Bwlch-y-Garn Pit

Overview

A coal and ironstone pit on the mountain above Beaufort, near Ebbw Vale, sunk for Crawshay Bailey's Beaufort and Nantyglo ironworks and opened in November 1853 with a railway to the Beaufort incline. Two shafts went down 182 yards to the Elled seam; about 500 men worked there in 1873, and it closed with the Beaufort pits in 1877-78.

History

Bwlch-y-Garn, on the mountain above Beaufort near Ebbw Vale, was farmland held by the Meredith family until about 1850, when much of it was sold to the ironmaster Crawshay Bailey. Two shafts, one of them an air shaft, were sunk 182 yards to the Elled seam. The pit was the most southerly and the most modern of the company's Beaufort pits, and the only one wound by steam. It opened in November 1853 with the completion of the Brynmawr Junction Railway, which ran from the pithead to the top of the Beaufort incline. It carried coal and iron ore to the furnaces at Beaufort and Nantyglo, and carried the workforce from Beaufort Hill.

The first recorded fatal accident was in December 1858, when T. Watkins, 17, was killed by a fall, and eleven more deaths were reported before the pit closed. In August 1864 the hot summer stopped the winding engine for lack of water. In December 1872 a locomotive taking 50 colliers home derailed and overturned, killing George Boulter, though the coupling to the manned trucks broke and spared the rest.

In 1871 Bailey sold the ironworks and land to the Nantyglo and Blaina Iron and Coal Company for a reported £300,000. In February 1873 the colliers agreed to return on a double-shift system, with 500 said to be employed at the pit, but the Beaufort ironworks closed for good that year. All the Beaufort pits were closed in January 1877, and a plan of the abandoned ironstone workings at Bwlch-y-Garn was lodged in October 1878.

Geology

The Elled seam, with the Big Vein and ironstone also worked.

Workings

Two shafts (one an air shaft) to 182 yards, steam-wound and possibly drained by a steam beam pump, served by the Brynmawr Junction Railway to the top of the Beaufort incline. Ironstone was worked as well as coal.

Closure

The Beaufort ironworks closed in 1873 and all the Beaufort pits in January 1877; the abandonment plan of the ironstone workings followed in October 1878.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Beaufort Iron Works — Sunk by Crawshay Bailey to supply the Beaufort furnaces, to which its railway ran.

Recorded claims

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

• Two shafts were sunk 182 yards to the Elled seam. ¹
• The pit opened in November 1853 with the completion of the Brynmawr Junction Railway to the top of the Beaufort incline. ¹
• In February 1873, 500 men were said to be employed at the pit. ¹
• Bwlch y Garn Pit appears on the Nantyglo district plans of the Elled seam. ²
• All the Beaufort pits were closed in January 1877. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: Bwlch-y-Garn, near Ebbw Vale — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: NANTYGLO LOCALITY BWLCH Y GARN PIT, NORTH BLAENA DEEP, COALBROOKVALE DEEP PIT ... (Elled) — British Geological Survey

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