Ty Trist Colliery

Overview

Tŷ Trist — the house of sorrow — was sunk at Tredegar in 1834 by the Tredegar Iron Company and worked for 125 years. It began as a water balance pit, two oval shafts down 75 yards to the Elled seam, and was converted to steam winding in 1868 when a third, fan pit was sunk and the No. 1 shaft deepened to the Old Coal. Coke ovens came in 1849, a washery in 1892 and a fourth shaft in 1898. Over a thousand men and more than a hundred ponies worked here in the First World War, and 2,152 people in 1923. It closed in 1959.

History

The colliery was sunk in 1834, originally as a water balance pit like most shafts of that date, its two oval shafts going down 75 yards to the Elled or Two-Feet-Nine seam. Coke ovens were installed in 1849, replacing the wasteful practice of clamping, which used only lump coal, with ovens that made good coke from small coal. A Western Mail account of 1869 describes three shafts at that date: a water balance working a hundred-yard shaft to the Yard seam, where the Big Vein and Yard were won together at 350 tons a day; a middle pit with a sixteen-inch beam engine raising the pump rod through a T-bob; and a north pit with a new engine of that year, two ropes drawing from the Yard seam at 100 yards and the Old Coal at 200, its winder two 25-inch horizontal cylinders of four-foot stroke driving one drum direct and another through a 2:1 reduction gear. The No. 3 or fan pit was sunk in 1868, the No. 1 shaft deepened to the Old Coal, and the conversion from water balance to steam winding begun. A coal washery followed in 1892, and in 1898 the shafts were deepened to reach further seams and a fourth sunk to improve pumping and ventilation. The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives 618 people raising steam and coking coal from the Big, Yard and Old Coal seams. Over a thousand men and more than a hundred ponies were employed during the First World War, 1,065 by 1918, and a list of 1923 gives 2,152 working coal and ironstone from the Rhas Las, Big Vein, Old Coal, Yard and Little Yard seams. The colliery's deaths include a teenage tip girl killed in 1878 and two men who fell to their deaths at the No. 1 pit in 1905. Tredegar's pit-top girls trammed the spoil and lubricated the machinery, and many were killed by locomotives, trams and shaft accidents.

Geology

Tŷ Trist worked the Sirhowy valley measures at Tredegar, taking the Elled or Two-Feet-Nine seam first at 75 yards, then the Yard at 100 and the Old Coal at 200, and by 1923 the Rhas Las, Big Vein and Little Yard as well. Ironstone was returned alongside the coal that year, the ore the Tredegar ironworks had been founded on.

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

Workings

Two oval shafts of 1834, worked at first by water balance — the weight of a tank of water raising the load — with a third, fan pit added in 1868 and a fourth in 1898 for pumping and ventilation. Steam winding replaced the water balance from 1868. A coal washery was installed in 1892 and coke ovens as early as 1849. The upcast for the pit was the No. 11 mine balance pit, about 88 yards above the Tŷ Trist surface on the west mountainside.

Closure

Tŷ Trist closed in 1959 after working for 125 years. It had been merged with the neighbouring Whitworth colliery, and the two closed together; employment had fallen from 2,152 in 1923 to 591 in 1945 and 567 in 1947.

What remains

The colliery has been cleared and the ground landscaped; the site at Tredegar carries a history point marking what stood there. The tips above the town have been reshaped and Cefn Golau, on the mountain above, keeps its cholera cemetery from the town's ironworking years.

Nearby mines

• Bedwellty Pits — 0.7 km E
• Sirhowy Ironworks — 2.2 km N
• Pochin Colliery — 3.6 km SE
• McLaren Colliery — 4.2 km S, Caerphilly
• Beaufort Iron Works — 4.6 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• Tŷ Trist was sunk in 1834 as a water balance pit, its two oval shafts going down to the Elled coal seam at a depth of 75 yards. ¹
• Coke ovens were installed in 1849, replacing the more wasteful method of clamping, which used only lump coal, with ovens that made good coke from small coal. ¹
• The No. 3 or fan pit was sunk in 1868, the No. 1 shaft deepened to the Old Coal, and the conversion from water balance to steam winding begun in the same year. ¹
• A coal washery was installed in 1892; in 1898 the shafts were deepened to reach other seams and a fourth shaft was sunk to improve pumping and ventilation. ¹
• The Inspector of Mines list for 1896 gives 618 people; over a thousand men and more than a hundred ponies were employed during the First World War; a list of 1923 gives 2,152. ^1,2
• Tredegar's pit-top girls trammed the spoil and lubricated the machinery, and many were killed by locomotives, trams and shaft accidents; a teenage tip girl was killed at this colliery in 1878. ¹
• Tŷ Trist closed in 1959 after working for 125 years. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Ty Trist Colliery, Tredegar — Welsh Coal Mines, from the Inspector of Mines lists and a Western Mail report of 1869
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Ty Trist Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Mines Inspectors Reports and the Lists of Mines
3. (secondary) Site of Tŷ Trist Colliery, Tredegar — HistoryPoints

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026