Pencoed Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Pencoed, Bynea, on the Loughor estuary east of Llanelli, worked from 1806 by Sims, Willyams and their partners and later by Nevill, Druce and Company, employing nearly 380 men in the Four Foot seam before it closed in 1905.

History

Pencoed lay near the Loughor estuary at Bynea, east of Llanelli, in ground where Thomas Bowen had worked coal by 1752. The colliery is dated from 1806; one record has a coal pit here worked by a single owner from 1800 to 1810 and continuing until 1850, served by a tramway in a twenty-foot-deep cutting that is the only feature left.

In the 1850s it belonged to Sims, Willyams and Company, later Sims, Willyams, Nevill and Company. A collier was killed by a fall of roof in a heading on 1 January 1853, and another when a flat wire rope came off the drum a fortnight later. In July 1854 an explosion of firedamp killed three colliers named Evans (see Disasters, below). In 1857 an eighteen-year-old fell down an unfenced shaft.

By the 1880s Nevill, Druce and Company owned it. In December 1888 two men were killed by an explosion of dynamite (see Disasters, below), and in 1901 a trammer died when a charge of Bulldog powder fired by fuse ignited gas in a heading. The colliery employed 236 people in 1894 and 378 in 1900, raising manufacturing and steam coal; in 1905, its last year, 375 men were working the Four Foot seam.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Llanelli coalfield: the Four Foot seam (1905).

Workings

Shafts, one a pumping shaft, and headings; a tramway in a twenty-foot cutting.

Closure

Closed in 1905.

What remains

The cutting of the nineteenth-century tramway is the only feature recorded on the coal-pit site.

A tramway cutting about twenty feet deep.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Old Castle Colliery — Both Llanelli collieries of the Sims, Willyams and Nevill partnership and later of Nevill, Druce and Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Pencoed Colliery explosion, 1854
  11 July 1854 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  Firedamp being brushed out of the workings at Pencoed Colliery, near Llanelli, exploded on 11 July 1854 and killed a collier and his two sons; the inspector put it down to neglect of his cautions.
• Pencoed Colliery dynamite explosion, 1888
  17 December 1888 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Two men were killed by an explosion of dynamite at Pencoed Colliery, near Llanelli, on 17 December 1888; the accounts differ on whether it was being thawed at a fire or used to blow up an old engine house.

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 Pencoed coal pit was worked from 1800 to 1810 and continued until 1850; a tramway cutting about twenty feet deep is the only feature left. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Pencoed Colliery, Llanelli, opened in 1806 and closed in 1905. ¹
• The Pencoed coal pit was worked from 1800 to 1810 and continued until 1850; a tramway cutting about twenty feet deep is the only feature left. (uncertain) ²
• In January 1853 two colliers were killed at Pencoed, owned by Sims, Willyams and Company, one by a fall of roof in a heading and one when a flat wire rope came off the drum. ^3,4
• In 1901 a trammer was killed at Pencoed by an explosion of gas ignited by a charge of Bulldog powder; the owner was Nevill, Druce and Company. ⁵
• In 1905 the colliery employed 375 people in the Four Foot seam. ¹

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Pencoed Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Pencoed Coal Pit (NPRN 33415) — Coflein (RCAHMW)
3. (secondary) Healey Hero: mining victims 1850-1859, P (John Parry, Ynyshir, 18 March 1857) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's mining victims lists)
4. (secondary) Ian Winstanley, Alphabetical List of Mining Victims in Great Britain 1850-1859, E — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's lists)
5. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: William Williams, Pencoed, 1901 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) BGS mine plans: Glynea, Carnafon, Bynea, Berwig, Victoria, Pencoed, Techon: Golden seam — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (secondary) Mining deaths 1850-1859, surnames D (Ian Winstanley) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's mining deaths lists)

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