CINDER PITS. Blaenavon, Glamorganshire. 28th November 1838.

The Cinder Pits lay about 100 yards from the left bank of the Afon Llwyd. Higher up the hillsides, a number of feeder ponds were being constructed and were fed from the many drift mines in the area. The ponds provided water for the increasing number of balance pits, forge hammers, mill wheels and furnace charging planes that were being developed.

The colliery had two vertical shafts which dated from about 1818. The disaster was precipitated by torrential rain and deep snowfall which caused both shafts to be swamped by the water running down the hillside. Fourteen men and two women lost their lives.

The Burial Register at St. Peters, Blaenavon records those buried that had been “drowned in the mine works”.

They were, of Blaenavon:

  • Elizabeth Havard aged 9 years, daughter of John and Mary,
  • William Evans aged 10 years,
  • Thomas Alsop aged 21 years,
  • George Taylor aged 21 years,
  • Caleb Cresswell aged 12 years,
  • Henry Jones aged 15 years,
  • David Evans aged 30 years.

Of River Row:

  • John Jones aged 38 years,
  • Thomas Thomas aged 60 years,
  • Mary Hale aged 16 years,
  • James Ashman aged 24 years,
  • John Sutton aged 26 years.
  • John Morris of New Row,
  • Edward Jones aged 33 years of Bunker’s Hill,
  • Philip Prince of Engine Pit.

 

REFERENCES
“And they worked us to death”. Ben Fieldhouse and Jackie Dunn. Vols 1 & 2. Gwent Family History Society.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.

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