Tynybedw Colliery

Overview

Tynybedw at Pentre was opened for steam coal in the 1870s by Thomas and Griffiths, passed through the Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company to Cory Brothers in 1894, and closed in the 1930s. Its winding shaft ran cages on wire rope guides; its upcast had no cage at all, only a barrel for men or water, which is how six colliers came to be killed in it in 1895.

History

Thomas and Griffiths opened this steam coal colliery between 1874 and 1878. An account from its sinking survives, of four holes charged with black powder and the men wound up in a bowk for safety: one of the three who lit the fuses jumped out to retrieve his shovel and the bucket went up without him. He could not put the fuses out, they had burnt below the holes, and his butties went down afterwards expecting the worst, to be startled by a voice asking 'Ydw i wedi marw?' — am I dead? He had climbed to a narrow beam that sheltered him from the main blast, and recovered from his injuries. The London Gazette of 11 March 1884 records that the partnership of Edmund Thomas and George Griffiths, colliery proprietors and coke manufacturers at the Tynybedw and Gelli collieries and at 9 Bute Crescent, Cardiff, was dissolved by mutual consent on 28 February that year, Griffiths carrying on as Griffiths, Bennett and Co. Later in 1884 the colliery was sold to the Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company, which also bought the neighbouring Gelli pits, and in 1894 Cory Brothers and Co. Ltd took that company over. On the evening of 9 September 1895 six colliers were killed in the upcast shaft (see Disasters, below). The Mines Inspectors' returns show the colliery at 489 people in 1894, 570 in 1896, 627 in 1900, a peak of 801 in 1905, then 732 in 1910, 636 in 1915 and 692 in 1923, with a small separate level returning 36. Welsh Coal Mines gives 787 in 1908 and 547 in 1918, and 623 in 1923 working the Nine, Five and Four Feet seams and the Bute.

Geology

Tynybedw worked the steam coal measures of the Rhondda. The seams named in the returns are the Nine Feet, Seven Feet, Five Feet, Four Feet, Yard, Lower and Bute. The shaft landings give their depths: 240 yards to the Nine Feet, 318 to the Seven Feet, and 330 to the bottom of the sump.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts, each fifteen feet in diameter and standing twenty yards apart. The winding shaft, which was also the downcast, had cages running on wire rope guides, three to each cage. The upcast had no cage in it at all: there was a haulage engine at the surface which could wind a barrel or bowk to raise men or water when needed, and it was this arrangement, pressed into service after the winding shaft was damaged, that killed six men in 1895.

Closure

The Durham Mining Museum gives the closure as January 1935 and Welsh Coal Mines as 1933. Neither explains the difference.

What remains

No account of the colliery ground as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record, and nothing is claimed here about what survives.

Related mines

• Dunraven Colliery — Both held by Cory Brothers and Co. Ltd in the Rhondda.
• Pentre Colliery — Both Cory Brothers pits in the upper Rhondda; Pentre was the colliery the firm bought in 1868, and it was from its profits that they came into Tynybedw.

Nearby mines

• Pentre Colliery — 0.6 km SE
• Abergorki Colliery — 1.2 km NW
• Cambrian Colliery — 3.7 km S
• Maerdy Colliery — 3.7 km N
• Ferndale Collieries — 3.8 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Two shafts fifteen feet in diameter standing twenty yards apart. The winding shaft, also the downcast, carried cages on three wire rope guides each; the upcast had no cage, only a surface haulage engine able to wind a barrel or bowk for men or water. The landings were at 240 yards for the Nine Feet, 318 for the Seven Feet, and 330 to the bottom of the sump. ¹
• The Durham Mining Museum gives the closure as January 1935; Welsh Coal Mines gives 1933. (disputed) ^2,1
• Thomas and Griffiths opened the colliery between 1874 and 1878 and their partnership was dissolved in February 1884, as recorded in the London Gazette of 11 March that year. Later in 1884 it went to the Gelli and Tynybedw Collieries Company, and in 1894 Cory Brothers and Co. Ltd took that company over. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Tynybedw Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Tynybedw Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Tynybedw Colliery, Pentre, Rhondda — National Library of Wales, Martin Ridley Collection

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026