Pwllbach Colliery

Overview

Pwllbach was an anthracite colliery at Ystalyfera, high up the Swansea valley, worked with its neighbour Tirbach by a company registered in Swansea in 1896 and incorporated ten years later. It began as a very small pit — fifty-five people in 1894 — and raised fireclay alongside the coal until about 1900. It grew slowly and then quickly: 161 by 1915, 341 by 1940, and 450 in 1947, when it produced 80,000 tons of anthracite for the newly formed National Coal Board. The Red Vein was the seam it is recorded working through the early twentieth century.

History

The Pwllbach Colliery Co. was established in 1896, with registered offices in Queen's Buildings, Swansea, and two collieries in the Swansea valley at Ystalyfera: Tirbach and Pwllbach. The company was incorporated as a limited company in 1906. The colliery itself was already at work before the company was formed — the Lists of Mines return 55 people in 1894, raising anthracite and fireclay — and it stayed small for two decades, at 83 in 1896, 91 in 1900 and 66 in 1905. Fireclay drops out of the returns after 1900 and anthracite alone is listed thereafter, the Red Vein being named as the seam worked in 1905, 1910 and 1915. Growth came later, as the anthracite trade expanded: 161 people in 1915, 157 in 1923, 200 in 1933, 341 in 1940 and 450 in 1947. Ownership passed from the Pwllbach Colliery Co. and its limited successor to Henderson's Welsh Anthracite Collieries Ltd, the Gresham Street combine that also held Pantyffynnon in the Amman valley, and then to the National Coal Board in 1947, when the colliery produced 80,000 tons.

Geology

Pwllbach worked the anthracite of the northern outcrop of the South Wales coalfield above Ystalyfera, where the coal has been carried to the highest rank in Britain. The Red Vein is the seam named in the Lists of Mines; fireclay was raised from the same workings until about 1900.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A small colliery worked with the neighbouring Tirbach by the same company. Its shafts, slants and plant are not recorded; the Lists of Mines give only the seam, the product and the number of people employed.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The colliery was still at work under the National Coal Board in 1947 with 450 people and an output of 80,000 tons of anthracite. Its owning company had gone into voluntary liquidation once before, in 1924, when the mine was taken over by the Pwllbach, Tirbach and Brynamman Anthracite Collieries Ltd.

What remains

Nothing identifiable survives on the ground. The Swansea valley around Ystalyfera keeps the excavated remains of its ironworks and the line of the Swansea Vale Railway, but nothing is recorded of the Pwllbach site.

Nothing identifiable survives on the ground.

Related mines

• Pantyffynnon Colliery — Both passed to Henderson's Welsh Anthracite Collieries Ltd of Gresham Street, London, the combine that by 1934 controlled ten anthracite collieries employing 2,714 miners.
• Tirbach Colliery — Opened just north of Pwllbach by the same Pwllbach Colliery Company, and owned with it by the Pwllbach, Tirbach and Brynamman company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Pwllbach Colliery boiler explosion, 1937
  15 May 1937 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Two colliers waiting to go down Pwllbach Colliery, Ystalyfera, were killed on 15 May 1937 when gases exploded in a boiler flue and wrecked the surface buildings around them.

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 Pwllbach Colliery Co. Ltd, registered on 20 July 1905, survived until 1924, when it went into voluntary liquidation and the mine was taken over by the Pwllbach, Tirbach and Brynamman Anthracite Collieries Ltd. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• The Pwllbach Colliery Co. was established in 1896 with registered offices at Queen's Buildings, Swansea, holding the Tirbach and Pwllbach collieries at Ystalyfera, and was incorporated as a limited company in 1906. ¹
• The colliery employed 55 people in 1894, 83 in 1896 and 66 in 1905, raising anthracite and, until about 1900, fireclay. ²
• The Red Vein is the seam recorded as worked in 1905, 1910 and 1915. ²
• Employment reached 341 in 1940 and 450 in 1947, when the colliery produced 80,000 tons of anthracite under the National Coal Board. ²
• The Pwllbach Colliery Co. Ltd, registered on 20 July 1905, survived until 1924, when it went into voluntary liquidation and the mine was taken over by the Pwllbach, Tirbach and Brynamman Anthracite Collieries Ltd. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Pwllbach Colliery Co — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Pwllbach Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Lists of Mines and the Colliery Year Book
3. (secondary) South Wales Coalfield: extracts on the Gwaun-cae-gurwen area mines — People's Collection Wales

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026