Coalbrook Vale Colliery

Overview

The pits of George Brewer's Coalbrook Vale ironworks at Nantyglo, established in 1820, which outlived the furnaces by half a century: the Deep Pit, Ffosmaen, Coke Yard and Trawstre employed over six hundred men in 1896. Nine colliers drowned when water broke in from old workings in 1831. After the ironworks closed in 1878 the collieries passed through a string of owners, from Liverpool's Barnes family to Silvanus Jones, and were closed in 1924 by one account or about 1938 by another.

History

George Brewer established the Coalbrook Vale ironworks at Nantyglo in 1820, the name echoing Coalbrookdale, where he is said to have come from or had family; fuel for the furnaces came from the company's own pits and the whole concern went by the name of the Coalbrookvale works. On 20 May 1831 water from old workings broke in on fourteen colliers; three reached the pits, one man was brought out alive after nearly 55 hours, and nine drowned (see Disasters, below). George Brewer retired in 1839 or died in 1845, and under his son Thomas Llewellyn Brewer the Deep Pit was sunk some time after 1840; locals were still calling it 'Brewer's Deep Mine' in the 1880s. Levick and Simpson bought Coalbrook Vale in 1855, and the NMRS records Cruttwell, Levick and Company owning the Deep Pit in 1858-65 and Major McDonald in 1870. Edmund Morgan leased the colliery in 1873, and after the ironworks closed in 1878 the Liverpool partnership of J. G. and W. Barnes with Morgan took over the collieries, as Barnes, Morgan and Co. and then the Coalbrookvale Colliery Company. In 1884 they comprised the Deep Pit, Ffosmaen, Coke Yard and Trawstre, and in 1896 they employed 511 underground and 120 at the surface in the Old Coal, Bydelog and New Vein seams. Flooding stopped the colliery for nine weeks in 1899 and partially again in June 1900, and the Barnes partnership was dissolved that year. The Nantyglo company bought the collieries at auction in 1903 for £3,000 and leased them in 1904 to William Baker Dixon of Wigan; by 1908 only the Deep Pit was working, with 116 men. Silvanus Jones took over in 1916 and added a drift, and in 1923 the Deep Pit employed about 200 to 270 in the New and Lower Big veins. It closed in November 1924, and in October 1927 its equipment was up for sale; Welsh Coal Mines and Wikipedia give its closure as about 1938.

Geology

Worked the heavily exploited seams of the Nantyglo and Blaina area, which NMRS describes as virtually exhausted by the early twentieth century: the Old Coal (Five Feet/Gellideg), Bydelog, New Vein, Big Vein (Four Feet), Meadow Vein, Elled and Three-quarter.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A group of pits and levels: the Deep Pit, Ffosmaen, Coke Yard and Trawstre in 1884. The Coke Yard pit wound from the Black Vein at fifty yards through an elliptical shaft 14 feet by 10, with a pumping pit 27 feet away, and was used only for pumping by 1900. Silvanus Jones added a drift to the Deep Pit after 1916. Seam abandonments include the Big, Elled and Three-quarter in April 1892, the top of the Big Vein in September 1916, the Meadow Vein in 1914, the New in 1924 and the Big Vein in 1925.

Closure

Out of the Blue Artifacts reports the colliery closed in November 1924 and Silvanus Jones bankrupt in October 1925; the Colliery Guardian of October 1927 reported it dismantled, and a Coke Yard Colliery Company was formed that year to buy it. Welsh Coal Mines and Wikipedia give closure as about 1938.

What remains

The village of Coalbrookvale keeps the name; Coalbrookvale House, an early nineteenth-century manager's house, survives. No report of colliery remains has been found.

Nearby mines

• North Blaina Colliery — 0.8 km SE
• Milfraen Colliery — 2.8 km E, Torfaen
• Beaufort Iron Works — 3.4 km NW
• Rose Heyworth Colliery — 3.7 km SE
• Marine Colliery — 4.0 km SE

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.

• George Brewer established the Coalbrook Vale ironworks at Nantyglo in 1820; the pits supplied its furnaces. ^1,2,3
• Welsh Coal Mines says Brewer was believed related to the Darbys of Coalbrookdale, hence the name; Wikipedia says he came from Coalbrookdale; Out of the Blue Artifacts calls the name an English derivation of Nant-y-glo, 'stream of coal'. (disputed) ^1,2,3
• The Deep Pit was sunk after 1840 under Thomas Llewellyn Brewer and was still called 'Brewer's Deep Mine' locally in the 1880s. ²
• On 20 May 1831 water broke in from old workings; of fourteen colliers three escaped, one was rescued after nearly 55 hours, and nine drowned. ¹
• In 1896 the collieries employed 511 underground and 120 at the surface (613 in all by Welsh Coal Mines) in the Old Coal, Bydelog and New Vein seams. ^1,4
• The Coalbrookvale Colliery closed in November 1924, and in October 1927 its equipment was for sale. (disputed) ^4,2
• The colliery closed in about 1938. (disputed) ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coalbrook Vale — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Coalbrookvale Colliery — Out Of The Blue Artifacts
3. (secondary) Coalbrookvale — Wikipedia
4. (secondary) Coalbrook Vale Collieries — Northern Mine Research Society (information supplied by Ray Lawrence)

Record created: 13 September 2026 · Last researched: 14 September 2026