Argoed Colliery

Overview

A series of house-coal levels in the Mynyddislwyn seam at Cwm Crach, Argoed, in the Sirhowy valley, worked from before 1840 under a long run of owners from the Tredegar Colliery Company to Budd and Co.

History

Argoed Colliery was a series of levels at Cwm Crach, Argoed, in the Sirhowy valley, working house coal from the Mynyddislwyn seam. Levels were at work there before 1840. A one-pound note issued at Newport on 9 September 1806 by the Argoed and Bedwellty Colliery Company, signed by John Hampden Smith, is in the collection of Museum Wales.

In 1842 the Argoed and Cwmcrach collieries, in Bedwellty parish, belonged to the Tredegar Colliery Company and employed 141 people between them, 41 of them under eighteen and 20 under thirteen. Evidence to the Children's Employment Commission that year described working on the level only, ventilated by air pits, with no company shop; boys were taken underground at four or five years old, the father drawing a quarter of a man's share for the boy, and the men had held out through a fourteen-week strike in 1840.

The Inspectors' lists for 1858 to 1870 give the Argoed levels to the Tredegar Iron Company. Morgan and Jones owned them in 1884 and Morgan and Son in 1888, J. H. Lloyd and Company by 1893, and Harperfield and Williams of Newport in 1896, with fourteen men underground and three at the surface. E. D. Williams was a later owner, and in 1908 Richard and Co. of Dowlais Chambers, Cardiff, employed 29 underground and four at the surface under the manager Hugh Caldwell; 41 were employed in 1910.

Budd and Co. owned the levels by 1913, when they employed fifty men, and in 1918 had 26 underground and three at the surface, under the manager John Jenkins. Only two men were employed in 1923.

Geology

The levels worked house coal from the Mynyddislwyn seam.

Workings

A series of levels, ventilated by air pits in 1842.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Argoed and Bedwellty Colliery Company issued a one-pound note at Newport on 9 September 1806. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Argoed Colliery was a series of levels working the Mynyddislwyn seam. ^1,2
• The Argoed levels produced house coal from before 1840. ¹
• The Argoed and Bedwellty Colliery Company issued a one-pound note at Newport on 9 September 1806. (uncertain) ²
• In 1842 the Argoed and Cwmcrach collieries belonged to the Tredegar Colliery Company and employed 141. ¹
• Morgan and Son owned the colliery in 1888. ^1,2
• Budd and Co. owned the colliery in 1913, when it employed fifty men. ²
• In 1918 Budd and Co. employed 26 underground and three on the surface. ¹
• Only two men were employed in 1923. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Rhoswen Colliery, Argoed Colliery - Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Argoed & Bedwellty Colliery Co pound note, Museum Wales item 91.76H/1 — Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 10 October 2026