Rhydding Colliery

Overview

A drift near Bryncoch, Neath, opened in the mid-eighteenth century and linked by tramroad to the Tennant Canal, which Evans and Bevan worked in the 1870s and the Cilfrew Colliery Company had abandoned by 1918.

History

Rhydding Colliery, near Bryncoch north of Neath, was opened in the mid-eighteenth century. A tramroad about 1.1 kilometres long carried its coal down to the Tennant Canal. It was a drift, working the Wernffraith seam and later the Penlan seam by pillar and stall.

By the 1870s it belonged to Evans and Bevan, whose account books for the Rhyding Colliery are among the firm's records at the National Library of Wales; the newspapers of 1876 called it the Rhydding drift of Mr D. Bevan of Neath. On 11 January 1876 three men were killed there by a fall of roof while clearing an earlier fall, and on 1 June the same year a boy of 13 was killed by trams at the bottom of the engine plane.

It later passed to the Cilfrew Colliery Company, the owners in 1918, when it was listed as abandoned. Its workings appear on Wernffraith seam plans with the neighbouring Main collieries at Bryncoch, one of them dated 1917.

Geology

The Wernffraith seam (also called the Swansea Four Feet) and later the Penlan seam, in the Coal Measures of the Neath valley.

Workings

A drift worked by pillar and stall, with a tramroad of about 1.1 kilometres to the Tennant Canal.

Closure

Listed as abandoned in 1918 under the Cilfrew Colliery Company; a combined Wernffraith seam plan with the Main and Bryncoch workings is dated 1917.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Cilfrew Colliery — Both owned by the Cilfrew Colliery Company, which held Rhydding in 1918.
• Dyffryn Main Colliery — Rhydding's Wernffraith workings appear on combined plans with the Main collieries at Bryncoch.

Disasters & major incidents

• Rhydding Colliery roof fall, 1876
  1876 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 3 fatalities
  Three men clearing an earlier fall in Evans and Bevan's Rhydding drift near Neath were killed by a fall of roof on 11 January 1876.

Recorded claims

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

• Opened in the mid-eighteenth century. ¹
• Linked to the Tennant Canal by a tramroad about 1.1 kilometres long. ¹
• Worked the Wernffraith seam and later the Penlan seam by pillar and stall. ^1,2,3
• Owned by Evans and Bevan by the 1870s; in 1876 it was the Rhydding drift of Mr D. Bevan of Neath. ^1,4,5
• Account books of the Rhyding Colliery survive among the Evans and Bevan records at the National Library of Wales. ⁶
• On 11 January 1876 three men were killed by a fall of roof and a fourth badly injured. ^1,4,5
• Owned by the Cilfrew Colliery Company in 1918, when it was listed as abandoned. ¹
• A Wernffraith seam plan of the Main No. 6, Bryncoch and Rhydding workings is dated 1917. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cilfrew Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS mine plan: Rhydding (Rheeding) / Ty Coch, Wernffraith seam — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Main No. 6 / Bryncoch / Rhydding (Rheeding), Wernffraith seam, abandoned 1917 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) Three men killed at the Rhydding Colliery (South Wales Daily News, 12 January 1876) — Welsh Newspapers (National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) Three men killed at the Rhydding Colliery (The Cardiff Times, 15 January 1876) — Welsh Newspapers (National Library of Wales)
6. (primary) Evans and Bevan Anthracite Collieries Records (GB 0210 EVAVAN) — National Library of Wales

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 9 October 2026