Rhos Llantwit Colliery

Overview

A Caerphilly pit sunk in 1863 to the Llantwit seam, which raised some 70,000 tons a year for export through Newport, was always worked with naked lights, lost two men in an explosion in 1891 and closed the following year.

History

Rhos Llantwit Colliery was opened in 1863 by the Machen Colliery Company on the land of Porset farm, near Caerphilly, in the parish of Bedwas. It was sunk to the Llantwit seam, also called the Bedwas seam, at 156 yards. In 1866 the lease passed to the Rhos Llantwit Company, which sank a new shaft in 1871, and in the 1880s the pit was producing about 70,000 tons of coal a year, much of it for export through Newport docks. In July 1879 the colliers agreed to go back after a dispute but the hauliers refused to go in.

The pit was worked with naked lights and examined with locked safety lamps. About a year before 1891 the mines inspector, V. S. Martin, suggested safety lamps after a man strayed into an old place and was burned, but the manager, John Richards, understood from the consulting engineer, T. Forster Brown, that they were not needed. At seven on the morning of Tuesday 25 August 1891 the fireman, Thomas Windmill, was inspecting the workings with a safety lamp and a naked light when gas fired; he was killed by the explosion and a large fall, and Isaac Powell, a collier of more than twenty years at the pit, was overcome by afterdamp a hundred yards away (see Disasters, below). Seven others were injured. Searchers digging for Windmill's body met a further fall and gas. In October 1892 the Rhos Llantwit Colliery Company gave notice ending the contracts of its underground men, nearly 300 of them, and the colliery closed that year with its coal exhausted. A housing estate now covers the site.

Geology

South Wales Coalfield: the Llantwit (Bedwas) seam.

Workings

Shafts to the Llantwit seam at 156 yards, a second sunk in 1871; worked with naked lights.

Closure

Closed in 1892, its coal reserves exhausted; the underground men's contracts were ended in October 1892.

What remains

A housing estate covers the site.

Redevelopment

Housing estate.

Disasters & major incidents

• Rhos Llantwit Colliery explosion, 1891
  25 August 1891 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Gas fired as the fireman inspected the workings of Rhos Llantwit Colliery, Caerphilly, early on 25 August 1891, killing him and a collier and injuring seven; the pit had always been worked with naked lights.

Recorded claims

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

• The Machen Colliery Company opened the mine on Porset farm in 1863, sinking to the Llantwit (Bedwas) seam at 156 yards. ¹
• Rhos-Llantwit Colliery is a recorded coal-mine site at ST 1650 8770, Caerphilly. ²
• In the 1880s it produced about 70,000 tons a year, much of it exported through Newport. ¹
• In July 1879 the hauliers refused to go in after the colliers had agreed to resume work. ³
• The colliery was always worked with naked lights and examined with locked lamps; the inspector had suggested safety lamps about a year before 1891. ⁴
• In October 1892 the Rhos Llantwit Colliery Company ended the contracts of nearly 300 underground men; the pit closed in 1892. ^1,5

Sources

1. (secondary) Rhos Llantwit Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Coflein: Rhos-Llantwit Colliery (NPRN 33577) — Coflein (RCAHMW)
3. (primary) South Wales Daily News, 16 July 1879: Hauliers' strike at Caerphilly — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
4. (primary) The Cardiff Times, 29 August 1891: The colliery explosion at Caerphilly: opening of the inquest — The Cardiff Times (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) Evening Express, 1 October 1892: Stoppage of a colliery at Caerphilly — Evening Express (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
6. (primary) South Wales Daily News, 27 August 1891: The colliery disaster at Caerphilly — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)

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