Quinta Colliery

Overview

A colliery on the Quinta estate at Weston Rhyn, near Chirk, worked with Trehowell for about fifty years from the mid-nineteenth century. Thomas Barnes MP built a tramway to the canal, later replaced by the Glyn Valley line; it closed in the early 1900s.

History

Quinta Colliery lay at Weston Rhyn, on the Shropshire side of the Ceiriog, about a mile from the Llangollen Canal. The Quinta estate belonged to the Chirk Castle estate in the early 1800s. In 1855 Thomas Barnes, MP for Bolton, bought it, and about 1870 he built a horse-drawn tramway to take the coal to a wharf at Chirk Bank. The arrival of the Glyn Valley line soon superseded that route, and the Quinta Tramway section between Pontfaen and Chirk Bank was later abandoned in favour of a line to Chirk station. The pit was worked as Quinta, or Trehowell: plans of its Upper Yard, Upper and Lower New Mine workings date from 1877, and of its Five Feet, Six Feet and Upper Yard from 1889. It was listed as working about 1901. After some fifty years at work it closed in the early 1900s, and the remains of its canal wharf lie unseen on a terrace above the canal.

Geology

Denbighshire-Shropshire Coal Measures: the Upper Yard, Upper and Lower New Mine, Five Feet and Six Feet seams.

Workings

Worked with Trehowell; a horse-drawn tramway of about 1870 to a wharf at Chirk Bank, later replaced by the Glyn Valley line.

Closure

Closed in the early 1900s after about fifty years at work.

What remains

The site of its canal wharf is a flat terrace above the canal with no visible remains.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Thomas Barnes, MP for Bolton, bought the Quinta estate in 1855 and built a tramway to Chirk Bank about 1870. ¹
• The colliery worked for about fifty years and closed in the early 1900s. ¹
• Plans of the Trehowell or Quinta workings date from 1877 and 1889. ^2,3
• Quinta, Weston Rhyn, appears in a list of collieries about 1901. ⁴
• The Quinta Tramway section between Pontfaen and Chirk Bank was later abandoned. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gledrid Tour — Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site
2. (primary) Mine plan: Trehowell or Quinta, Five Feet, Six Feet, Upper Yard — British Geological Survey
3. (primary) Mine plan: Quinta (Trehowell), Upper Yard, Upper and Lower New Mine — British Geological Survey
4. (secondary) Denbighshire Collieries — Clwyd Family History Society
5. (secondary) Glyn Valley Tramway — Wikipedia

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026