Cinder Pit, Blaina

Overview

A vertical-shaft pit at Blaina, sunk in 1873 to work the Elled seam and worked for two decades under the Nantyglo and Blaina Company and then the Wigan firm of John Lancaster, before closing in 1893. Its distinctive headgear stood derelict for a further fourteen years until it was finally dismantled in 1907.

History

The Nantyglo & Blaina Coal Co. opened the Cinder Pit, also known locally as the Tir Sais pit, in 1873. Its shaft was unusually shaped — elliptical, 14 feet by 10 feet — and it mainly worked the Elled seam. By March 1878 the Nantyglo and Blaina Co. was debt-ridden and leased its Blaina-area coal to the Wigan firm of John Lancaster; through the 1880s Lancaster also worked the Old Coal (Five-Feet/Gellideg) seam here under manager J. Williams. Output climbed through this period: the pit produced 129,737 tons of coal in 1889 and 158,239 tons in 1892, its best-documented year. Work at the Cinder Pit and the nearby Lower Deep Pit finished together on Friday, 31 March 1893; the South Wales Daily News reported two days later that the Cinder Pit would probably not be worked again, the company intending instead to raise its remaining coal from a new pit then being sunk (probably the Beynon's pit, though that did not fully open until 1922). Many of the men found places at the company's other pits, but a large number were left unemployed. On 7 July 1883, during its working years, collier Richard Evans, 50, was killed by a fall of coal near the gob. The idle pit's ownership passed formally to J. Lancaster & Co. Ltd in 1890 and briefly to C.W. Ellis in 1895. The old headgear stood derelict for over a dozen years until, on Sunday 31 March 1907, pit carpenters dismantling its huge wooden winding frame had it collapse under them; one man, Charles Webber, 24, was thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious but survived, saved from the falling timbers by chance — had the frame given way three minutes earlier, most of the carpenters would have been on it.

Geology

Worked the Elled seam of the South Wales Coalfield, with the Old Coal (Five-Feet/Gellideg) seam also worked in the 1880s.

Workings

A single elliptical shaft, 14 feet by 10 feet, mainly working the Elled seam and also, in the 1880s, the Old Coal (Five-Feet/Gellideg) seam.

Closure

Closed alongside the neighbouring Lower Deep Pit on 31 March 1893, its remaining coal left to a new pit being sunk; the abandoned headgear was not dismantled until 1907.

What remains

Unknown.

Nearby mines

• Coalbrook Vale Colliery — 1.1 km SE
• North Blaina Colliery — 1.9 km SE
• Beaufort Iron Works — 2.2 km NW
• Duffryn Colliery, Brynmawr — 2.4 km N
• Forge Colliery, Nantyglo — 2.5 km NE

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.

• Sunk in 1873 by the Nantyglo & Blaina Coal Co. as the Tir Sais pit, an elliptical shaft 14 feet by 10 feet mainly working the Elled seam. ¹
• In March 1878 the debt-ridden Nantyglo and Blaina Co. leased its Blaina-area coal to the Wigan firm of John Lancaster, who worked the Old Coal seam here through the 1880s under manager J. Williams. ¹
• Recorded output was 129,737 tons of coal in 1889 and 158,239 tons in 1892. ¹
• Work at the Cinder Pit and the neighbouring Lower Deep Pit finished on 31 March 1893, reported two days later as unlikely to be reworked, its remaining coal left to a new pit being sunk. ¹
• Collier Richard Evans, 50, was killed by a fall of coal near the gob on 7 July 1883. ²
• On 31 March 1907 the derelict pit's wooden winding frame collapsed while carpenters were dismantling it; Charles Webber, 24, was thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious but survived. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Henwaun Pit Blaina — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Fatalities 1883 — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 14 September 2026 · Last researched: 15 September 2026