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Arrael Griffin, Six Bells, 1977.
John Lancaster & Co. began sinking the two shafts (352 yards deep) of this colliery in 1892 on the opposite side of the Ebbw Fach river to Hafod Van, a much earlier water balance shaft that was probably sunk around 1863 by Thomas Phillips Price Esq., the remains of which can be seen in the right foreground of the photograph below. This pit appears in a mines list for 1869, and again in 1880. By 1896 it was owned by Partridge Jones and Co. Ltd. It doesn't appear after the 1908 list. Hafod Van slope was opened in 1909 and employed 122 men in 1910. It closed in 1914, although a New Hafod Van slope was opened in 1922 and it worked until 1928.
Four men lost their lives at the Arrael Griffin during sinking on the 9th of February 1895, when the bowk in which they were riding capsized and they fell to the shaft bottom. The four that perished were, William Mathews aged 36, Thomas Day 42, John Lambe 37, and William Lusty 21.
From the Inspector of Mines list 1896, there were 173 men employed in the sinking, including 101 on the surface.
Coal winding began at Six Bells in 1898 and by the beginning of World War 1 over 2,800 men were employed there.
The workforce numbered 2,471 in 1918.
From a report 1923, there were 859 men employed at No.4 pit, working the Big Vein and Three Quarter seams. At No.5 there were 1,529 men employed, working the Black and Meadow Vein seams.
It was mothballed in 1930 for several years because of lack of trade.
Partridge Jones & John Paton took over the running of it in 1936 until Nationalisation in 1947, when there were 1,534 men employed.
The neighbouring Vivian Colliery closed in 1958 and for some years the Vivian's shaft was used as a downcast for Six Bells.
A gas and coal dust explosion occurred at 10.45am on the 28th of June 1960 killing 45 out of the 48 men who work in that district of the mine. The tragedy would have been even worse if it wasn't for the fact that maintenance work was being carried out on the O.10 face where normally 125 men would have been employed. At the inquest the Inspector of Mines reported that the probable cause of the explosion was firedamp ignited by a spark from a stone falling onto a steel girder.
During the 1970's all the coal mined at Six Bells was brought to the surface via the Marine Colliery Cwm when the two collieries were integrated.
The pit close in 1988.
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Arrael Griffin with Hafod Van (right foreground) c. 1920.