Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Wales (United Kingdom). The Big Pit is part of a network of coal workings established in the first half of the nineteenth century by the Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company as part of the development of the Blaenavon Ironworks, which means it has some of the oldest large-scale industrial coal mining developments in the South Wales Coalfield. The shaft at the present colliery was sunk around 1860 and deepened in 1880. The pit was operated in connection with Blaenavon Ironworks Company until nationalisation in 1947.
Most surface buildings are still on the site except the washery, which has been demolished. The facilities are the most comprehensive overground and underground layout surviving in Wales; the pit bank and steel headframe date from 1921, the tram circuit and electric winding engine date from 1952, the fan house dates from 1910, and there are also workshops and offices. The baths and canteen were built in 1939 and are an excellent example of the International Modernist style. Coal production ceased in 1980, and the site is now the Welsh Mining Museum and open to the public with underground access.
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By: ONE Team
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