Vivian Colliery

Overview

A steam-coal pit at Six Bells, Abertillery, sunk from 1889 and raising coal from 1891 for Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Company. It employed up to a thousand men, passed to Partridge, Jones and John Paton and the National Coal Board, stopped producing in 1958 and then served as a downcast shaft for Six Bells Colliery.

History

Vivian Colliery, at Six Bells on the Ebbw Fach above Abertillery, was sunk from 1889 for the Tillery company, Powell's Tillery Steam Coal Company, and first raised coal in 1891. The shaft went down 296 metres, passing the Four Feet seam at 210 metres and the Nine Feet at 252 metres to the Five Feet/Gellideg at 294 metres. On 8 December 1890 a misfired charge exploded during sinking and killed three sinkers (see Disasters, below).

In 1896 the pit employed 607 men on the Elled seam under E. B. Lichtenberg. With the company's Gray and Tillery pits it employed 1,889 men in 1913, and in 1923 Vivian alone had 889 men working the Three Quarter, Big and Meadow Vein. Powell's Tillery became a subsidiary of the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron and Coal Company in the early 1920s, which stopped production at Vivian in October 1924, putting 1,000 men out of work, and did not restart until February 1929.

Partridge, Jones and John Paton bought the Ebbw Vale company's mines in 1935, when Vivian employed 670 men on the Black Vein and Meadow Vein. At nationalisation in 1947 it had 658 men working the Old Coal and Meadow Vein, falling to 447 by 1954, when it was one of 42 collieries whose accident rate concerned both the National Coal Board and the miners' union. Coal production stopped in 1958, and the shaft was kept as a downcast for neighbouring Six Bells Colliery. The site is now occupied by Abertillery Leisure Centre and the Six Bells (Vivian) mine water treatment plant.

Geology

Steam coal measures of the Ebbw Fach: the Four Feet, Nine Feet and Five Feet/Gellideg (Old Coal) seams, with the Elled, Three Quarter, Big, Black and Meadow Vein (Yard/Seven Feet) also worked.

Workings

A shaft sunk to 296 metres, worked with the company's Gray and Tillery pits and later used as a downcast for Six Bells Colliery.

Closure

Production stopped in 1958, and the shaft was kept as a downcast for Six Bells Colliery.

What remains

Abertillery Leisure Centre stands on the site, beside the Six Bells (Vivian) mine water treatment plant, whose lagoons settle iron from the water draining out of the old workings.

Redevelopment

Abertillery Leisure Centre and the Six Bells (Vivian) mine water treatment plant.

Related mines

• Six Bells Colliery — Vivian's shaft became the downcast for Six Bells after 1958; the two appear on joint abandonment plans.

Disasters & major incidents

• Vivian Colliery sinking explosion, 1890
  8 December 1890 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  On Monday 8 December 1890, while the new Vivian pit at Six Bells, Abertillery, was being sunk, part of a dynamite charge that had failed to fire the night before exploded as the sinkers broke up the debris, killing three men and injuring six.

Recorded claims

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

• Sunk from 1889 to 296 metres; coal was first raised in 1891. ¹
• The pit employed 607 men in 1896 and 889 in 1923. ¹
• Fatal accidents at the Tillery company's Vivian Pit were recorded in 1901, 1904, 1906 and 1909. ²
• Vivian's workings are recorded on joint plans with Six Bells, Gray and Tillery. ³
• Coal production stopped in 1958 and the shaft became a downcast for Six Bells Colliery. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: Vivian Colliery, Abertillery — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (secondary) NMRS coal mining accidents and deaths database — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: SIXBELLS VIVIAN GRAY TILLERY (Nine Feet) — British Geological Survey
4. (primary) 'The dynamite explosion at Abertillery: inquest and verdict', South Wales Daily News, 13 December 1890 — Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales)

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