 tons of iron a year — for a time the largest ironworks in the world. Sir Ivor Guest sold the works in 1899 to Arthur Keen, who formed Guest, Keen & Co. Ltd; in 1902 Keen bought Nettlefolds Limited to create Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds (GKN), the company that owned Pant-y-Waun through its working life. The main Dowlais works survived into the 1930s before closing in 1936, largely as a result of the Great Depression, by which time GKN had already built a new works at East Moors, Cardiff.

Geology

Worked the Black Vein seam of the South Wales Coalfield.

Workings

Two levels near the northern outcrop of the coalfield, working the Black Vein seam.

Closure

Abandoned in May 1924.

What remains

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Fochriw Colliery — 0.3 km N, Caerphilly
• Cae Glas Colliery — 1.5 km S
• Dowlais Ironworks — 3.2 km W
• Albert Colliery — 3.7 km W
• Brewhouse Colliery — 3.9 km W

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.

• A series of two levels near the northern outcrop of the coalfield at Dowlais, opened around 1873, working the Black Vein seam. ¹
• Employed 135 men in 1912 and 157 in 1913 under Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited, before abandonment in May 1924. ¹
• The Dowlais Ironworks, at its 1845 peak, ran 18 blast furnaces and employed 7,300 people; Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds was formed in 1899–1902 when Arthur Keen bought the works and merged them with Nettlefolds Limited, and owned Pant-y-Waun through its GKN years. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

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

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