Glyn Pits

This was a two-shaft pit that was sunk to the Garw seam which it found at a depth of 570 feet by Capel Hanbury Leigh in 1845.

This pit had a single vertical winding engine, with a flat winding rope that wound the two shafts simultaneously, each shaft wound a single tram. The winding engine was made by the Neath Abbey Engineering Works and was a single-cylinder, double-acting vertical engine with a 30-inch diameter and five-foot stroke. Two reel-type drums were operated each 15 feet in diameter. The downcast ventilation shaft was 12 feet in diameter and the upcast was 9 feet in diameter. The winding house, pump house and some of the flat ropes are still on site.  The winding and pump houses are listed buildings.

It was purchased by the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company Limited in the 1860’s. It was managed by S. Birrel in 1878.

In June 1874, the banksman at this pit, George Smith, was fined 46 shillings by the local magistrates for allowing men down the pit when drunk, and then descending the pit himself and doing the work of two of the drunken men. One of the drunks, a man called Jones, caused a collision between two journeys of drams causing considerable damage which delayed work the following day. Bad times came to the Glyn Pits a year later in June 1875, due to the lack of trade and the large stockpiles of coal, the men working the Meadow Vein seam were laid off. It wasn’t only the workmen having a tough time of it, in 1882 two hauliers were fined 20 shillings each by the magistrates for ill-treating their horses.

In 1888 this pit worked the Rock, Meadow Vein, Old Coal and Elled seams, producing house and manufacturing coals, the manager was then J. Jones. In 1889 it produced 106,158 tons of coal. Yet again in 1895, this pit was closed due to lack of trade.

There was a particularly nasty strike in 1898, The miner’s demand for a 10% increase in wages was defeated after a four-month lock-out. The failure of this strike was the main reason why the local district unions decided to amalgamate and form the South Wales Miners Federation.

At the Glyn Pits, the owners decided to bring in dockers from Newport to move their stockpiled coal. They worked in the morning loading coal but by the afternoon the men on strike had been reinforced by strikers from other parts of Wales, they held a mass meeting followed by a deputation to the dockers. The dockers then agreed to cease work and were escorted ‘by hundreds’ of miners to Clarence Street railway station and home to Newport. However, after another fortnight twelve dockers were imported to fill out the coal protected by a heavy body of police and troops who were stationed at the Town Hall.

In 1896 the colliery employed 6 men underground and 16 men on the surface, in 1907 it employed 342 men and in 1908 it employed 272 men underground and 81 men on the surface with the manager being W. Broakes. It remained in the hands of the Ebbw Vale Company until 1909 when it was purchased by the Crumlin Valleys Collieries Limited. In that year it employed 353 men with the Glyn levels.

The Crumlin Valleys company worked it until its closure as a production unit in 1930 employing 32 men in 1923. At closure, it employed 135 men working underground and 20 men working at the surface of the mine with William Daniel as the manager.

One man was retained on the surface and three men underground for pumping purposes until 1966 with the East pit being filled in January 1967 and the West pit filled in February 1967.

From 1872 to its closure there were 37 fatalities at this colliery including five miners who died in a fire on 23rd January 1890. The full report can be found here.

• 13/09/1851, David WILLIAMS, Collier: Fall of the roof.
• 9/04/1852, J. JONES, Age: 21, Collier: Fall of the roof.
• 23/06/1852, W. JENKINS, Age: 68, Collier: Fall of the roof.
• 3/01/1855, Samuel VOX was run over by a tram.
• 10/03/1855, John HARDING, Age: 19, Collier: Fall of the roof.
• 23/11/1855, Mark TUCKER, Age: 28, Collier: Fall of the roof.
• 26/01/1856, William PRATTEN, Fall of a large stone.
• 14/07/1857, James PHILLIPS: Crushed by a tram.
• 10/06/1858, R. TREASURE, Some timber being knocked out caused a heavy fall of coal
• Aug 1858, George COLES, Collier: Fall of ironstone.
• 23/05/1862, James PRICE: Fall of rubbish.
• 1/01/1863, John PROSSER, Fell down the shaft.
• 8/09/1863, William MATTHEWS, Age: 49, Haulier: Killed by falling under a tram.
• 27/11/1863, William JONES, Age: 12, Doorboy: Left his door to amuse himself with the trams and got crushed by them.
• 1/07/1864, William HILL, Age: 53, Collier. Explosion of firedamp in the Rock Vein coal in consequence of both doors being left open by the haulier who was himself killed. The fresh air was thus entirely cut off from the face or the work in the heading. 4 killed.
• 1/07/1864, John STEPHENS, Explosion of firedamp. 4 killed.
• 11/08/1864, Daniel MOSES, Age: 26, Haulier: Killed by a fall of roof at the intersection of a stall with the heading. They upset a loaded tram into the stall but in so doing knocked out the timbers. 2 killed.
• 11/08/1864, Henry CHURCHILL, Age: 34, Collier: Killed by a fall of roof at the intersection of a stall with the heading. They upset a loaded tram into the stall but in so doing knocked out the timbers. 2 killed.
• 25/04/1866, George REYNOLDS, Age: 19, Collier: The young man had just been taken on and had never worked there. That day he went down to begin work in the rock vein workings of the Glyn pits and sat down to eat his victuals before commencing operations when about 1 ton of stone fell and killed him.
• 2/05/1866, Lewis HARRIS, Age: 23, Roadman: He was coming out of the stall into a cross heading and trying to arrest the tram with his back at the front of it but it overpowered him.
• 22/09/1866, John WHITNEY, Age: 45, Roadman: He was working with two others in cutting bottom in the level just opposite the mouth of a stall in the rock vein coal Glyn pits. They disturbed some supporting timber and there was a heavy fall of rubbish which killed him.
• 31/12/1866, John WILLIAMS Age: 39, Killed in the Glyn Pits by fall of ground whilst holing.
• 4/04/1868, William MARSHALL, Age: 57, Collier: Killed in the rock vein coal whilst he was sounding the place. The stone that fell was liberated from the top by its slanting structural division. A moment before his death he told his son that he considered the place safe.

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