Eastern Valleys Black Vein Colliery

Overview

A slant at Cwmffrwdoer, near Pontypool, begun by David Buck in 1900 and reopened in 1907, worked by Eastern Valleys Black Vein Collieries Ltd from 1909 with over 250 men in 1913, and abandoned in 1928 or closed in 1939 by differing accounts.

History

Eastern Valleys Black Vein Colliery was a slant mine at Cwmffrwdoer, near Pontypool. David Buck began it in 1900, but the coal was not proved and the working was abandoned in 1902; an abandonment plan of that year is marked "coal not proved". Buck reopened it in 1907, and in 1908 it employed five men. In 1909 it passed to Eastern Valleys Black Vein Collieries Ltd, and by 1913 the company employed 222 men underground and 36 on the surface, raising 40,000 tons of coal from the Meadow Vein. The workforce was 104 in 1918; in 1923 the slant was producing steam coal from the Big Vein with 126 men. Abandonment plans record the Gorllwyn seam given up in 1918 and the Meadow seam in 1925.

A 47-year-old man was killed here when trams ran wild in December 1922, and a 21-year-old collier's helper died in June 1924. Accounts of the end differ. One records the colliery abandoned on 31 December 1928; another says it closed at the start of the Second World War, in 1939, with 137 men. The company also worked the former Panteg Colliery as Pontypool Colliery from 1928 until September 1938, and a colliery minute of January 1931 still refers to "Buck's Eastern Valleys Colliery". In January 1939 the company's standard tonnage was transferred to the Blaendare Colliery Company, and in April 1939 Blaendare's "Buck's Eastern Valley" was working the Droideg seam instead of the Meadow Vein.

Geology

Seams of the South Wales coalfield: the Meadow Vein, the Big Vein, the Gorllwyn seam and later the Droideg seam.

Workings

A slant (drift) mine.

Closure

Abandoned on 31 December 1928 by one account; closed in 1939 with 137 men by another, when its standard tonnage passed to the Blaendare Colliery Company.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Blaendare Colliery — The Blaendare company took over the colliery's standard tonnage in 1939.
• Cwmlucu Colliery — Both worked by David Buck of Pontypool in the early 1900s.
• Tirpentwys Colliery — Neighbouring colliery in the Cwmffrwdoer valley.

What's uncertain

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

• Abandoned on 31 December 1928. (disputed) ¹
• Closed at the start of the Second World War in 1939, with a workforce of 137. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Started in 1900 by David Buck; the coal was not proved and the working was abandoned in 1902. ^1,2
• Reopened by David Buck in 1907 and taken over by Eastern Valleys Black Vein Collieries Ltd in 1909. ¹
• Employed 222 men underground and 36 on the surface in 1913, producing 40,000 tons from the Meadow Vein. ¹
• Abandonment plans record the Gorllwyn seam in 1918 and the Meadow seam in 1925. ^3,4
• Deaths at the colliery are recorded in December 1922, when trams ran wild, and in June 1924. ^5,6
• Abandoned on 31 December 1928. (disputed) ¹
• Closed at the start of the Second World War in 1939, with a workforce of 137. (disputed) ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Plas-y-Coed Colliery (with Cwmffrwdoer and Eastern Valley Black Vein) — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) BGS mine plan: Eastern Valleys Black Vein, coal not proved (abandoned 1902) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Eastern Valleys Black Vein, Gorllwyn seam (abandoned 1918) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Eastern Valleys Black Vein, Meadow seam (abandoned 1925) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) NMRS deaths database: Ebenezer Chard, Eastern Valley's Black Vein, 1922 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) NMRS deaths database: Stanley Gordon Chard, Eastern Valley's Black Vein, 1924 — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 17 October 2026 · Last researched: 17 October 2026