Tarenni Colliery

Primrose Colliery was developed from the mid-1800s, close to the village of Rhos. After the disaster of 1853, it was redeveloped as the New Primrose Colliery, owned by Sir Ralph Howard, and by 1896 employed 307. It closed in the early 1900s, but from 1908 was revived as a pumping station for the Tarenni Colliery. ==Tirbach Slants==

The major coal seams are located close beneath the valley floor, but mean accessing steeply declining seams which run in high geological fault structures, running directly under the River Tawe. This makes the coal easily accessible, but also dangerous to extract. From 1937, the company started development workings to check the Big vein south, sinking the No.1 shaft to . But development work stopped due to World War 2, and by 1938, there were a total of 522 men working the complex, with over two thirds deployed on No.1 shaft. But on nationalisation, the NCB concluded that the mine was uneconomic, and it was closed in February 1949 with the loss of 320 jobs. ==Gleision Colliery==

Today, only the small Gleision Colliery drift mine exists, one of three privately owned coal mines still surviving in the South Wales Coalfield. Working the same area as the Tirbach Slants, National Union of Mineworkers records suggest the development was active from 1962. The second drift does not have rail access, and provides air circulation and emergency ingress only. == Disaster history==

On 13 October 1858, when the Primrose Colliery was owned by Morgan and Lewis, fumes of an engine boiler suffocated 14 men and boys, and 7 horses. According to HM Inspectorate of Mines and Quarries data, outside the Gwendraeth valley, Tarenni Colliery had the highest set of recorded incidents for coal damp and methane gas explosions. In total during its production lifetime, there were six outbursts in which three men lost their lives: one on 12 December 1914; two on 17 February 1941. ==References==