Pwllgwaun Colliery

Overview

A small Pontypridd pit known to everyone as Dan's Muck Hole, after Daniel Thomas, the bare-knuckle mountain fighter turned philanthropist who owned it. Sunk in 1875 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam at 45 yards, with a level behind what is now the Sardis Road grandstand, it rarely employed more than fifty men: wet, dirty and worked on the hands and knees in places where the seam was two feet six. The Coal Board took it over in 1947 but never worked it, leaving the old owners to run it under licence until it closed in August 1948. Pontypridd RFC's ground covers the site.

History

Pwllgwaun was sunk by D. Davies in 1875 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam at a depth of 45 yards, and also had a level, whose entrance survived behind the Sardis Road grandstand into the 2000s. Its proprietor, Daniel Thomas, had been a bare-fist mountain fighter under the name Dai Ponty -- chosen, the Pontypridd club's history says, to confuse the local police -- before turning to religion and philanthropy. He retired in 1900, transferring the mine to his son-in-law Henry Mogford and his clerk John Phillips, and died at Porthcawl in 1910, buried with his family at Glyntaff cemetery. By 1896 the owners were Phillips and Mogford and the pit employed 31 men on house coal; 28 were at work in 1908. Owen Williams bought it later, employing 28 in 1913 and 14 in 1918, and a list of 1923 records 34 men raising house and manufacturing coal from the No. 2 Rhondda. In 1917 the mine was acquired by David Prosser Thomas and his son Godfrey, who ran it to the end: 52 men were producing 12,000 tons a year by 1937 under D. P. and D. G. Thomas, and 33 remained in 1945. The nickname was earned. Access was a walk knee-deep in water, and the workings ran more than a mile and a half into the No. 2 Rhondda seam, in places only two feet six inches high, so that the men worked lying down. Taken into possession by the National Coal Board at nationalisation, the pit was never worked by the Board: it was licensed back to its former owners as a small mine, and closed on 7 August 1948 with 25 men and an output of 4,000 tons in its final year.

Geology

The No. 2 Rhondda seam of the Upper Coal Measures, reached at 45 yards and worked for house and manufacturing coal; in places the working height was as little as two feet six inches.

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

Workings

A shallow shaft of 45 yards and a level, the latter entered from what is now the Sardis Road ground. The underground workings extended more than a mile and a half into the No. 2 Rhondda seam, reached by a walk knee-deep in water.

Closure

The National Coal Board took the mine into possession at nationalisation but never worked it, licensing it back to its former owners as a small mine. It closed on 7 August 1948, when it employed 25 men and produced 4,000 tons in the year.

What remains

The site is occupied by Pontypridd RFC's Sardis Road ground, whose nickname, Dan's Muckhole, comes from the colliery.

The level entrance behind the grandstand was still there to be photographed in 2005; the rest of the site is the rugby ground.

Redevelopment

Sardis Road, the home ground of Pontypridd RFC.

Nearby mines

• Maritime Colliery — 0.3 km S
• Great Western Colliery — 1.3 km NW
• Tymawr Colliery — 2.8 km W
• Lewis Merthyr Colliery — 3.1 km W
• Albion Colliery — 3.2 km NE

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.

• Pwllgwaun was sunk by D. Davies in 1875 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam at a depth of 45 yards and also had a level, entered from what is now the Sardis Road ground. ¹
• Its proprietor Daniel Thomas had been a bare-fist mountain fighter under the name Dai Ponty before becoming a religious philanthropist; he retired in 1900, handing the mine to his son-in-law Henry Mogford and his clerk John Phillips, and died in 1910. ^1,2
• Access to the workings was a walk knee-deep in water, and the underground roads ran more than a mile and a half into the No. 2 Rhondda seam, in places as low as two feet six inches, so that the men worked lying down. ²
• The pit employed 31 men in 1896 under Phillips and Mogford, 34 in 1923 raising house and manufacturing coal, and 52 in 1937, when it produced 12,000 tons a year. ¹
• The National Coal Board took the mine into possession at nationalisation but never worked it, licensing it back to its former owners; it closed on 7 August 1948 with 25 men and an output of 4,000 tons that year. ¹
• Pontypridd RFC's Sardis Road ground stands on the colliery site and is known in the town as Dan's Muckhole after it. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Pwllgwaun Colliery (Welsh Coal Mines, via the Internet Archive) — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Dan's Muckhole — Pontypridd RFC

Record created: 20 September 2026 · Last researched: 20 September 2026