Buxtons Colliery

Overview

A Dowlais Iron Company pit supplying iron ore and coal from 1871, where a 17-year-old collier died in a shaft accident two years later. It went on to work several of the wider Dowlais Collieries complex's shared seams into the 1910s.

History

Buxtons Colliery was worked to supply the Dowlais Iron Works with iron ore and coal between 1871 and 1876. On 8 December 1873, James Evans, a 17-year-old collier working at Buxton's, died in a shaft incident.

The pit was one of the mines making up the wider "Dowlais Collieries" — the umbrella name for everything worked for the Dowlais Iron Works — worked for both coal and ironstone across the group and abandoned in May 1924. Within that shared working, Buxtons was among the pits that worked the Lower-Four-Feet seam (abandoned August 1908, its top section in July 1917) and the Little or Seven-Feet seam (abandoned July 1917). The name survives in the ironworks' drainage: a level known as Buxton's, or the Purple Level, carried the gravity system's underground U-shaped channels built to the 'Dowlais pattern', alongside the Brew House Level, and was still in good condition in the 1960s. The Mining Remediation Authority's abandonment plan for the Dowlais workings names Buxtons among them.

Geology

Worked iron ore and, as part of the shared Dowlais Collieries working, the Lower-Four-Feet (to 1908/17) and Little/Seven-Feet (to 1917) seams.

Workings

Worked iron ore and coal from 1871; later part of the shared Dowlais Collieries working of the Lower-Four-Feet and Little/Seven-Feet seams.

Closure

Recorded as worked 1871–76 in its own right, then continuing as part of the wider Dowlais Collieries group, abandoned with the rest of that group in May 1924.

Related mines

• Brewhouse Colliery — Both levels carried the Dowlais Ironworks' gravity drainage system, its 'Dowlais pattern' culverts running through the Brew House Level and Buxton's (the Purple Level) (Heneb, Merthyr Tydfil landscape area).

Disasters & major incidents

• Buxtons Colliery explosion, 1865
  29 May 1865 · Explosion · 2 fatalities
  Gas exploded in the Four Feet vein of Buxton's Pit, Dowlais, on 29 May 1865, killing between two and four of the Dowlais Iron Company's workers, among them a door boy of twelve.

What's uncertain

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

• A Dowlais drainage level known as Buxton's, or the Purple Level, carried the ironworks' 'Dowlais pattern' culverts and was still in good condition in the 1960s. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Worked to supply the Dowlais Iron Works with iron ore and coal between 1871 and 1876. ¹
• James Evans, 17, a collier, died in a shaft incident on 8 December 1873. ²
• One of the pits making up the wider Dowlais Collieries complex, worked for coal and ironstone across the group and abandoned in May 1924; within that shared working it worked the Lower-Four-Feet seam (to 1908/17) and the Little/Seven-Feet seam (to 1917). ²
• A Dowlais drainage level known as Buxton's, or the Purple Level, carried the ironworks' 'Dowlais pattern' culverts and was still in good condition in the 1960s. (uncertain) ³
• Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan SWR1612 covers Buxtons among the Dowlais workings, in the seams five feet (top coal) & gellideg (lower four feet). ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Small collieries of the Dowlais Cwmbargoed & Penydarren areas — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dowlais Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Merthyr Tydfil - Historic Landscape Character Area — Heneb (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust)
4. (primary) DOWLAIS /YARD BALANCE /PEN-Y-WAIN FAWR /BLIND BALANCE/ TYLA DOWLAIS/ BUXTONS/ CWMCENAL MEADOW/ BLAEN DOWLAIS /BLAEN RACE/ PANTYWAIN/ LOWER FOUR FEET /CARNO /RACE LACE/ NO.1 MINE /NEW LOWER FOUR FEET / — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 15 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026