Tondu Colliery

Overview

A deep colliery at Tondu, near Bridgend, worked from at least 1853, by John Brogden and Sons later that decade, with a 684-foot downcast shaft by the 1890s under the Tondu Colliery Company, which abandoned its last seams in the 1920s.

History

Tondu Colliery, north of Bridgend, was at work by the early 1850s. On 7 September 1853 firedamp exploded at an unscrewed safety lamp, killing a forty-year-old collier and badly burning three others; the inspector, Mackworth, attended, and the management and state of the colliery were found very defective. John Brogden and Sons owned it by 1856, and in October 1859 two sinkers were killed when the shaft rope broke at a joint (see Disasters, below). The colliery's long list of dead through the 1860s and early 1870s, mostly colliers killed by falls of roof and coal in the Yard Vein and elsewhere, also includes a furnaceman, an engineer scalded by a locomotive's boiler, and a seventeen-year-old killed by a runaway trolley on the new incline in 1864. By 1893 it belonged to the Tondu Colliery Company of Cardiff, managed by William Blakemore. Around 1897 it worked the Cribbwr and Five-Quarter seams on the pillar and stall system with safety lamps, through an oval downcast shaft of 14 by 10 feet sunk 684 feet and a round upcast of 8 feet 6 inches, 606 feet deep. The New Tondu drift abandoned the Malthouse seam in June 1912; the colliery gave up the Yard seam in July 1922 and the Bodwr in November 1927. Two Tondu drifts of North's Navigation Collieries were listed as temporarily abandoned in 1923 and stopped in 1924.

Geology

South Wales Coal Measures: the Cribbwr, Five-Quarter, Yard (Yard Vein), Bodwr and Malthouse seams.

Workings

An oval downcast shaft 14 by 10 feet, 684 feet deep, and an upcast 8 feet 6 inches in diameter, 606 feet deep (c.1897); pillar and stall working with safety lamps; an incline; the New Tondu drift; two later Tondu drifts of North's Navigation.

Closure

The Malthouse seam (New Tondu drift) was abandoned in June 1912, the Yard seam in July 1922 and the Bodwr seam in November 1927; North's two Tondu drifts stopped in 1924.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Caedu Colliery — Both owned by John Brogden and Sons: Tondu by 1856-59, Caedu from its opening in 1865 (Healey Hero; NMRS).

Disasters & major incidents

• Tondu Colliery shaft rope accident, 1859
  27 October 1859 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities
  Two sinkers were killed at John Brogden and Sons' Tondu Colliery, near Bridgend, on 27 October 1859 when the rope they were riding broke at a joint.

Recorded claims

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

• On 7 September 1853 Llewellyn Roberts, a 40-year-old collier, was killed at Tondu Colliery by an explosion of gas, and three others were badly burnt. ^1,2
• The 1853 explosion was caused by firedamp exploding at an unscrewed safety lamp, and the management and state of the colliery were described as very defective. ³
• On 27 October 1859 two sinkers, Owen Jones and Seth Davies, were killed at Tondu Colliery, owned by John Brogden and Sons, when the rope broke at a joint. ^4,2
• In November 1864 a seventeen-year-old was killed on Tondu Colliery's new incline by a runaway trolley. ⁵
• Around 1897 the downcast shaft was oval, 14 by 10 feet and 684 feet deep, and the upcast was 8 feet 6 inches in diameter and 606 feet deep. ²
• Tondu abandoned the Yard seam in 1922 and the Bodwr seam in 1927. ^2,6

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh mining fatalities, 1853 — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Tondu Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining deaths, 1850-1859 (R) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley collection)
4. (secondary) Mining deaths 1850-1859, surnames D (Ian Winstanley) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's mining deaths lists)
5. (secondary) Welsh mining fatalities, 1864 — Welsh Coal Mines
6. (primary) BGS mine plans: Tondu, Yard seam, abandoned 1922 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026