Starting Point - Newbridge Station (South Wales). Round trip to Navigation Colliery, Crumlin. Distance - 2.4 Miles.
On a recent trip to Ebbw Vale I passed the former Navigation Colliery at Crumlin and decided the site was worth a visit.
Sinking began in 1907 with the two shafts brought in to use in 1911. Though nearly lost early in its existence when it was flooded by an underground lake in 1917, the pit operated until 1967. More about the history of the mine can be read on the welshcoalmines.co.uk site. The brick buildings of the mine were quite ornate with the decorative use of red and yellow bricks and these buildings survive to this day, though in a fairly derelict state now following years out of use and a number of incidents of vandalism. There have been a number of schemes to put the buildings in to new uses and an orgnisation Friends of the Navigation are working to safeguard the site. Both the above sites have photos of the colliery complex when it was in operation which provide an interesting comparison to the pictures of the site today I've taken.
To reach the site I had to walk from Newbridge station on the Ebbw Vale line, details are on the above Google map link. Amongst the proposals for the site is a new station on the line next to the colliery site. The Ebbw Vale line would probably need a lot of upgrading work to take place before stations are added to the route. For many years it was a freight only line to serve the Ebbw Vale steelworks but when the steelworks was closed it was thankfully reopened to passengers rather than being abandoned. The line is still a slow trundle along the valley with proposals to upgrade it and redouble sections to run additional services to Newport.
Just before the colliery site was once one of the great landmarks of the industrialisation of the valleys, the Crumlin Viaduct that carried the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway over the valley. Like many of the valley lines there was a lot of duplication of routes, mainly as the Great Western and the London and North Western Railways built competing routes. This GWR route was an east - west route half way up the valleys with the LNWR's route being the Heads of the Valleys route further north until it closed in the 1950s. This route closed in 1964 meaning the declining mineral traffic between the Midlands and Neath, Port Talbot and Swansea had to pass through Cardiff. There was a scheme to preserve the viaduct but owing to its poor condition it was dismantled in 1967. With much of the structure being metal which would have been scrapped just a couple of abutments survive. Not actually far from where I walked were those of the "island" between the two metal bridge sections but I only heard of this afterwards.
More can be read about the viaduct on Wikipedia
Below - Painting of Crumlin viaduct from Wikipedia.
Below - Photo from Wikipedia of the Viaduct passing over Crumlin's low level station. This station is on the surviving Ebbw Vale line, proposals to open a new station would put it further north at the colliery site. Today the single track line passes through the station site without the trains stopping.
Reaching the road in to the colliery site and a winding wheel has been erected at the side of the road as a memorial to the colliery.
The site its self is naturally fenced off and gated given the state of the buildings and the vandalism they have faced.
Below - View through the gate in to the site.
I was trying to find a map showing the layout of the buildings that explained their former use in the colliery complex, the most detail I found was actually on Open Street Maps. Usually I would add a link to an old map but the relevant maps are not in the National Library of Scotland's collection of maps available online.
Though the site is fenced off there is a great viewpoint a short walk away where the A467 crosses over the railway.
Below - View of the site from the A467 bridge over the railway. Aside from the head stocks and coal screens which were metal and would have been scrapped, most of the complex survives.
Below - The former Fanhouse building in the foreground with the offices and South Winding House behind.
Below - Fan House, South Winding House and chimney.
Below - The tunnel entrance of a drift shaft. In the background are the Workshops on the left and North Winding House on the right.
Below - Fan house and the South Winding House behind.
Below - North Winding House and Power House.
Below - Fan House and South Winding House behind.
The map shows a pit bath building to the north amongst the trees. This would have to likely been a more modern building. After nationalisation in 1947 the National Coal Board undertook a big program of adding bath houses. Previously miners would generally walk home in the same state they finished work and wash in a tin bath in front of the fire. If this building does indeed survive it is not accessible at present.
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