The sinking of Bargoed Colliery began in 1897 by the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company.

The first coal was produced in 1901. The colliery consisted of three shafts, the North and the South, Steam Coal at 705 and 625 yards deep respectively and the Brithdir house coal, which was sunk in 1903.

Bargoed colliery broke the world record for production of coal in a single shift when 4,020 tons were produced here in 1909.

It also had the record for the largest man made mountain for the colliery waste tip

At the outbreak of World War 1 there were over 2,100 men working at the colliery.

In 1945 there were 1,146 men employed at the North and South Pits and 366 at the Brithdir.
Coal production ceased at the Brithdir in 1949 but it was then used for many years as a training centre.

During the 1960s hundreds of trees were planted on the original waste tip by the local school children and by the time the colliery closed in 1977 there was an abundance of wild life living in the woods. With swathes of bluebells growing in parts of the old indiginous woods left in the colliery site