Nixon Navigation Colliery
John Nixon, a mining pioneer from the North-East of England began sinking this colliery in 1855 and the first coal was produced in 1860. The one shaft (south) was originally sunk to the Four Feet seam at 365 yards and at this time it was the deepest colliery in the coalfield. During the late 1880's the shaft was deepened to the Nine Feet seam with the one shaft winding from both seams using two winding engines.
There was an explosion which claimed 2 lives on Saturday 7th February 1863 at about 5pm. The dead men were colliers Evan Morgan (23) and Samuel Jones. Information on this explosion from the Inquest. Both men had only been working at the pit for a few months and it was strongly intimated that the explosion was caused by the men smoking in the roadway on their way to their stall. Tobacco and pipe were found and the Inquest tended to believe that this is what caused the explosion. It was also stated that Samuel Jones had only recently started underground after losing his job as a Postman due to drunkenness. In the same newspaper of that day there were cases of men being caught actually smoking underground or having smoking materials on them at other collieries
Among other fatalities at this pit, a young boy David Thomas 13 years old was killed by a fall of roof whilst filling a dram when working with his father on Monday 17th November 1879. The fall of roof was about 15 cwt in weight.
From the Inspector of Mines list 1896, Nixon’s Navigation Coal Co. Ltd. were the owners and a workforce of 1558 men were employed. By 1908 the workforce had grown to 1,825. In 1908 'Navigation North' was listed as "sinking" but with nil employed. In 1909 still "sinking" but with 70/30 men. It was then given as abandoned. The Colliery Guardian states that in May 1909, 1,200 men were laid off due to deepening to the lower seams.
By 1918 it had become integrated with the Deep Duffryn colliery and at this time this unit employed 2.684 men. From a list 1923, Nixon's Navigation Colliery employed 2,328 men, working the Seven Feet, Yard and Nine Feet seams. It ceased coal production in 1931 until 1936, when it was in the hands of the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company. In 1938 there were 443 employed.
Production stopped in 1940. The company then used the surface workshops as a maintenance depot, with the South pit being used for pumping.
Information on individual collieries kindly supplied by www.welshcoalmines.co.uk