Hollybush Colliery

Hollybush, (167010370) Sirhowy Valley

This mine consisted of four levels and a shaft to the Pontygwaith (Brithdir) seam. The first of the levels was driven in c1870 by E.D. Williams of Blackwood; by 1882 it was run by the executors of E.D. Williams. The New Hollybush Level being was driven in 1889. The Old and New Levels were managed by E. Edwards and the Old employed 51 men underground and 25 on the surface in 1896 while the New employed 49 men underground in that year. In 1900 the old level employed 49 men working underground and 24 men at the surface and The new level employed 93 men working underground and one man at the surface. In 1908 they employed 146 men underground and 25 men on the surface with the manager still being E. Edwards. This company was not a member of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coal Owners Association. In 1916 it employed 120 men, in 1918 this colliery employed 63 men underground and 26 men on the surface and in 1919 it employed 100 men. The manager during this time was W.H. Davies.

Both the Hollybush and the New Hollybush abandoned the Brithdir seam on the 19th of March 1921. An intriguing aspect of this colliery was that the coal saw daylight before being brought up the 100ft deep shaft. Apparently to prevent paying royalties to the Great Western Railway, which the company would have to if the coal passed over the top of the railway line, the coal came out of a level, under the railway, then up the shaft to the colliery surface on the other side of the valley.

In July 1929 the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company reopened the old level for a distance of 700 yards to install low-lift centrifugal pumps to protect Markham and Oakdale collieries from flooding. By that time all workings in the Brithdir seam to the north of this level had stopped, and the company was increasingly worried about an accumulation of water breaking into the Oakdale Colliery workings. The pumps then dealt with 25,000 gallons per hour and were only part of the 525,000 gallons per hour pumped out at Abernant, Llanover and Oakdale.

A few of those that died at this colliery:

• 12/09/1863, David Lewis, Age: 15, Collier. Killed by the fall of a triangular piece of shale.
• 18/12/1881, R. Harris, Age: 40, engineman, J. Tedstone, age 28, engineman, W. Tedstone, age 55, engineman, G. Thom, age 48, collier. Suffocated whilst raising steam in an underground boiler. 4 killed.
• 07/11/1884, John Davies, Age: 21, Collier: Fall of the roof. He was working in a stall with his father. Everything appeared safe when a fall occurred which killed him and seriously injured the father.
• 29/07/1899, James Hughes, Age: 48. Collier. Explosion of compressed powder in consequence of undue force in charging a hole with a wooden stemmer.
• 21/10/1912 William Abram Williams, Age: 19, Haulier. He was crushed between his loaded tram and a low piece of roof as he was riding on the “gun” on a heading road.

Information supplied by Ray Lawrence and used here with his permission.