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"A part of the World Heritage Site Blaenavon Industrial Landscape" Big Pit is now a museum in Blaenavon in South Wales, which is dedicated to the Welsh history of coal mining. Until it closed in 1980 it was a working coal mine, first opening in 1860. It stands on the edge of Blaenavon, a town that played a vital part in the Industrial Revolution. World Heritage Status has been designated to the town and landscape which marks the wider impact of Blaenavon's industrial heritage.
by Chris Gunns It is called 'Big Pit' because it was the first shaft in Wales large enough to take two tramways (5.5m by 4.6m), at its deepest the shaft was 293ft. It was the first mine in South Wales to be electrified and by 1910 the ventilating fan, pumps and underground haulage system were worked by electricity. The original twin cylinder horizontal winding gear however was steam driven right up to 1953, when it too was electrified. Coal winding stopped in 1973 when a new drift was driven allowing coal to be brought to the surface near to the washery. The shaft then only being used to transport men and for ventilation. In 1908 it provided employment for 1,122 people, but by 1970 this had decreased to 494, and by its' closure in 1980 only 250 were employed. Up until 1939 miners travelled to and from work in their working clothes, but in that year the pithead baths were opened. Each miner had two lockers - one for his clean clothes and one for his working clothes, separated by the showers. In today's museum the baths now house an exhibition and a licensed café. In 1983 Big Pit re-opened as a Museum. What you will be able to see and experience on a visit includes: An hour-long underground tour, led by ex-miners, which takes you down 300 feet in the pit cage to walk through underground roadways, air doors stables and engine houses.
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