Open questions: Rhondda Cynon Taf

Where sources disagree, MineArchive keeps both accounts rather than picking one; where a fact could not be settled, the record says so. 98 such claims on 50 records. All regions.

Aberaman Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Aberaman' (catalogue SWR1244, Nine Feet, dated 1957); 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)

Abercwmboi Colliery

• Ray Lawrence gives the sinking as 1856 to 1,027 ft 7 in to the Four Feet seam, 66 inches thick, and notes an Abercwmboy colliery working in 1828 under a Mr Davies. (disputed)

Abercynon Colliery

• Abercynon was linked to the Lady Windsor Colliery and the two worked as a single unit; Welsh Coal Mines dates the link to 1973 at a cost of £450,000, while Wikipedia gives 1975. (disputed)

Abergwawr Colliery

• Sunk in the 1840s by Thomas Powell. (disputed)
• Sunk in 1854 by Thomas Powell on a lease of 65 acres of the Upper Four Feet from Crawshay Bailey. (disputed)
• Also known as the Plough Pit. (uncertain)

Blaenclydach Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Blaenclydach Level' (catalogue SWR1357, No.2 Rhondda, dated 1903); 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)

Blaengwawr Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Blaengwawr' (catalogue 10846, Graig, 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)

Britannic Colliery

• The mine was opened around 1873 by the Dinas Main Coal Company with a mineral lease of over 2,000 acres. (disputed)
• In November 1893 the Dinas Main Colliery was to sink two new pits to the steam coal seams (the Britannic Pits); the first coal was raised on 22 April 1895. (disputed)

Brynna Colliery

• Mining ceased completely in Brynna Woods in 1933. (uncertain)
• It employed 260 men and produced 75,000 tons in 1938. (uncertain)

Bute Colliery

• Bute colliery closed in 1926. (disputed)

Coedely Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Coedely' (catalogue SWR3799, No.2 Rhondda, undated in the catalogue); 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)

Cwm Cynon Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Cynon Level' (catalogue SW146, Wernddu (No 2 Rhondda)., dated 1952); 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)

Cwmaman Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Cwmaman' (catalogue SWR1207, Six Feet, dated 1914); 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)

Cwmneol Colliery

• The Cwmneol South pit opened to the Seven Feet seam at 359 yards in 1848, sunk by Messrs Carr and Morrison, with the North or 'Lanky' upcast pit added by 1850. (disputed)
• Cwmneol was sunk to the Four Feet seam by Martin Morrison and John and Charles Carr in 1848, the first pit in the Cwmaman area, and used water-balance winding until 1855. (disputed)
• In 1865 the Aman Aberdare Coal Co. Ltd became the owners, and by 1868 the colliery was in the hands of Powell Duffryn; production ceased in 1893 to deepen the shafts and restarted in 1898. (disputed)

Cymmer Colliery

• The Cymmer Old Pit was worked by the Insole company until the mine closed in 1939. (uncertain)

Deep Duffryn Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines dates the closure to 21 September 1979, while the Northern Mine Research Society puts it in 1981 after a gradual rundown through the 1970s. (disputed)

Dunraven Colliery

• Dunraven Colliery's early ownership is not cleanly documented: David Davis and Sons (c.1860-65), Thomas Joseph (mid-1860s-1880s, with a 1866 liquidation), and the Dunraven United Collieries Co. Ltd (1869-70) all appear in records without a clear reconciliation of how these periods relate. (disputed)
• An alternative, detailed account of the colliery's 1858-1893 ownership has Thomas Joseph as sole owner from 1858 until an 1882 bankruptcy (liabilities of £130,000), then the South Yorkshire Building Society (1882-91), then F. R. Crawshay of Swansea (1891, for £26,000, bankrupt by September 1893) -- distinct from, and not reconciled with, this record's other account naming David Davis and Sons, Watts and Company and the Earl of Dunraven across the same broad period. (disputed)

Dyllas Colliery

• Closed in 1927. (disputed)
• Still employed 145 men in 1935. (disputed)

Fforchaman Colliery

• Rhondda Cynon Taf Council gives the sinking as Thomas Brown and Thomas Protheroe in 1856, the pit taking its local name from Brown. H.M. Inspectorate accident records give David Williams sinking it in 1851 and selling to Sir Thomas Phillips in 1858. Both Phillips and Protheroe were Newport coal owners associated with Thomas Powell. (disputed)
• The Northern Mine Research Society gives the sale to Powell Duffryn as 1867 and Welsh Coal Mines as by 1868, while Powell Duffryn's own 1914 booklet says the colliery was purchased in 1866. (disputed)

Fforchneol Colliery

• The pit was 105 yards deep. (disputed)
• The pit was 105 feet deep. (disputed)
• Fforchneol Colliery worked from 1868 to 1893. (disputed)

Fforchwen Colliery

• The Cwmaman Coal Company sank Fforchwen in 1900 and the Trewen Pit in 1910. (disputed)
• Fforchwen employed 870 men in 1908, and 1,026 in 1923. (disputed)
• Employment was 187 in 1900, 1,050 in 1910, 750 in 1923 and 514 in 1933. (disputed)
• On nationalisation in 1947 Fforchaman Colliery worked in conjunction with Cwmaman and Fforchwen Collieries. (disputed)

Gadlys Colliery

• Mathew Wayne established the Gadlys ironworks in the 1820s, supplied from small local levels; the Old and New pits, sunk by the Waynes' Gadlys Iron Co. to the Five Feet seam at 140 yards, were working by 1844. (disputed)
• Gadlys was one of the earliest mines in the Cynon Valley, opened c.1802 to feed the Gadlys Iron Works; in 1871 it was reported to have opened about 1827, with one 68-yard winding shaft working the Upper Four Feet seam and 32,984 tons raised in 1870. (disputed)

Gelli Colliery

• Two sinkers, John Morgan and Isaac Morris, were killed when a full bucket fell on them during the sinking to the steam coal; Welsh Coal Mines gives their ages as 39 and 30, the NMRS fatality list as 25 and 35. (disputed)

George Pit

• It was sunk to the Nine-Feet seam at a depth of 1,335 feet 5 inches. (disputed)
• It worked the Rhas Las (Nine-Feet) seam at a depth of 480 yards. (disputed)
• The colliery closed in 1905, its coal then being worked from the Lower Duffryn. (disputed)
• It was closed in 1909. (disputed)

Glyngwyn Colliery

• Employed 312 men in 1923. (disputed)
• Employed 9 men in 1923. (disputed)

Glynogwr Colliery

• Glynogwr was a level opened by the Glynogwr Colliery Company in 1910 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam, purchased in 1911 by the Glenavon Garw Company. (disputed)
• Glynogwr was a level opened by the Glenavon Garw Company in 1910 to the No. 2 Rhondda seam, about 150 yards south-east of Etna colliery. (disputed)

Lady Windsor Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Lady Windsor' (catalogue SWA1128, Four Feet, dated 1957); 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)

Llanharan Colliery

• Work on sinking two shafts at Llanharan began in 1873 but was abandoned because of financial difficulties. (disputed)

Llanharry Iron Mine

• The mine closed in 1976. (disputed)
• The closure is given as 1975 elsewhere. (disputed)

Lletty Shenkin Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines gives 1872 for the purchase by Burnyeat, Brown and Company; a Cynon valley local history gives 1874, and says the house was bought with the colliery. (disputed)
• The Durham Mining Museum gives 1913 as the closing date, although its own employment returns and fatality records for the colliery continue to 1915. (disputed)
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Lletty Shenkin' (catalogue R379, Upper Four Feet, dated 1849); 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)

Llwynhelig Colliery

• Closed in 1932 and kept for drainage, taken over by Powell Duffryn in 1938. (disputed)
• Abandoned the Gorllwyn and Gorllwyn Fach seams in 1946. (disputed)
• Employed 405 at its peak in 1925. (uncertain)

Lower Duffryn Colliery

• NMRS says it was also called the Middle Pit, while Welsh Coal Mines has Middle Duffryn as a separate colliery. (disputed)

Maindy Colliery

• Maendy (Maindy) Colliery dates from 1865 under D. Davies & Partners. (disputed)
• Out of money, Davies is said to have thrown his last half crown to his men, who carried on unpaid and struck a seam of steam coal on the seventh day. (uncertain)

Maritime Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Maritime' (catalogue SWA767, Six Feet (Four Feet)., dated 1958); 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)

Meiros Colliery

• Meiros Colliery closed around 1938. (disputed)

Middle Duffryn Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Middle Duffryn' (catalogue SFE44, Surface, undated in the catalogue); 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)

Nixon's Navigation Colliery

• The Northern Mine Research Society gives 1,189 men underground and 646 on the surface in 1908, 1,835 in all. (disputed)
• The colliery closed as a production unit in 1941 but was retained for pumping and ventilation for Deep Duffryn Colliery and for surface workshops. (disputed)

Old Duffryn Colliery

• The toll of the 1845 explosion is also given as 29. (uncertain)

Pentre Colliery

• Curteis, Greenhill and Ware first opened the colliery in 1857, and by 1864 shafts had been sunk to the steam-coal seams. (uncertain)
• From 1861 the colliery was in the hands of the Pentre and Church Colliery Company, formed by the Cory Brothers; the Inspector of Mines' list for 1896 gives the Pentre Upper and Lower pits as owned by Cory Brothers and Co. Ltd, employing 1,125 men. (uncertain)
• In the twenty years from 1874 production trebled to 159,000 tons a year. (uncertain)
• The colliery employed 1,125 men in 1896, 1,190 in 1908, 795 in 1918 and 838 in 1923. (uncertain)
• A 1923 return gives 838 employed producing from the Upper and Lower Five Feet, Yard and Bute seams. The colliery closed in 1929. (uncertain)
• The explosion of 24 February 1871 is listed among the Welsh mining accidents of five or more fatalities, at Pentre in the Rhondda, with 38 killed. (uncertain)

River Level Colliery, Aberdare

• Welsh Coal Mines gives 312-314 men employed in 1896; NMRS gives 283 men underground and 31 on the surface (314 total) under manager Rees Howells -- broadly consistent, kept as a single approximate figure. (uncertain)

South Rhondda Colliery

• It closed, with its brickworks, in 1927, and water from it partly flooded Meiros Colliery. (disputed)
• It closed in 1929. (disputed)

Treaman Colliery

• It was sold to the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company in 1866. (disputed)
• Treaman and Ynyscynon were sold to Powell Duffryn in 1867-68 for £8,750. (disputed)

Tylecoch Colliery

• Opened in 1855 by J. Carr, Morrison and Co. (uncertain)
• Closed in 1930. (uncertain)

Tylorstown Colliery

• Durham Mining Museum and Welsh Coal Mines date the explosion 28 January 1896; NMRS, Heneb and the 2005 memorial give Monday 27 January 1896. (disputed)
• NMRS gives No.8 bought and deepened by David Davis and Sons in 1892 and Nos. 6 and 7 bought in 1894; Heneb gives Penrhys (Nos. 6 and 7) bought in 1894 and Pontygwaith (No.8) in 1896. (disputed)
• Welsh Coal Mines and NMRS date No.9 Pit to 1907; Heneb says an additional pit was sunk in 1901. (disputed)

Tymawr Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines dates the merger to 1958; this archive's own Lewis Merthyr record dates it to 1960. (disputed)
• Welsh Coal Mines gives June 1983; this archive's own Lewis Merthyr record gives July 1983. (disputed)

Tynewydd Colliery, Porth

• Welsh Coal Mines records two shafts, each 90 yards deep, sunk in 1852 to the No. 2 and No. 3 Rhondda seams. (disputed)
• The manager told the 1877 inquest the pit was about 17 feet by 12 and about 88 yards deep to the No. 3 Rhondda. (disputed)
• A newspaper of 12 April 1877 put the workforce at about 100 men; the manager told the inquest 150 men and 15 horses, raising about 160 tons a day. (uncertain)

Tynybedw Colliery

• The Durham Mining Museum gives the closure as January 1935; Welsh Coal Mines gives 1933. (disputed)

Werfa Colliery

• The Old Pit was sunk to just below the Five Feet seam at 509 feet (BGS figures, with a caution that reports vary). (disputed)
• The shaft was sunk about 66 yards to the bottom of the sump. (disputed)
• The chain breaking in the balance pit on 4 September 1851 killed eleven by one count and fourteen by another on Welsh Coal Mines, and sixteen by NMRS. (disputed)
• The lease ran out on 25 March 1909 and the mine was abandoned. (disputed)
• The colliery closed in 1908 with 257 men. (disputed)

Ynysfeio Colliery

• 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)
• 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)

Ynyshir Colliery

• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ynyshir' (catalogue SWR2403, No 2 Rhondda, undated in the catalogue); 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)

Ynyshir House Colliery

• Sunk as Ynishir Colliery in 1849, when one shaft reached the No. 2 Rhondda seam at 198 feet. (disputed)
• The colliery closed in 1901. (disputed)
• Sold to Thomas Jones of Maendy House, Ynyshir, in 1873 and worked as the Jones Navigation Colliery. (uncertain)
• Bought by Thomas Jones in 1878 and renamed the Jones Navigation Colliery. (uncertain)