Navigation Colliery, Talywain

Overview

The Abersychan Big Pit near Talywain, renamed Lower or Powell's Navigation when Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Company took it over by 1908. A new shaft of 1916 modernised it, and it employed 640 in 1935, but its seams were abandoned in 1939 and it was kept afterwards for pumping.

History

Navigation Colliery stood west of Talywain, near Abersychan, in the Afon Lwyd valley. It began as the Abersychan Big Pit, owned in 1878 by the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company. When that company leased out its mines in 1883 the pit passed to the Abersychan Elled Company of Hoskins and Llewellyn, and one account has that company sinking it in the 1880s. The original pit was 149.5 metres deep, reaching the Nine Feet seam at 119.5 metres and the Old Coal at 140.7 metres, and was wound by a Cornish beam engine. In 1896 it employed 409 men underground and 92 on the surface.

By 1908 Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Company held the pit and renamed it Lower Navigation, or Powell's Navigation. In 1916 the company sank a new shaft, 14 feet across, to the Garw seam at 88 metres, and modernised the colliery with electric haulage above and below ground and Sulzer pumps; a brick engine house of about that time held the winding engine, a generator and the fan engine, beside the base of a Waddle fan. The pit raised high-volatile gas and coking coal from the Big Vein, Elled, Meadow Vein, Black Vein and Old Coal seams, and employed 650 men in 1915, 538 in 1918 and 640 in 1935, when it produced 150,000 tons.

Its workings in the Meadow, Elled, Three Quarters, Big and Old Coal seams were abandoned on 31 October 1939. In 1938 and 1945 only eight men worked underground, in the Meadow Vein; Partridge Jones and John Paton later owned the pit and kept it for pumping, and it was no longer a production unit at nationalisation in 1947. Eleven men were employed there in 1954. In February 1910 two elderly workmen died in a week, a 76-year-old lamplighter when a rope and bar hook broke and a journey of trams ran back, and a 64-year-old doorkeeper crushed by trams on the engine plane.

Geology

South Wales Coalfield: the Big Vein, Elled, Meadow Vein, Black Vein, Three Quarters, Nine Feet and Old Coal seams, with the Garw at 88 metres in the 1916 shaft.

Workings

The Big Pit of 149.5 metres, wound by a Cornish beam engine, and the Lower Navigation shaft of 1916, 14 feet in diameter, to the Garw seam at 88 metres; electric haulage and Sulzer pumps.

Closure

Its seams were abandoned on 31 October 1939; the pit was then kept for pumping and was not a production unit by 1947.

What remains

A brick engine house with a surviving Waddle fan base and other derelict buildings stand at the northern edge of the former colliery; a former coal tip has grown over.

The brick engine house of about 1900 (winding engine, generator and fan engine) with the base of a Waddle fan, a pumphouse, and a railway bridge.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Cwmsychan Colliery — Neighbouring pits near Abersychan held by the same lessees: the Abersychan Elled company and then Powell's Tillery.

What's uncertain

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

• The Abersychan Big Pit was sunk in the 1880s by the Abersychan Elled Company. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Owned in 1878 by the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company, leased in 1883 to the Abersychan Elled Company, and held by Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Company by 1908, which renamed it Lower or Powell's Navigation. ^1,2
• The Abersychan Big Pit was sunk in the 1880s by the Abersychan Elled Company. (disputed) ¹
• A new shaft, 14 feet in diameter, was sunk in 1916 to the Garw seam at 88 metres; the original pit was 149.5 metres deep. ^1,2
• In 1935 it employed 570 men underground and 70 on the surface, producing 150,000 tons. ^1,2
• Its Meadow, Elled, Three Quarters, Big and Old Coal seams were abandoned on 31 October 1939. ^3,4
• A brick engine house of around 1900 held a winding engine, generator and fan engine, with a rare surviving Waddle fan base adjoining. ⁵
• A railway bridge served the colliery. ⁶

Sources

1. (secondary) Navigation Colliery Talywain — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Powell's Navigation Colliery, Abersychan — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) BGS mine plan: Powells Navigation Talywain Navigation, Meadow seam (abandoned 31 October 1939) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Powells Navigation Talywain Navigation, Old Coal seam (abandoned 31 October 1939) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (secondary) Engine House, Lower Navigation Colliery, Abersychan (NPRN 85071) — Coflein (RCAHMW)
6. (secondary) Lower Navigation Colliery: Railway Bridge (NPRN 85078) — Coflein (RCAHMW)

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