Ynysarwed Colliery

Overview

A culm colliery at Resolven in the Vale of Neath, worked under a long succession of owners from as early as 1823, expanded by a new drift in the 1900s and worked through to 1955 under the Llewellyn family company that ran it for its final three decades.

History

Ynysarwed — recorded historically as a 'culm' colliery, working the small, hard anthracite waste coal the term describes — was already being worked as early as 1823, under Messrs. Morgan and Perkins. Ownership passed through Penrose and Starbuck in the 1860s, T. C. Hinde from 1870, and the Ynisarwed Resolven Colliery Company, which went into liquidation in March 1877. By the 1890s two levels were working the No. 1 Rhondda seam, one by the longwall method and the other by pillar-and-stall. In 1904-05 the Ynisarwed Colliery Company (a partnership of Stephens, Lewis, Edwards and Howell) opened an entirely new drift about a mile north-west of the Garth Merthyr Colliery, working the Upper and Lower Ynisarwed seams, each 34 inches thick; by the mid-1900s these employed nearly 600 men between them, raising some 750 tons of coal a day. The colliery was bought in 1918 by D. R. Llewellyn's Ynisarwed Collieries Company Limited, which ran it through to the 1947 nationalisation of the coal industry and beyond. Workforce peaked at around 700 men between 1925 and 1931; by nationalisation it stood at 234. Output fell steadily in the colliery's final years, from 75,000 tons in 1948 to just 25,155 tons in 1954, and Ynysarwed finally closed in December 1955.

Workings

Worked by drift and level rather than a deep shaft; the 1904-05 drift reached the Upper and Lower Ynisarwed seams, each 34 inches thick, alongside the earlier-worked No. 1 Rhondda seam.

Closure

Closed in December 1955 after output fell from 75,000 tons in 1948 to 25,155 tons in 1954.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was already being worked as early as 1823 under Messrs. Morgan and Perkins, passing through Penrose and Starbuck, T. C. Hinde, and the Ynisarwed Resolven Colliery Company (which entered liquidation in March 1877) before a new drift was opened by the Ynisarwed Colliery Company in 1904-05. ¹
• By the mid-1900s the colliery's Upper and Lower Ynisarwed seams employed nearly 600 men, raising some 750 tons a day between them; workforce peaked at around 700 men between 1925 and 1931. ¹
• Morris John Jones, 37, was crushed by a tram on 15 August 1925, and David John Jones, 29, was killed by trams on 15 January 1929 — both single-fatality incidents, neither meeting this archive's disaster threshold. ¹
• Output fell from 75,000 tons in 1948 to 25,155 tons in 1954, and the colliery closed in December 1955. ¹
• Ynysarwed was recorded historically as a 'culm' colliery, working the small, hard anthracite waste coal that term describes in the South Wales coalfield. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Ynysarwed Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Cymdeithas Hanes Resolfen History Society: Coal in Resolven — Cymdeithas Hanes Resolfen (Resolven History Society)

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026