Aberbeeg South Colliery

Overview

A small house-coal pit just north of Crumlin Navigation in the Ebbw valley, opened in 1925 by Aberbeeg Collieries Limited for Partridge, Jones and John Paton, known locally as Budd's, and worked in the Tillery seam until it was abandoned in December 1965.

History

Aberbeeg South Colliery lay a few hundred yards north of the Crumlin Navigation steam-coal colliery in the Ebbw valley, some three miles south of the older Aberbeeg Colliery, with which it is not to be confused. It was opened in 1925 by Aberbeeg Collieries Limited, a subsidiary in which Partridge, Jones and John Paton held three-quarters of the capital; in 1934 its board was John Paton, W. R. Jones, F. S. Budd and C. F. N. Budd, from 98 Dock Street, Newport, and the pit was known locally as Budd's.

Two shafts, each 15 feet in diameter, were sunk to the Brithdir seam, the Tillery or Red Ash, which averaged 0.8 metres thick. The downcast, 148 yards deep, had an electric winder raising a single tram at a time, up to 400 tons a shift; the upcast, 152 yards deep, had a steam winding engine. A single-cylinder vertical steam engine by E. Reader and Sons of Nottingham drove its six-foot Keith ventilating fan from 1924, and is now in the national museum's collection. The colliery employed 182 men in 1938 and 202 in 1945, producing about 50,000 tons a year of loose coal from the Tillery seam.

It passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 and was run alongside Crumlin Navigation, the smaller of the two pits under one manager, W. G. Short, in 1950. Its Tillery workings were abandoned on 23 December 1965.

Geology

South Wales Coalfield: the Brithdir seam, known here as the Tillery or Red Ash, about 0.8 metres thick.

Workings

Two shafts 15 feet across: a downcast of 148 yards with an electric winder and an upcast of 152 yards with a steam winder; a six-foot steam-driven ventilating fan.

Closure

Its Brithdir (Tillery) workings were abandoned on 23 December 1965.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Aberbeeg Colliery — Separate collieries of the same name about three miles apart; Aberbeeg (North) was abandoned in 1929.
• Navigation Colliery — Neighbouring Ebbw valley pits a few hundred yards apart, run under one manager after nationalisation.

Recorded claims

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

• Opened in 1925 by Aberbeeg Collieries Limited, three-quarters owned by Partridge, Jones and John Paton. ¹
• A Reader single-cylinder vertical steam engine drove the colliery's six-foot Keith fan from 1924. ²
• The downcast shaft was 148 yards deep and the upcast 152 yards, both 15 feet across, to the Brithdir (Tillery or Red Ash) seam. ¹
• Owned by Aberbeeg Collieries Ltd in 1930. ³
• A separate pit from Aberbeeg Colliery, about three miles to the north. ⁴
• In 1950 the manager of Crumlin Navigation, W. G. Short, also managed the smaller Aberbeeg South Colliery. ⁵
• Its Brithdir (Tillery or Red Ash) workings were abandoned on 23 December 1965. ⁶

Sources

1. (secondary) Aberbeeg South Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Fan engine from Aberbeeg South Colliery, Crumlin (70.38I/1) — Amgueddfa Cymru - Museum Wales
3. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Aberbeeg, South, 23 August 1930 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Aberbeeg (North) Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) Crumlin Navigation Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) BGS mine plan: Aberbeeg South, Brithdir (Tillery or Red Ash) seam (abandoned 23 December 1965) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026