A concentration of old coal mining and ironstone mining and quarrying features occupy a niche in the flank of Mynydd Bach on the east side of the Llynfi valley above Coegnant. These features are depicted and labelled as disused, on the 1st edition OS County series (Glamorgan. XXVI.5-6 1877), when only the Ty-chwyth & Victoria Levels to the south were working. The disused workings had been connected by tramways and/or inclines to what appears to have been a disused works at 'Spelter', later the Maesteg Brewery, and a precursor of North's Navigation Railway (see NPRN 305498). The name 'Spelter' suggests the use of zinc on the site before the surveying of the 1877 map.
The Coegnant Colliery in the valley bottom opened in 1882.

John Wiles 03.01.08