Bwllfa Colliery (nprn 85002), also known as Bwllfa Dare and Bwllfa No.1, was sunk at the head of Cwmdare in 1853. There were two shafts; a winder house was erected to the west of the south shaft between 1868 and 1900, possibly as a replacement for an earlier arrangement. The house had brick walls on a dressed-stone plinth, under a pitched slate roof. There were three arch-headed iron-framed windows on the north side, one on the south and two flanking a central large arched opening on the east gable facing the shaft; the west gable was plain apart from a small doorway. Three king-post timber trusses supported the roof. In 1965, a winding drum some 4.57m in diameter was still sitting in its recess 3.05m wide and 5.49m deep; a length of steel winding cable 20mm in diameter, an electric motor and gearing probably represented the last phase of use as an emergency winder or in connection with construction of a new concrete headframe and modern winder house in the early 1950s as part of the Mardy Colliery (nprn 33505) modernisation scheme. According to map evidence the winder house was demolished by 1978.
(Source: Council for British Archaeology Industrial Archaeology Report Card, 14 July 1965)
B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 22 January 2009.