Although a number of pits operated in the locality, the Glyn Pits were probably the most well known and in the early days they provided both coal and ironstone for the local furnaces. They must have been awful places in which to work, for between 1854 and 1890 at least 51 men and boys died from accidents there, while many more were injured. Indeed one man, George Reynolds, was killed by a falling stone in April 1866 several hours before he was officially due to commence his employment.

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The year 1880 was little better or worse than any other for the Glyn Pits, with three men losing their lives there – Charles Addis being struck by a flying wire rope, William Vaughn crushed by a roof fall, and John Evans run over by trucks during shunting operations on the surface. At this time the owners were the Ebbw Vale Steel Iron and Coal Company, and there was little room for sentiment in the way they managed their affairs. Like most colliery proprietors they were never slow in summoning before the magistrates those who trespassed on their property, and hard enough as the times were for most people, some of the court cases reports still make harrowing reading. One girl to suffer for her trespassing was 18-year-old Emma Munday. Deserted destitute and virtually penniless, she was sentenced to fourteen days hard labour in February 1880, for taking some coal from the rubbish tips at the Glyn Pits. The following week Mary Ingram was similarly charged, and fined 5s even though it was established in court that she had only 9s 6 p in money each week to keep herself, her husband and five children, and went picking coal from the waste tips from necessity.