Big - Pit National Coal Museum of Wales

In Blaenavon, many of our members took the opportunity to visit Big Pit mining museum, the walk there giving an interesting elevated view of the P&BR railway sidings and surrounding hill-top landscape.  Alternatively some traveled there from the P&BR by a vintage former “Western Welsh” AEC Reliance / Harrington coach dating from 1965 for the journey via the local roads and town.

On arrival at Big Pit we were given the choice of joining an underground tour, and around fifteen or so members and friends took up the opportunity. We gathered at the Pit Head and donned hard hats, wearing electric cap lamps powered from heavy battery packs and emergency `self-rescuers’ attached to belts. However, before getting into the cage we had to leave anything flammable or with batteries (eg lighters, cameras, watches and mobile phones) locked away securely on the surface due to potential fire and gas risks.

After journeying down 300 ft we entered a world of darkness and narrow tunnels, where the temperature ranged between 10-14 degrees C. Once exploring the tunnels, lighting was purely from cap lamps and there was a frequent need to duck to avoid hitting the tunnel roof, and avoid surface water. Many a time we were thankful for the hard hats!  The tunnels we visited were some of the older workings but were in the condition still worked in the 1970s. Our Guide told us that unlike mines in the Yorkshire coalfield and elsewhere further north, rock structures and geological conditions in the South Wales coalfield (plus levels of investment) meant that tunnels tended to be smaller in size and thus often lacked the level of mechanization and modernity found elsewhere. No man-riders taking miners to the coal face here, no large machines to excavate the coalface, nor underground narrow gauge locos to haul wagons at this pit- indeed because of the narrow coal seam it was still down to miners with picks and shovels lying on their backs winning the coal and emptying it into small rail-borne wagons (known as trams or drams) to be pushed manually or pulled by horses back to the shaft or drift for removal to the outside world.

On emerging from the underground tour, we returned our equipment to the lamp room, and explored the site. There were extensive displays to see, Pit-head baths, winding gear, machinery workshops, the pit-managers office, and the canteen (now café), before heading back to the P&BR and our waiting coach.

This really gave a fascinating appreciation of what went on below the surface. Because of Welsh Assembly policy on museums, all this was free of charge!

Big Pit - background history and its steam locos

Big Pit was an amalgamation of several mines in the Blaenavon area, with the earliest shaft being sunk in 1812. The shaft of the current day Big Pit was originally known as Kearsley’s Pit and sunk to its present depth of 300ft in 1880. It became known as ‘Big Pit’ because of its unusually large elliptical shaft. It was the most important colliery in the town for over one hundred years.  

Coal Winding ceased here in 1973 after a new drift was driven enabling coal to be brought to the surface near to the coal Washery, the large concrete funnel- shaped structure seen today near to the railway sidings. The shaft was used for man riding and ventilation only. Big Pit was Blaenavon’s last coal mine and closed in February 1980. At the time of its closure it employed 250 people, compared to 2,500 at its height, and was therefore still a relatively important employer in the town.

Working industrial steam survived at the Blaenavon Coal Washery site into the mid 1970’s, with two Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 Saddle tanks dating from 1919/ 1920 “The Blaenavon Nora” and “The Blaenavon Toto” in use and seen working by the author during a visit in 1976. On arrival at Big Pit one of the first things seen were two steam locos, one of which was Nora, and a number of railway wagons exhibited outside on lengths of railway track. (Toto is currently retained for preservation at the Mangapps Farm Railway in Essex.)

Big Pit reopened as a museum in April 1983 and was instantly popular, allowing visitors to travel down 300 ft, accompanied by former miners, to experience at first hand the working conditions they worked in and hear about a way of life now gone from these shores. Management of the site was taken on by the National Museums and Galleries of Wales in 1999 and visitor numbers have soared, with an extensive revamp of the site completed in 2004 bringing new surface displays, exhibitions and interpretation features.

Since 1983 over three million people have visited the site.  

Big Pit Pics>>Blaenavon>>Brecon Mt Rly>>Top