David Williams (Alaw Goch) was the first man to sink a pit in a village in 1855. David Williams had been warned that Deep Duffryn Pit was unsafe due to poor ventilation he sold it to John Nixon for £42,000 and started to buy new machinery such as winding machinery and due to new patented draught ventilation output of coal increased from 150 tons in 1862 to 1000 tons a day in 1864.