Deep Pit, Nantyglo

Overview

Crawshay Bailey's Deep Pit at Pen-y-garn-fach, Nantyglo, sunk in the early 1830s, where an explosion in December 1847, dated 1837 in some accounts, killed eight; later a pumping station, abandoned before 1920.

History

The Deep Pit at Nantyglo was sunk in the early 1830s by Crawshay Bailey at Pen-y-garn-fach. Bailey's collieries had a bad name for safety and working conditions: he still employed women underground in 1850, eight years after Parliament had outlawed it, and was prosecuted after a fatal accident at one of his pits when a single winding chain snapped, the inspectors having insisted that chains be doubled.

In December 1847 an explosion killed eight men, John Parkes and his two sons among them (see Disasters, below).

By 1880 the pit belonged to the Nantyglo and Blaina Company. In 1902 it was kept as a pumping station, and it was abandoned before 1920. In the late 1920s a schoolboy fell down its flooded shaft. The California Colliery level lay just to its north.

Geology

Unknown.

Workings

A shaft pit of the Nantyglo ironworks collieries; the neighbouring California level, just to the north, was linked underground with Garn, Peggy's, Prior's and Nantyglo Deep.

Closure

Retained as a pumping station in 1902 and abandoned before 1920; the exact date is Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Deep Pit, Nantyglo explosion, 1847
  6 December 1847 · Explosion · 8 fatalities
  On Monday 6 December 1847 firedamp exploded in one of the Bailey brothers' coal pits at Nantyglo, attributed to their Deep Pit, killing eight men, among them John Parkes and his two sons, and badly injuring three. The inquest heard that a ventilation door had been ordered but not fitted. The colliers struck afterwards.

Recorded claims

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

• Nant-y-Glo Deep Pit was sunk during the early 1830s by Crawshay Bailey at Pen-y-garn-fach, Nantyglo. ¹
• California Colliery lay just to the north of the Nantyglo Deep Pit and was linked underground to Garn, Peggy's, Prior's and Nantyglo Deep. ²
• In 1880 the pit was in the hands of the Nantyglo and Blaina Co. Ltd; by 1902 it was kept as a pumping station, and it was abandoned before 1920. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Deep Pit Nantyglo - Welsh Coal Mines — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Small Collieries of the Ebbw Valley — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Nantyglo Colliery Explosion - Blaina - 1837 - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Nantyglo Colliery Explosion - Nantyglo - 1847 - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026