South Griffin Collieries

The South Griffin Colliery No2 and No3 Pits.
The First Pit No2 South Griffin Colliery.
In the early 1880’s the first pit was sunk at the South Griffin Colliery.

On Friday 16th of November 1883, the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser printed the following report from the directors of the Nantyglo and Blaina Ironworks Company Limited – Messrs John Lancaster & Co had completed the South Griffin Colliery and were making arrangements in relation with the forming of a railway connection with the Monmouthshire Railway Company’s Western Valley’s Lines.

This news coincided with the Blaina Furnaces Company being rebuilt and the starting of a new furnace and of the old furnaces with three hot-air stoves along with the construction of thirty-six new Coppee coke ovens. The addition of new steam hammers, engines and boilers at the Blaina Iron and Tin Plate Works. Messrs John and William Stone expending a great deal of money in making an underground railway of 1,400 yards long to extract from a valuable tract of coal and in making their own brickworks which will bring in royalties from fireclay. The improvement of farmlands and buildings, workmen’s cottages and other houses have been erected and new day schools to accommodate 1,300 children. The completion of the Blaina Public Hall and plans to build a new market-house.

Mr John Lancaster.
The company of Messrs J. Lancaster & Co was headed by Mr John Lancaster who leased the Blaina Collieries and Works in 1878.

Following is a Link to – Mr John Lancaster.

The Second Pit No3 South Griffin Colliery.
The Ceremony of Cutting the Sod.
On Saturday 21st of September 1888, it was reported in the South Wales Gazette that Messrs John Lancaster & Co had cut the sod for the new South Griffin Pit next to the old pit. The ceremony was presided over by Mr and Mrs John Dakers of the Woodlands, Blaina. An engine and special carriage set off from the offices of the company, having onboard Messrs Dakers; Messrs J. P. D. Williams; Mr and Mrs Wilkins; Mr and Mrs Bowen; Messrs Parsons; Swinden; Enyon; Martin; Drew; Lewis and many more: The train was met with Dr and Mrs Soper; Mrs Morgan and Mr Walsh amid the noise of railway charges and fire-crackers:

The cutting of the sod commenced at five-o-clock, the visitors crowded around what was called a “Magic ring” of green turf which had been selected as the spot to operate in. Mr Dakers called upon the Rector to offer prayers for the success of the undertaking after which Mr J. P. D. Williams presented Mrs Dakers with a ceremonial spade to perform the digging of the new shaft. A photograph was taken of the group and the party then moved into a nearby out-building attached to the farm in which they had tea.

The Colliery Ventilation Fan.
On Saturday 6th of October 1888, the ventilation fan broke down at the South Griffin Colliery No2, it was reported to have been one of the largest ventilation fans in South Wales.

The Sinking of No3 South Griffin Colliery.
On Monday 13th of October 1890, the Western Mail Newspaper reported that the previous Saturday 11th October a dinner was given at the Queens Hotel, Blaina by Messrs John Lancaster & Co Ltd to celebrate the completion of sinking operations and coal winning at their No3 Pit at the South Griffin Colliery. The shaft was 240 yards deep equal to 720 feet.

The Griffin Pits.
The Griffin Colliery, Blaina pre-dates the later Griffin Collieries. When the Lancaster Company sunk the colliery in Bournville and also named that the Griffin they had to name it South Griffin to differentiate between the two. I believe that from that point (looking at old maps) the original Griffin Colliery at Blaina became known as the North Griffin. When the company later sunk another shaft at the South Griffin, that was named No3, the collieries at Bournville were then known as the South Griffin No2 and No3, therefore the North Griffin at Blaina was then labelled No1. In 1890 the Lancaster Company began sinking the Arrael Griffin Colliery and its shafts were numbered No4 and No5.

The Aberbeeg Super Colliery.
On Saturday 4th of December 1920, a new colliery undertaking went ahead by the J. Lancaster & Co at Aberbeeg, the first sod was cut by Lady Mather-Jackson J.P., O.B.E. It had been planned to sink this new colliery as early as 1918 and was in the planning procedure until 1919 but owing to the uncertainty of the financial situation at this time, it was put on hold, though as stated the opening went ahead and the first sod was cut.

The new colliery shafts would have been 20’feet in diameter and 500 yards (1,500’feet) deep and sunk to the old coal seam, it was estimated that there was 1,200 acres of coal available and the output when the pits were fully developed would have been 1,000,000 tons per year. The colliery would be electrically equipped throughout, the power being obtained from the generation station at Victoria, Ebbw Vale. There is no mention of why this colliery ceased development, what its official name was, it may have been part of the Griffin combine and numbered consecutively.

Managers at the Colliery.
The South Griffin Colliery was operational less than 40 years in coal production, during this time had only a few managers. The following are just a couple that I found in reports –

Mr Tom Jones, in 1902 Mr Jones was awarded the role of manager to all the company’s collieries. He had previously been manager at the Tillery Colliery, Abertillery.

Mr Hywel Morgan, Mr Morgan was appointed manager in 1912, he lived at 47 Cwmcelyn Road, Blaina.

Mr Thomas Powell, Mr Powell lived at Bournville Road, Blaina.

Mr Thomas Davies, manager in the 1920’s.

The Closure of the South Griffin.
After the 1921 miners lock-out the collieries production and sales waned and the South Griffin Colliery was closed along with the Henwain and Lower Deep Collieries. The company mothballed the closed collieries for future planning and in June 1940 mining agents and the secretaries of mines asked what would be required in the reopening of these collieries at Blaina, though at this time they questioned the capability of them being worked as of lack of manpower.

(More information to come).

The Colliery used as a Film Location.
In 1935 the ruins of the South Griffin Colliery were chosen as the part setting of a film called “Things to Come” adapted from a novel written by H. G. Wells.

Following is a Link to – The Story of the Film Location.