Bargoed (L. S. Lowry)

'Bargoed' (1965) is a painting by L. S. Lowry of the south Wales mining town and the colliery tip that towered over it, made after he toured the valleys with the collector Monty Bloom. It is one of the major works of his late return to industrial landscape and hangs in The Lowry in Salford; lent to Bargoed library, it drew local visitors who remembered it as broader and looser than his mill scenes.

The mining history in this record

By the 1960s Lowry had largely turned from his mill scenes to single figures and seascapes. A trip to Wales with his friend Monty Bloom, who collected his work, took them round the mining villages of the valleys and rekindled his interest in industrial landscape, producing Hillside in Wales (1962) and Bargoed (1965); he went back to the area several times over the next few years. At Bargoed he painted what dominated the town: the tip of Bargoed Colliery, with the packed terraces and small figures below it. The same tip had been painted repeatedly by the Bargoed writer and artist Osmond.

People

L. S. Lowry (1887-1976), painter; Monty Bloom, collector, his companion on the Welsh trips; Anthony Shapland, who saw it on loan in Bargoed.

Legacy today

The painting is in the collection at The Lowry, Salford, and sold there as a print. It was lent to Bargoed library, where the artist and writer Anthony Shapland, then ten, stood close enough to see 'it was made of perfect brushstrokes, not small brushstrokes. It's quite big and gestural'. The colliery closed and the tip has since been landscaped; the writer Eddy Street saw the painting as seeing that 'in Wales there is a way in which nature is still larger than the havoc that men have inflicted'.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• A trip to the Welsh valleys with the collector Monty Bloom revived Lowry's interest in industrial landscape, producing major works including Bargoed (1965). (documented fact) ¹
• Lowry painted the Bargoed tip while holidaying in south Wales in 1965; the work now hangs in Salford. (documented fact) ^2,3
• Anthony Shapland recalled seeing it on loan at Bargoed library as a boy of ten: 'quite big and gestural'. (later recollection) ³

Mines

• Bargoed Colliery — Caerphilly
  Lowry's 1965 painting 'Bargoed' centres on the town's colliery tip.

People

• L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) · author, 1965 — Painted 'Bargoed' in 1965.

Regions

Caerphilly

Sources

1. (secondary) About LS Lowry — The Lowry, Salford
2. (observational) Bargoed by LS Lowry - Fine Art Print — The Lowry Shop
3. (secondary) Making Tracks: Bargoed and Gilfach Fargoed — Nation.Cymru
4. (observational) Bargoed Colliery, 1973 — Wikimedia Commons (Ben Brooksbank, Geograph)

Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 18 September 2026