Risca New Pit

Overview

A large Monmouthshire colliery at Waunfawr, sunk in 1875 and raising coal from June 1878 on the notoriously gassy Black Vein. Two years later, in July 1880, an explosion killed 120 men and boys. It went on to become one of the largest collieries in South Wales — the first there lit by electricity — and worked until 1967.

History

The two shafts were sunk in 1875 by Watts, Ward & Co., who later merged into the London and South Wales Colliery Company, several hundred yards north-west of the Risca Black Vein Colliery and across the valley from Rockvein, near the junction of the Ebbw and Sirhowy valleys. Coal was first raised in June 1878. Each shaft was 285 yards deep and 17 feet 6 inches across, ventilated by a 40-foot Guibal fan, and about 700 hands were employed raising some 1,000 tons a day. At half past one on the morning of 15 July 1880 an explosion of firedamp killed 120 men and boys, almost all of them repairers working the night (see Disasters, below). The colliery kept working. An underground explosion in 1882 killed the only four men below at the time — Charles Dixon, overman; Francis Evans and John Gittings, firemen; and Evan Morgan, labourer — along with all sixty of the colliery's ponies, and on 5 March 1886 John Perry and his thirteen-year-old son George were killed together by a roof fall after a localised explosion. In 1892 the Risca collieries were amalgamated into United National Collieries Ltd. A Western Mail report that December put 1,050 men and 102 horses at this colliery, called the Risca collieries among the largest in South Wales, and noted that they were the first in South Wales to be lit by electric light both on the surface and at the pit bottom, with a complete system of compressed-air underground haulage. The Inspector of Mines' list for 1896 records 1,008 men working the Blackvein and Lower Blackvein seams; by 1918, with the Blackvein Colliery, 2,084 were employed. A 1923 return gives 1,196 at Risca No. 1 in the Big and Black Vein seams and 455 at No. 2 in the Five Feet. The Ocean Coal Company took over in 1928. In 1935 a stay-down strike lasting 72 hours and involving 189 men was held here in protest at the use of non-union labour. At nationalisation in 1947 the colliery employed 750. It closed in 1967.

Geology

The colliery worked the Black Vein, the seam that defined and repeatedly devastated mining around Risca. It lies in the Coal Measures near the eastern outcrop of the South Wales Coalfield, and was known throughout the coalfield as exceptionally gassy — the Black Vein collieries and the neighbouring Prince of Wales pit together accounted for 591 deaths from gas explosions alone by 1880. The New Pit was sunk deeper than its predecessors to reach more of the same seam.

Workings

Two shafts, each 285 yards deep and 17 feet 6 inches in diameter, ventilated by a 40-foot Guibal fan. The colliery worked the Black Vein and Lower Black Vein, and later the Big Vein and the Five Feet. Underground haulage was by compressed air, and by 1892 the colliery was lit by electricity on the surface and at the pit bottom. A survey of 12 April 1953 put the No. 1 (downcast) pit bottom at 832 feet with a sump at 860, and the No. 2 (upcast) at 913 feet with a sump at 943.

Closure

Closed in 1967, having employed 750 men at nationalisation twenty years earlier.

What remains

The colliery site is now occupied by the North Blackvein Industrial Estate.

No colliery structures survive; the site is an industrial estate.

Disasters & major incidents

• Risca New Pit Explosion, 1880
  15 July 1880 · Explosion · 120 fatalities
  At half past one on the morning of 15 July 1880, firedamp exploded at the Risca New Pit, killing 120 men and boys. Almost all of them were repairers working through the night while the colliers were at home. The blast wrecked the engine-room at the upcast shaft and damaged the ventilating fan, delaying the rescue.

Recorded claims

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

• Welsh Coal Mines records the two shafts as sunk in 1875 by Watts, Ward & Co., with coal first raised in June 1878. Wikipedia instead says a new pit with deeper shafts was sunk by 1872. (medium) ^1,2
• Each shaft was 285 yards deep and 17 feet 6 inches in diameter, and the colliery was ventilated by a Guibal fan 40 feet in diameter. (high) ¹
• A Western Mail report of 21 December 1892 stated that the Risca collieries were the first in South Wales to be illuminated by electric light both on the surface and at the pit bottom, and that underground traction was by a complete system of compressed-air haulage. (medium) ¹
• The 1880 disaster brought the total killed by gas explosions alone at the Risca collieries and the neighbouring Prince of Wales colliery to 591. (medium) ¹
• A stay-down strike lasting 72 hours and involving 189 miners took place at the colliery in 1935, in protest at the use of non-union workers. (medium) ¹
• The colliery employed 750 men at nationalisation in 1947 and closed in 1967. (medium) ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) New Risca Pit — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) Risca colliery disasters — Wikipedia

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026