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New Tredegar Colliery, Circa, 1900
Sunk by the Newport merchant Thomas Powell, in 1853. It originally had two shafts each at 345 yards deep, one for winding the other for ventilation and pumping.
The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company took over the ownership in 1863. They added two more shafts; the last one was sunk in 1905.
On the 2nd of December 1875 a minor gas explosion occurred near to the coalface badly injuring two men. Subsequently the mine workings were inspected and found to be free of gas. However the manager decided as a precaution that no men should enter the pit for at least twenty-four hours. For some unknown reason his orders were disregarded and the next morning under the instructions of the overman William Evans the men descended the pit as usual. At 8am another explosion occurred and twenty men were killed instantaneously and another two died later from their injuries.
At the inquest it was suggested that William Evans, a father of twelve children who had watched his family suffer through a recent long strike was desperate not to lose any more time from his work because of his financial difficulties.
The truth will never fully be known, because William Evans was one of the men killed in the explosion.
In 1896 in were 1088 men employed here working the Big and Yard seams.
By 1918 the workforce totalled 1,156 men.
From a report 1923, there were 1,372 men employed, producing from the Big Vein, Rhas Las, Yard and Lower Four Feet seams.
The pit was forced to close in 1929 when the side of the nearby mountain slid badly damaging two of the shafts, although the site wasn't cleared until 1965.
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The devastation cause by the Mountain Slip in 1929
New Tredegar Explosion 1875 Death Roll