Aberbeeg Colliery

Overview

Aberbeeg was sunk about 1860 to chase the Brithdir seam, known here as the Tillery or Red Ash, which the Llanhilleth fault had dropped some ninety metres and thinned from about five feet to between two and four. It passed from the Powell brothers to Budd and Company and was abandoned on 19 April 1929, its railway contract running on to the end of that year.

History

The Brithdir seam had been worked from levels in the Abertillery area to the north, but the Llanhilleth fault had dropped it about ninety metres and reduced its section from around 1.5 metres to between 0.61 and 1.22 metres at Aberbeeg. The pit was sunk to it about 1860 by the Aberbeeg Colliery Company — James Patrick, Thomas Spittle and William Webb, holding the mineral rights on lease from Joseph and Crawshay Bailey — which owned it until 1865. Webb and Spittle followed. The Bristol Mercury of Saturday 21 September 1872 reported that Walter Powell had recently bought Aberbeeg from Messrs Webb and Spittle, and that combining it with Llanhilleth would make it among the largest in the county. He held it with his brother Henry until his death in 1881; Henry carried on until his own, and by 1896 the colliery stood in the name of his executors, employing 225 men underground and 35 on the surface under the manager R. Jordan. Budd and Company took it over in 1902. Job Love managed it in 1908 and Edward Hopkins from 1915. It sent out coking, gas, steam, house and manufacturing coal — an unusually wide range for a pit of this size — and worked the Tillery seam throughout the returns from 1894 to 1910. Employment ran at 245 in 1894, 260 in 1896, 291 in 1900 and a peak of 365 in 1905, then fell back: 277 in 1910, 221 in 1923, 220 in 1924 and 1925, and 178 by 1926. It had reached its northern limit with the Graig Fawr Red Ash levels by 1892 and the Arail Level workings by 1918. The colliery was abandoned on 19 April 1929 and its contract with the railway company ended on 31 December that year. A separate Aberbeeg South working at the same period is returned under the name and should not be confused with this pit; it was near Crumlin, three miles to the south, and it is the South figures that appear in the Mines Inspectors' returns from 1929 onward. There was also a small Aberbeeg Level at the start of the twentieth century, worked by R. Williams of Aberbeeg with two men underground and one on the surface.

Geology

Aberbeeg was sunk to the Brithdir seam, called the Tillery or Red Ash locally. North of the pit, around Abertillery, the seam had been worked from levels, but the Llanhilleth fault dropped it about ninety metres here and thinned it from about 1.5 metres to between 0.61 and 1.22 metres. That thinner, deeper section is what the colliery was sunk to reach.

Geological setting: Faults and Fractures (well documented example), Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The pit worked the Tillery seam throughout the surviving returns. It reached its northern limit against the Graig Fawr Red Ash levels by 1892 and the Arail Level workings by 1918. Shaft depths have not been found in the sources read for this record.

Closure

The colliery was abandoned on 19 April 1929, and the contract with the railway company was terminated on 31 December 1929.

What remains

No account of the colliery ground as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record, and nothing is claimed here about what survives.

Nearby mines

• Llanhilleth Colliery — 2.2 km SE
• Six Bells Colliery — 2.5 km NE
• Navigation Colliery — 3.1 km S, Caerphilly
• Oakdale Colliery — 3.8 km SW, Caerphilly
• Rose Heyworth Colliery — 3.9 km N

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The Brithdir, or Tillery or Red Ash, seam had been worked from levels around Abertillery to the north, but the Llanhilleth fault dropped it about ninety metres here and reduced its section from about 1.5 metres to between 0.61 and 1.22 metres. The pit was sunk about 1860 to reach that deeper, thinner ground. ¹
• The colliery was abandoned on 19 April 1929 and its contract with the railway company was terminated on 31 December 1929. ¹
• This colliery should not be confused with Aberbeeg South, a separate working near Crumlin three miles to the south. The Durham Mining Museum's returns from 1929 onward are marked 'South' and belong to that pit rather than this one. ^2,1

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Aberbeeg Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society, via the Internet Archive
2. (secondary) Aberbeeg Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026