Swan Colliery

Overview

A group of levels on the seashore at Baglan between Briton Ferry and Port Talbot, the Swan and Cwmbyr levels with the Clay level beside them, opened about 1858 by Edward Thomas trading as the Baglan Swan Colliery Company, worked with the Park pits as the Baglan Hall Collieries through bankruptcy in 1867 and Pascoe Grenfell's reopening of 1873, and abandoned in 1887.

History

The Swan Colliery was the lower half of the Baglan Hall Collieries, the name applied to the Swan levels and the Park pits at Baglan, between Briton Ferry and Port Talbot. It comprised the Swan and Cwmbyr levels at SS742932 and the Clay level beside them, the main colliery standing on the seashore, with the Tormynydd seam worked from a drift 300 yards to the north. It was opened about 1858 by Edward Thomas, who traded as the Baglan Swan Colliery Company and went on to start the Park pits under a lease of 1861.

Both passed through Thomas Jenkins to the Baglan Hall Company, which went bankrupt in May 1867; the Baglan Hall Collieries Company Limited registered that month went into liquidation seven months later, having failed to work the levels. The Parson's seam was abandoned in 1868. Offered for sale in 1868, the collieries lay idle until 1873, when Pascoe Grenfell and Sons reopened them. The Swan worked the White, Clay, Cwmbyr and Parson's seams, the Cwmbyr from 1874, and the Tormynydd from the northern drift. On 14 November 1866 John Jenkins, a collier aged fifteen, was killed by a fall of stone at the Swan Colliery. The Swan and Baglan Hall were both abandoned in 1887, and the abandonment plan of the Baglan workings covers the Swan slant with the Cwmbyr and Clay levels, the Park pit and three airways.

Geology

The White, Clay, Cwmbyr, Parson's and Tormynydd seams of the Baglan coast, with the Big, Baglan, Rider, Jonah and Cwm Mawr seams named on the shared abandonment plan.

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

Workings

The Swan and Cwmbyr levels and the Clay level on the seashore, a drift 300 yards to the north on the Tormynydd seam, and airways shared with the Park pit; the Parson's seam abandoned in 1868 and the whole in 1887.

Closure

Abandoned in 1887 with the Park pit under Pascoe Grenfell and Sons; no reason is recorded.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Baglan Hall Colliery — The Swan levels and the Park pits were one concern, the Baglan Hall Collieries, under the same owners from Edward Thomas to Pascoe Grenfell and on one abandonment plan.

Recorded claims

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

• The Swan Colliery comprised the Swan and Cwmbyr levels at SS742932 and the Clay level at SS742931. ^1,2
• It was opened in 1858 by Edward Thomas, who traded as the Baglan Swan Colliery Company. ^1,2
• The Swan passed through Thomas Jenkins to the Baglan Hall Company, bankrupt in May 1867, and the Baglan Hall Collieries Company, which folded after seven months; it lay idle until Pascoe Grenfell and Sons reopened it in 1873. ^1,2
• The Swan worked the White, Clay, Cwmbyr (1874) and Parson's (abandoned 1868) seams, and the Tormynydd from a drift 300 yards north of the main colliery on the seashore. ²
• John Jenkins, a collier aged fifteen, was killed by a fall of stone at the Swan Colliery, Briton Ferry, on 14 November 1866. ³
• The Swan and Baglan Hall collieries were both abandoned in 1887. ^1,2
• The abandonment plan of the Baglan workings covers the Swan slant, the Cwmbyr and Clay levels, the Park pit and the No. 2, 3 and 4 airways in the Big, Baglan, Rider, White, Tormynydd, Jonah, Cwmbyr and Cwm Mawr seams. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Baglan Hall Collieries — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) NMRS: Baglan Park and Swan Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Glamorgan colliery fatalities, 1866 — Welsh Coal Mines website
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Baglan, No. 2, 3 and 4 airways, Swan slant, Cwmbyr level, Clay level, Park pit — British Geological Survey

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026