Raven Colliery

Overview

An anthracite colliery at Garnant in the Amman Valley, working by 1854 and named after the Dynevor family's emblem, which passed through a long run of owners, employed several hundred men in the 1920s and closed in 1936.

History

Raven Colliery at Garnant, in the Amman Valley, was working by 1854 and took its name from the raven of the Dynevor family's emblem. It comprised a drift and a shaft working the Brass, Big and Peacock seams, and was flanked by Gelliceidrim Colliery to the west and Ammanford Colliery to the east. Thomas Strick owned it in 1858-65; it closed in 1865 and reopened under the Raven Coal Company, which held it in 1878. Owners changed often: Moses Davies in 1883, Beard and Company in 1884, the Garnant Colliery Company in 1886-87 and the Blaina and Raven Anthracite Collieries in 1890, when it worked the Trigloin, Peacock and Big veins. The Raven or Amman Valley slant abandoned the Brynlloi seam in September 1893.

Consolidated Anthracite Collieries were reopening it in 1896, and in 1901 the Raven Slant was working the Big Vein by longwall with safety lamps. A new shaft was opened in 1907, when the colliery recommenced in the Tyllwyd seam. It employed 155 men in 1913, 188 in 1918 and 333 in 1923, working the Middle and Lower Tyllwyd seams; one account gives 450 men by the First World War. It passed to Henderson's Welsh Anthracite Collieries and so into the Amalgamated Anthracite group, and employed 485 men in 1924. The colliery went by many names, among them Amman Valley, Brynlloi, Nantmain and Trigloin. It abandoned the Tyllwyd in 1930, the Bryn seam in 1932, the Peacock, Trigloin and Brynlloi in 1935 and the Big Vein in 1936, and closed in 1936 after an industrial dispute. The site is now the Raven Industrial Park.

Geology

South Wales Coalfield, anthracite: the Brass (Peacock), Big, Trigloin, Brynlloi, Bryn and Tyllwyd seams.

Workings

A drift and a shaft at first, later slants; a new shaft was opened in 1907. Longwall working with safety lamps in the Big Vein by 1901.

Closure

Closed in 1936 after an industrial dispute, having abandoned its last main seam, the Big Vein, that year.

What remains

The site is an industrial park.

Redevelopment

Raven Industrial Park.

Related mines

• Garnant Colliery — Garnant neighbours; the Garnant Colliery Company owned Raven in 1886-87.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• By the First World War it employed 450 men. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Raven Colliery was working by 1854 and takes its name from the emblem of the Dynevor family. ^1,2
• Thomas Strick owned it in 1858-65 and the Raven Coal Company in 1878. ^3,1
• In 1901 the Raven Slant worked the Big Vein by longwall with safety lamps. ¹
• It employed 155 men in 1913, 188 in 1918 and 333 in 1923. ^3,1
• By the First World War it employed 450 men. (disputed) ²
• The colliery closed in 1936, after an industrial dispute, under Henderson's Welsh Anthracite Collieries. ^3,2
• The site is now the Raven Industrial Park. ²
• In 1909 Consolidated Anthracite Collieries owned the colliery and were working the Middle Vein with safety lamps. ⁴

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Raven Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Garnant — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Raven Colliery, Garnant — Welsh Coal Mines
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Thomas Humphries, Raven, 1909 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 18 October 2026 · Last researched: 18 October 2026