This society had been collecting artefacts from the earliest days and in 1977 the late Wynford Vaughan Thomas opened our Risca Industrial History Museum in the old Pontymister Upper School. Pictured here is a coal dram recovered from the Blaendare level, on show in the former museum.

In December 1979 the museum was flooded to a depth of 3 feet by the River Ebbw. Following the sale of the old school buildings and their eventual demolition, the museum was put into temporary storage, courtesy of what was then Islwyn Borough Council, until a new home was found.

One of Islwyn Borough Council's last acts before local boundary changes was to acquire the Risca Colliers Institute by means of a European development grant, to house the museum and extend the facilities of Oxford House Adult Education Centre. The Institute was built in 1916 and is now a Grade II listed building.

The society has re-erected the shop fittings and contents saved from an Edwardian chemist's shop in James Street, Cardiff.

Some of the artefacts in the museum.