Nantyglo and Blaina Town Council have recently sponsored the refurbishment of the old pit head wheels from Lower Deep colliery near Southlands in Blaina.

David Daniels, a local resident, made the request to the town council who were delighted to help and paid £410.50 to paint the memorial.

The Mayor of Nantyglo and Blaina, Cllr Michael James unveiled the refurbished memorial on Wednesday August 28, in a ceremony attended by members of the town council, members from Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, representatives from Tai Calon Social Housing and local residents.

Reverend Roy Watson gave a prayer of remembrance in respect of all the men, women and children who worked at the mine.

The Lower Deep colliery was first opened in 1860 and was closed in 1975. At its peak it had a workforce of 1,417 1918, but was absorbed into Beynon's Colliery in 1922.

A town council spokeswoman said: “Special thanks is given to Russell Dunham and Mark Bond for their hard work in refurbishing the memorial.”

Town Clerk Steve Bartlett said: “The problem is the memorial was moved and had just been left alone. When a local resident rang us and asked us if we could do anything about it to make it look a bit better, we went to the site and decided that we could.

“So we had it painted, which made the memorial more visible and now there’s a seat located next to it too, so its really a nice place now.”