Tor-y-Fan Colliery

Overview

A Dowlais Iron Company level that abandoned the Black Vein seam in 1914; a second, unrelated drift of the same name later worked the same seam in the 1930s.

History

The original Tor-y-Fan Colliery, at NGR 071069, was worked by the Dowlais Iron Company, which abandoned its Black Vein seam in June 1914 — independently corroborated by a separate account of the wider Dowlais Collieries group, which likewise records "the Tor-y-Fan abandoned the Black Seam in June 1914."

A second, later drift mine also called Tor-y-Fan worked the same Black Vein seam, at a thickness of around 30 inches, in the 1930s. This Black Vein seam lay between the district's Six-Feet and Four-Feet seams.

Tor-y-Fan was among the grounds whose leases Thomas Lewis brought to the founding Dowlais partnership of 1759, with the right to mine iron ore, coal and limestone there.

Geology

Worked the Black Vein seam, between the local Six-Feet and Four-Feet seams, of the South Wales Coalfield.

Workings

A Dowlais Iron Company level; later a separate small drift, both working the Black Vein seam (c.30in thick), which lay between the Six-Feet and Four-Feet seams.

Closure

The original level's Black Vein working was abandoned in June 1914; a separate 1930s drift of the same name is not given a closure date.

Recorded claims

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

• Worked by the Dowlais Iron Company, abandoning the Black Vein seam in June 1914 — a date given independently by two separate NMRS accounts of the site. ^1,2
• A separate, later drift mine of the same name worked the same Black Vein seam, about 30 inches thick, in the 1930s. ¹
• Owned by the Dowlais Iron Company, one of the pits comprising the wider Dowlais Collieries group. ²
• The Mining Remediation Authority's abandonment plan 6208, 'Dowlais / Tor-y-Fan', covers the Black seam at two chains to the inch. ³
• The leases Thomas Lewis brought to the Dowlais partnership of 1759 gave the right to mine iron ore, coal and limestone at Dowlais, Pantyrwayn and Tor-y-Fan. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Small collieries of the Dowlais Cwmbargoed & Penydarren areas — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dowlais Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Dowlais / Tor-y-Fan abandonment plan 6208 (BGS mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (secondary) Dowlais Ironworks — Wikipedia

Record created: 15 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026