Open questions: Swansea

Where sources disagree, MineArchive keeps both accounts rather than picking one; where a fact could not be settled, the record says so. 25 such claims on 14 records. All regions.

Birchgrove Colliery

• The colliery opened in 1855. (disputed)

Birchrock Colliery

• Birchrock was opened in 1868. (disputed)
• National Coal Board records gave 1873 for the opening and the Inspector's report on the 1909 explosion gave 1869. (disputed)
• Welsh Coal Mines has the mine unlisted in 1881 and abandoned in 1882, reappearing from 1886; the NMRS has Cory, Yeo and Company working it with Graigola in 1882 and 1884. (disputed)

Charles Pit, Llansamlet

• The shaft was deepened to the Swansea Three Feet seam at 316 yards. (disputed)
• In 1870 the colliery's three shafts were each 54 yards deep. (disputed)

Elba Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines says a defective lamp was held responsible for the explosion. The Durham Mining Museum gives the cause as an explosion of firedamp with the ignition caused by contraband — that is, by something a man took below that he should not have. (disputed)

Emily Colliery

• The colliery opened in 1839. (disputed)
• Production probably ended with Abraham Thomas's bankruptcy in May 1895. (uncertain)

Felinfran Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines says the Felinfran Colliery Company opened the colliery, known locally as Garth, in 1931. (disputed)

Garngoch Colliery

• Welsh Coal Mines says No. 2 was not working in 1923; the Durham Mining Museum returns 376 employed there that year. (disputed)

Grovesend Colliery

• It was sunk around 1870 by the Grovesend Colliery Company. (disputed)

Killan Colliery

• The memorial names the men who died on 27 November 1924 as Wilfred John, seventeen; Willie Goulding, twenty-two; Charles Evans, thirty; Archie Davis, twenty-eight; and Phil Godbeer, thirty-two. The Inspector of Mines' report of 1924 names them as Wilfrid John, fifteen; James Goulding, twenty-one; Charles Evans, thirty-nine; Archie Davies, twenty-eight; and Philip Godbeer, thirty-two. (disputed)
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Killan' (catalogue SWR2795, Penclawdd, 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)

Scott's Pit

• Scott's Pit was started by Captain John Scott in the 1770s, abandoned because of water inundation and later restarted with a Cornish beam pump; an explosion on 14 March 1788 killed thirteen by afterdamp. (disputed)
• Scott's Pit was sunk in 1817-19 by a London solicitor, John Scott; it proved unremunerative and was sold to the local landowner C. H. Smith, who worked it until about 1842. (disputed)
• A Stephenson-designed steam engine may have been used for pumping during sinking, later replaced by a Stephenson winding engine; Robert Mills is thought to have introduced the Davy safety lamp here in 1827, the first in South Wales. (uncertain)

Talyfan Colliery

• A Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Talyfan' (SW290, No. 2 Rhondda seam) is dated 1956; no account of the Talyfan workings mentions activity then, so it may belong to another working of the name. (uncertain)

Voilart Colliery

• The Clyne Valley Community Project dates the Evanses' working to 1871-1877, but the 1880 official list still returns the colliery under their company. (disputed)

Weigfach Colliery

• An explosion on 9 March 1877 killed eighteen according to the colliery page, which names eighteen men and boys; the site's list of Welsh mining disasters gives 19. (disputed)
• The Old Weigfach colliery was sunk in the early 1840s, purchased by Thomas Stick in 1844 and sold to Ebenezer Davies in 1849; an advertisement in the Cambrian of June 1856 offered the plant of Weigfach and Cwmbach collieries for sale. (uncertain)
• Thomas Glasbrook developed the New Weigfach colliery, which struck the rich bituminous seam in 1870. It was also known as New Worcester and was worked in conjunction with the Worcester pit. (uncertain)
• From 1874 the colliery began supplying coal to the Landore Steel Company. (uncertain)

Worcester Colliery

• Thomas Glasbrook opened Worcester Colliery in 1861 and Weig Fach in 1870. (disputed)
• The combined Worcester and Weig Fach colliery closed in 1897. (disputed)