Vauxhall Colliery

Overview

Vauxhall was one of the ring of collieries around Ruabon in the Denbighshire coalfield. It opened in the 1850s as the Kenyon Colliery and took the name Vauxhall in the 1860s when a new shaft was sunk. Under the Vauxhall Colliery Co. Ltd it worked the Main and Quaker coals and, by 1923, the Wall, Bench, Seven Feet, Ten Feet, Upper Yard and Stone coal seams as well, raising gas, house and steam coal. Employment ran between 367 and 578 across thirty years. Warned of closure in 1925, it finally closed in 1928.

History

Vauxhall opened in the 1850s under the name Kenyon Colliery and was renamed in the 1860s when a new shaft was sunk. The Vauxhall Colliery Co., Limited owned it by 1880 and held it to the end. The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 records 361 people underground and 64 on the surface under the manager George Saint, raising house and steam coal; George Saint was still manager in 1908, when 366 worked below and 87 above. Gas coal appears in the returns from 1905, and by 1923 the workforce of 646 — 535 below ground and 111 on the surface — was raising gas, house and steam coal from the Wall, Bench, Seven Feet, Ten Feet, Upper Yard and Stone coal seams, a much wider range than the Main and Quaker of the 1905 to 1915 returns. The official figures for the same years run a little differently, 394 people in 1894 rising to 578 in 1923. The colliery was warned of closure in 1925 and finally closed in 1928.

Geology

Vauxhall worked the Denbighshire Coal Measures around Ruabon. The Main and Quaker coals are named in the returns from 1905 to 1915, and by 1923 the Wall, Bench, Seven Feet, Ten Feet, Upper Yard and Stone coal seams were being worked as well — the same sequence the neighbouring Wynnstay colliery took, with the addition there of the Peacock.

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

Workings

A shaft colliery, the working shaft sunk in the 1860s to replace or supplement the older Kenyon workings. Between five and six hundred people worked it in its later years, roughly five in six of them below ground.

Closure

After a warning of closure in 1925 the pit finally closed in 1928, one of the Ruabon collieries to go in the years either side of the General Strike; the neighbouring Wynnstay closed in 1927.

What remains

The colliery has gone and its ground at Johnstown, south of Wrexham, is now the Vauxhall Industrial Estate; the Hafod quarry landfill and the reclaimed clay pits of the Ruabon brick industry lie around it.

The colliery has gone; the Vauxhall Industrial Estate occupies its ground.

Related mines

• Hafod Colliery — Two of the ring of Ruabon collieries worked in the same decades; Hafod, sunk in 1863 as the New Ruabon Colliery, outlasted Vauxhall by forty years.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The two sources agree on 1896 — 361 underground and 64 on the surface, 425 in all — but not on 1923: Welsh Coal Mines gives 535 underground and 111 on the surface, 646 in all, against the Durham Mining Museum's 578. (disputed) ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Vauxhall' (catalogue 10608, Top Yard (Smith'S), Seven Feet (Two Yard) ,Quaker (Brassey), Main, Brassey (Crown), Upper Yard (Probably Stone) ,Middle Stone, Lower Yard (Ruabon Yard), Wall And Bench, dated 1931); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Vauxhall opened in the 1850s and was originally known as the Kenyon Colliery; the name changed to Vauxhall in the 1860s when a new shaft was sunk. ¹
• The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives 361 people underground and 64 on the surface under the manager George Saint; the 1923 list gives 535 underground and 111 on the surface. ¹
• The two sources agree on 1896 — 361 underground and 64 on the surface, 425 in all — but not on 1923: Welsh Coal Mines gives 535 underground and 111 on the surface, 646 in all, against the Durham Mining Museum's 578. (disputed) ^1,2
• The Main and Quaker coals are returned from 1905 to 1915; by 1923 the Wall, Bench, Seven Feet, Ten Feet, Upper Yard and Stone coal seams were being worked, producing gas, house and steam coal. ^1,2
• After a warning of closure in 1925 the pit finally closed in 1928. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Vauxhall' (catalogue 10608, Top Yard (Smith'S), Seven Feet (Two Yard) ,Quaker (Brassey), Main, Brassey (Crown), Upper Yard (Probably Stone) ,Middle Stone, Lower Yard (Ruabon Yard), Wall And Bench, dated 1931); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Vauxhall Colliery, Ruabon — Welsh Coal Mines, from the Inspector of Mines lists
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Vauxhall Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Lists of Mines
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: VAUXHALL — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026