North Blaina Colliery

Overview

A Blaina pit that changed its name almost as often as its owner — the Rising Sun, the New Sun, Stone's Pit — and worked the western valleys of Monmouthshire for coking, manufacturing and steam coal until it closed about 1923 with six hundred people still on its books.

History

The colliery was probably sunk around 1860 by the Nantyglo and Blaina Company, when it went by the name of the Rising Sun Pit. Morgan and Williams were the owners in 1877. It closed and was reopened by the Stone brothers as the New Sun Pit, and it was also known locally as Stone's Pit after J. W. Stone, who held it for some years from 1883; the Lists of Mines return it under J. and W. Stone.

The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives 488 men working the Three Quarter, Elled and Big Vein seams, still under the New Sun name — which suggests another shaft had been sunk in the intervening years. By 1900 the returns carry a New Drift alongside the New Sun Pit, and by 1910 a Slope with 154 men of its own.

It later passed to J. Lancaster and Company, the same Lancaster interest that held Rose Heyworth up the next valley. In 1908 there were 566 men at the pit and 157 at the North Blaina Slope; in 1913, 501 at the pit and 121 at the slope, producing coking, manufacturing and steam coals; in 1916, 496 and 207; in 1918, 612 and 187, both managed by Thomas Williams.

The colliery closed about 1923, when the workforce numbered 610.

Geology

The colliery worked the Coal Measures of the western valleys of Monmouthshire above Blaina, taking the Three Quarter, Elled and Big Vein seams, and selling coking, manufacturing and steam coal — a combination that put it into the ironworks trade the Nantyglo and Blaina Company existed to feed.

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

Workings

The New Sun Pit, with a New Drift returned alongside it from 1900 and a separate Slope with its own workforce from 1910 — a pit and two entries rather than one working.

Closure

Closed about 1923, with a workforce of 610.

Related mines

• Henwaun Colliery — Both worked by the Nantyglo and Blaina Company and then John Lancaster and Co., and both closed when Beynon's Colliery took their remaining coal in the early 1920s.
• Rose Heyworth Colliery — Both collieries passed to the Lancaster interest — Rose Heyworth to Lancaster's Steam Coal Company in 1888 and North Blaina to J. Lancaster and Company before its closure — and the two sit in neighbouring valleys of the same coalfield.

What's uncertain

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

• A Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan (SWR3577) covers 'North Blaina, Milfrawn Pit, North Griffin Pit, Sun Pit' in the Yard Vein and Old Coal; another (7225) for 'Nantyglo (Blaina North)' is dated 1921. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was probably sunk around 1860 by the Nantyglo and Blaina Company, when it went by the name of the Rising Sun Pit; Morgan and Williams were the owners in 1877; it later closed and was reopened by the Stone brothers as the New Sun Pit, and was also known as Stone's Pit after J. W. Stone, who owned it for some years from 1883. ¹
• The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 records 488 men working the Three Quarter, Elled and Big Vein seams, the colliery then being called the New Sun Pit, which suggests another shaft had been sunk in the intervening years. ^1,2
• In 1908 there were 566 men employed at the pit and 157 at the North Blaina Slope; in 1913, 501 at the pit and 121 at the slope, producing coking, manufacturing and steam coals; in 1916, 496 and 207; and in 1918, 612 and 187, both managed by Thomas Williams. ¹
• The colliery was later taken over by J. Lancaster and Company, returned by the Durham Mining Museum as Lancaster's Steam Coal Collieries Ltd, and closed about 1923 when the workforce numbered 610. ^1,2
• A Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan (SWR3577) covers 'North Blaina, Milfrawn Pit, North Griffin Pit, Sun Pit' in the Yard Vein and Old Coal; another (7225) for 'Nantyglo (Blaina North)' is dated 1921. (uncertain) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) North Blaina Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) North Blaina Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: NORTH BLAINA MILFRAWN PIT NORTH GRIFFIN PIT SUN PIT — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026