Ynysfeio Colliery

Overview

The Troedyrhiw Coal Company's steam-coal colliery at Penyrenglyn, between Treherbert and Ynyswen at the head of the Rhondda Fawr: a level of the early 1850s, shafts from 1856, two deep pits sunk in 1906 to the Gellideg at 335 yards, and nearly 1,300 employed in 1923. Powell Duffryn took it in 1927 and production stopped about 1930; by 1945 it was kept only for pumping.

History

Ynysfeio began in the early 1850s as a level in the Abergorki seam, owned by the Troedyrhiw Coal Company whose principals were James Thomas of Ynyshir, Thomas Thomas, William Cope, John Lewis and David Jones. A shaft was sunk in 1856 to the Gorllwyn and Two Feet Nine seams, and these with the Four Feet, Six Feet and Nine Feet were worked for many years; the 1880 list gives the owners as Cope and Co. The Durham Mining Museum dates the colliery from 1854 and returns it as Nos 1 and 2 pits from 1896, with 712 employed in 1894, 729 in 1896 and 921 in 1900, all steam coal. Welsh Coal Mines gives the old shafts as a 10 ft circular upcast, No. 1 at 14 ft by 8 ft and No. 2 at 10 ft by 6 ft.

In 1906 the company began sinking Nos 3 and 4 to the lower measures, a 19 ft downcast and a 15 ft upcast, proving the Seven Feet, Lower Yard and Five Feet and finally the Gellideg at 335 yards, all yielding the best dry steam coal. Sixteen sinkers were at No. 3 in 1905; by 1908 the colliery employed 946, and in 1910 the two halves returned 544 and 460 people. The old pits shrank as the new ones grew: 331 against 598 in 1915, 348 against 867 in 1918, and by 1923 95 at Nos 1 and 2 raising house coal from the Gorllwyn while Nos 3 and 4 had 1,287 on the Four, Five and Seven Feet steam coals. The Troedyrhiw company passed under D. R. Llewellyn's control in 1919 and about 1927 into Powell Duffryn's. The museum records closure in April 1930; the Lists still return 500 at Nos 3 and 4 in 1933 and four people in 1940, which fits Welsh Coal Mines' account of production ceasing in the 1930s and the pit being kept for pumping in 1945.

Fifty-four deaths are named between 1869 and 1932, a haulier's roll of runaway trams, falls of roof in the Gorllwyn and cages at the shaft. Two incidents killed more than one man: an explosion of gas in 1875 and the runaway of a full journey down a steep incline on 18 January 1892 when the tail rope broke, killing Thomas Griffiths, the rider, and Gwillym Morgan, a collier riding in an empty tram (see Disasters, below). Daniel Jones, an engine-boy of fourteen, was scalded to death by a burst boiler tube in 1904.

Geology

Upper and lower South Wales Coal Measures at the head of the Rhondda Fawr: the Abergorki, Gorllwyn, Two Feet Nine, Four Feet, Six Feet and Nine Feet in the old pits and the Seven Feet, Lower Yard, Five Feet and Gellideg in the new, all dry steam coal.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Four shafts on two sites: the 1856 pits with a separate upcast, and the 1906 deep pits. Longwall by the 1880s, rope-hauled journeys on steep inclines and engine planes, a Babcock and Wilcox boiler plant, and a ventilating fan by 1895.

Closure

Production ended in the early 1930s under Powell Duffryn, the museum giving April 1930 and the Lists a rump of 500 in 1933 and four in 1940; the shafts were kept for pumping the Rhondda Fawr workings in 1945. The reason is not recorded.

What remains

Nothing of the present state is recorded. The National Library of Wales holds a Martin Ridley glass negative of the colliery from about 1905, reproduced here.

Related mines

• Tynewydd Colliery, Porth — Both worked by the Troedyrhiw Coal Company, whose principals included James Thomas, Cope and John Lewis.

Disasters & major incidents

• Ynysfeio Colliery gas explosion, 1875
  7 September 1875 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  On 7 September 1875 an explosion of gas killed two labourers at Ynysfeio Colliery, in the Rhondda valley, after a man kept working with a safety lamp he had broken.
• Ynysfeio Colliery runaway journey, 1892
  1892 · Haulage / Transport · 2 fatalities
  At a quarter past three on the afternoon of 18 January 1892 the tail rope broke on a full journey of trams going down a steep incline at Ynysfeio Colliery, Treherbert. The journey ran wild to the bottom. Thomas Griffiths, the rider, and Gwillym Morgan, a collier riding in an empty tram in the middle of the full journey, were killed in the wreckage.

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 museum records closure in April 1930; Welsh Coal Mines says production ceased during the 1930s and the colliery was kept as a pumping station in 1945. (disputed) ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ynysfeio' (catalogue SWR1364, Four Feet, dated 1916); 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.

• Started as a level in the Abergorki seam in the early 1850s by the Troedyrhiw Coal Company; shaft sunk 1856; owners Cope and Co. in 1880; under D. R. Llewellyn's control from 1919 and Powell Duffryn's from about 1927. ^1,2
• Nos 3 and 4 were begun in 1906 and proved the Seven Feet, Lower Yard, Five Feet and Gellideg seams, the last at 335 yards. ¹
• 712 in 1894, 921 in 1900, 946 in 1908, 1,004 in 1910, 1,215 in 1918, 1,382 in 1923, 500 in 1933 and 4 in 1940. ^1,2
• The museum records closure in April 1930; Welsh Coal Mines says production ceased during the 1930s and the colliery was kept as a pumping station in 1945. (disputed) ^1,2
• Fifty-four deaths are named 1869–1932, including two men killed by an explosion of gas on 7 September 1875 and two by a runaway journey on 18 January 1892. ²
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ynysfeio' (catalogue SWR1364, Four Feet, dated 1916); 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. (secondary) Ynysfeio Colliery Treherbert — Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Ynysfaio Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: YNYSFEIO — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (observational) Ynysfeio Colliery [c1905] — People's Collection Wales — National Library of Wales

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026