Waunwyllt Level

Overview

The small level near Abercanaid where Robert Thomas began selling house coal in the 1820s and became the first to work the Four Foot steam seam. Its coal reached London in 1830 and made the reputation of Welsh steam coal; his widow Lucy Thomas ran the business after his death.

History

Robert Thomas moved from west Wales to Merthyr Tydfil and took an annual tenancy from the Earl of Plymouth for the opening of a small coal level at Waun Wyllt, near Abercanaid, south of the town. The date is given as 1824 by Wikipedia, following the Dictionary of National Biography, and as 1828 by the Northern Mine Research Society and by the Heneb historic landscape characterisation. The take lay under the Waunwyllt and Penlan farms, and the lease was explicit about its limits: he was 'to open a sale colliery without power to sell to any of the ironmasters, and not to interfere with works which may be erected for the smelting of the Earl of Plymouth's iron mines which may be in that quarter'. Shut out of the four local ironworks, Thomas made his market in house coal. He opened an account with the Glamorganshire Canal Company in July 1828, shipping to Merthyr from that month and to Cardiff from February 1829, and a tramroad was built from the level to the canal. By January 1831 the volume warranted a wharf of his own at Cardiff.

Little was expected of the level, but it was the first to reach the Four Foot seam, a rich deposit of high quality steam coal, and that changed the trade. In November 1830 George Insole, in partnership with the Cardiff trader Richard Biddle, arranged the shipment of 414 tons of steam coal from Waun Wyllt to London. Robert Thomas died in 1833; his widow Lucy was granted letters of administration, having co-signed a surety bond with her son and with Insole, and from then on Insole's payments were made to her. Through him a contract was written with Messrs Wood and Company to supply London coal merchants with three thousand tons a year. These early London deals established the reputation of Welsh coal and are the basis on which Lucy Thomas became known as the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade.

The yearly tenancy was terminated in the mid 1830s and reverted to the Hill brothers. The Thomases turned to the coal under the Graig farm a mile to the south, signing a lease in 1837 to work its minerals at one shilling and threepence a ton, on the same Four Foot seam; by 1842 they employed fifty miners. Waunwyllt itself carried on under other hands: an 1869 list gives its owners as the Graig Coal Company, and it closed in 1870. The name was revived when Thomas' Merthyr Colliery Company Limited opened another Waunwyllt Level in 1909 at Nant Graig, just west of Abercanaid, half a mile to the south east of the original; that later level, worked with the Gorllwyn Level for house coal from the Hafod and Gorllwyn seams, employed 117 men underground and 20 on the surface in 1918 and closed on 13 July 1920.

Geology

The level was the first working to reach the Four Foot seam, the seam of high quality steam coal that made the South Wales coalfield's reputation, in the ground under the Waunwyllt and Penlan farms south of Merthyr. The same seam was worked a mile south under the Graig farm, which is why the Thomases moved there when this lease ended. The later Waunwyllt Level of 1909 at Nant Graig worked the Hafod and Gorllwyn seams instead, both thin, dirty and wet.

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

Workings

A small level driven into the hillside, not a shaft, with a tramroad built from it to the Glamorganshire Canal for shipment to Cardiff. Its take lay under the Waunwyllt and Penlan farms. Features in the area that may relate to the early working include a rectangular structure south of the farmstead shown on the first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey of 1875 and an old level shown on the 1915 revision. The separate Waunwyllt Level of 1909 lay in the Nant Graig valley with a tramway connection to the Castle Pit Railway and the Great Western and Rhymney Joint lines.

Closure

The Thomases' yearly tenancy was terminated in the mid 1830s and the take reverted to the Hill brothers. The level continued under other owners — the Graig Coal Company by an 1869 list — and closed in 1870. The later level of the same name at Nant Graig, opened 1909, closed on 13 July 1920.

What remains

Nothing of the level is identifiable. The ground has been afforested: the historic landscape around Waunwyllt, Pen-y-Lan and Graig Gethin is now dominated by twentieth-century conifer plantation within Gethin Woodland Park, and the area's farms were abandoned in the later twentieth century.

None identified. Old levels, surface workings and quarries in the area are recorded on Ordnance Survey editions from 1875 to 1922, along with Webber's Pond and at least two airshafts, but the early level's own remains have not been distinguished among them. The layout of Waunwyllt Farm was altered when the Abernant Tunnel and cutting were built in 1853 to carry the Vale of Neath Railway on to Merthyr Tydfil.

Redevelopment

The area was extensively afforested during the twentieth century and is now part of Gethin Woodland Park.

Related mines

• Graig Colliery, Pentrebach — When the Waunwyllt tenancy ended in the mid 1830s the Thomases moved a mile south to the Graig, signing a lease in 1837 to work the same Four Foot seam; the Graig Coal Company that William Thomas formed there is also recorded as Waunwyllt's owner in 1869.

Culture

• Robert and Lucy Thomas Memorial Fountain (Folklore)
  The fountain's own inscription commemorates 'Robert and Lucy Thomas of Waunwyllt in this parish, the pioneers in 1828 of the South Wales steam coal trade' - so the memorial names the level directly. It was the Waunwyllt level that first reached the Four Feet seam, and Lucy Thomas carried the business on there after Robert's death in 1833.

People

• George Insole · agent — Shipped the level's coal to London and made the contracts that opened that market.
• Lucy Thomas (1781–1847) · owner, from 1833 — Ran the level after her husband's death, the coal contracts being made in her name.
• Robert Thomas (d. 1833) · lessee, to 1833 — Took the tenancy and opened the level; barred by its terms from selling to the four local ironworks.

What's uncertain

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

• Robert Thomas took an annual tenancy from the Earl of Plymouth for the opening and mining of a small coal level at Waun Wyllt near Abercanaid; the date is given as 1824 by the Dictionary of National Biography life and as around 1824 by Welsh Coal Mines. (disputed) ^1,2
• The Northern Mine Research Society and the Heneb historic landscape characterisation both date Robert Thomas's move to Merthyr Tydfil and the opening of the Waunwyllt level to 1828. (disputed) ^3,4

Recorded claims

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

• Robert Thomas took an annual tenancy from the Earl of Plymouth for the opening and mining of a small coal level at Waun Wyllt near Abercanaid; the date is given as 1824 by the Dictionary of National Biography life and as around 1824 by Welsh Coal Mines. (disputed) ^1,2
• The Northern Mine Research Society and the Heneb historic landscape characterisation both date Robert Thomas's move to Merthyr Tydfil and the opening of the Waunwyllt level to 1828. (disputed) ^3,4
• The take lay under the Waunwyllt and Penlan farms, and the lease from the Earl of Plymouth was 'to open a sale colliery without power to sell to any of the ironmasters, and not to interfere with works which may be erected for the smelting of the Earl of Plymouth's iron mines which may be in that quarter'. ³
• Although little was expected of the level, it was the first to hit the Four Foot seam, a rich deposit of high quality steam coal. ^3,1
• Thomas set up an account with the Glamorganshire Canal Company in July 1828, shipped coal to Merthyr from that month and to Cardiff from February 1829, and by January 1831 the volume shipped down the canal warranted a wharf of his own at Cardiff; a tramroad was built from the level to the canal. ^3,1
• In November 1830 George Insole, in partnership with the Cardiff trader Richard Biddle, arranged the shipment of 414 tons of steam coal from Waun Wyllt to London. ¹
• Robert Thomas died in 1833 and Lucy Thomas was granted letters of administration for the estate, having co-signed a surety bond with her son and with George Insole; from that time Insole's payments for the coal dispatched were made to her. ¹
• Through Insole a contract was written with Messrs Wood and Company to supply London coal merchants with three thousand tons of coal a year, and these early London deals helped establish the reputation of Welsh coal and are the basis on which Lucy Thomas became known as the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade. ¹
• Modern research credits much of the commercial success to George Insole rather than to Lucy Thomas herself: the embellishment of her achievements is attributed to the Merthyr historian Charles Wilkins, who wrote an account of her in 1888, and coal had been shipped to London from Llanelli and Swansea as early as 1824, before either of the Thomases began working their level. ¹
• The yearly tenancy was terminated in the mid 1830s and reverted to the Hill brothers, and the Thomases then leased the neighbouring Graig property a mile to the south, signing in 1837 to work its minerals at one shilling and threepence a ton on the same Four Foot seam; by 1842 they employed fifty miners. ^3,2
• An 1869 list gives the owners of Waunwyllt as the Graig Coal Company, and the level closed in 1870. ²
• Thomas' Merthyr Colliery Company Limited opened another Waunwyllt Level in 1909 at Nant Graig, just west of Abercanaid; in 1918 the Waunwyllt and Gorllwyn Level employed 117 men underground and 20 on the surface, producing house coal from the Hafod and Gorllwyn seams, and it closed on 13 July 1920. ²
• The Northern Mine Research Society treats Waunwyllt, the Lucy Thomas Colliery and Pit-y-Witw, the Widow's Pit, as names for one series of collieries. ³
• Waunwyllt and Penylan formed part of the Plymouth or St Fagans estate, held by Robert Henry Clive on the 1850 tithe; the earliest estate map coverage, of 1766, already details both holdings, and Waunwyllt Farm with its larger enclosures appears to be a later eighteenth-century addition taking former waun from Penylan. ⁴
• Features in the area that may relate to the early workings include a rectangular structure south of the farmstead on the first edition six-inch Ordnance Survey of 1875 and an old level shown on the 1915 revision; the layout of Waunwyllt Farm was altered when the Abernant Tunnel and cutting were built in 1853 for the Vale of Neath Railway's extension to Merthyr. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Lucy Thomas (businesswoman) — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Waun Wyllt Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
3. (secondary) Lucy Thomas Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Waunwyllt, Pen-y-Lan and Graig Gethin historic landscape character area — Heneb: the Trust for Welsh Archaeology

Record created: 28 September 2026 · Last researched: 28 September 2026