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Gathering the Jewels features over 30,000 images of objects, books, letters, aerial photographs and other items from museums, archives and libraries throughout Wales.
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Home » Articles » Big Pit, BlaenavonBig Pit, Blaenavon
Photographs of Big Pit colliery, Blaenavon.
Photographs of Big Pit colliery, Blaenavon.
Big Pit, Blaenavon was sunk in 1860 and was so-called because of the immense dimensions of the shaft. In the late 1870s the shaft was deepened to 293 feet. By 1908, Big Pit provided employment for 1122 people, but this number gradually decreased until by 1970 the workforce only numbered 494. In 1973 coal winding ceased at Big Pit as a new drift was driven allowing coal to be brought to the surface near to the washery. The colliery closed on 2 February 1980. Following the widespread closure of collieries in the Welsh coalfield, Big Pit was given the financial means to be developed as a national mining museum. Big Pit is now one of the constituent museums of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and its collections, together with those in the Department of Industry at the National Museum, form two-thirds of all mining collections held by museums in Wales.
This theme comprises aerial photographs of the Big Pit site taken by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments, as well as photographs taken by the freelance photographer John Cornwell.
