Tarenni Colliery

Overview

Tarenni Colliery worked anthracite in the Tawe valley near Ystalyfera from 1902-03 until 1949, and was the site of a fatal 1909 inrush from adjoining flooded workings that killed five miners. Its successor, the small drift mine Gleision, was the scene of a much more recent disaster in 2011.

History

Tareni Nos. 1 and 2 pits were sunk in 1902-03 to the Red Vein seam by the South Wales Primrose Coal Company, working the Red, Big and Brass anthracite seams; the downcast shaft reached 150 yards, complicated by a geological fault, while the other reached 100 yards. Employment grew from 427 men in 1908 to 947 by 1923, and by 1933 the colliery was producing around 140,000 tonnes of anthracite a year. The Tareni Colliery Company Limited was incorporated in November 1928 under the chairmanship of Henry Mond, and by 1934 the pit employed around 500 men both underground and on the surface. On 2 November 1909, a working district broke into the adjoining, long-abandoned and waterlogged workings of the Ynysgeinon Pit, and floodwater killed five miners -- Ben Griffiths, Evan Thomas, David Edward Rees, Evan Harris and Isaac Rees -- and injured four more (see Disasters, below). Two further fatal accidents followed in the colliery's working life: David John Hopkin was run over by trams on 25 June 1913, and Thomas Davies was suffocated by firedamp on 12 August 1914. In June 1943, twenty-four hauliers were prosecuted for breaching wartime Essential Work Order regulations. The colliery closed on 4 February 1949, the National Coal Board judging it uneconomic in the face of geological difficulties and losses of around £10,000 a month, at a cost of 320 jobs. The Tirbach Slants, developed from 1898 by the Pwllbach Colliery Company nearby, worked separate seams under later owners until abandonment by December 1940. Long after Tarenni's own closure, a small privately owned drift mine named Gleision Colliery began working the shallower Ynisarwed seam in the same valley from 1962, one of the last handful of working coal mines left in the South Wales coalfield by the 21st century -- and the site of a further, much more recent disaster in 2011 (see Disasters, below).

Workings

Worked the Red, Big and Brass anthracite seams via two shafts sunk 1902-03.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board on 4 February 1949, judged uneconomic in the face of geological difficulties and losses of around £10,000 a month; 320 jobs were lost.

Related mines

• Gleision Colliery — Gleision worked the same Tawe valley coalfield as the much larger, long-closed Tarenni Colliery, and is its modern, much smaller successor working in the district.

Disasters & major incidents

• Tareni Colliery Flood, 1909
  2 November 1909 · Flooding / Inundation · 5 fatalities
  Five miners drowned at Tareni Colliery when a working district broke into the adjoining, long-abandoned and waterlogged workings of the Ynysgeinon Pit.

Recorded claims

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

• On 2 November 1909 a working district broke into the adjoining, waterlogged Ynysgeinon Pit workings; the resulting flood killed five miners -- Ben Griffiths, Evan Thomas, David Edward Rees, Evan Harris and Isaac Rees -- and injured four more. ¹
• David John Hopkin was killed by trams on 25 June 1913, and Thomas Davies was suffocated by firedamp on 12 August 1914. ¹
• The colliery closed on 4 February 1949, the National Coal Board judging it uneconomic amid geological difficulties and losses of around £10,000 a month, at a cost of 320 jobs. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Tareni Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Tarenni Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026