Harrowing stories of the worst mining disasters ever to hit Wales
Costing the lives of more than 6,000 miners down the years, pit disasters were a tragic consequence of a booming industry where safety was often criminally neglected as Tom Houghton reports...
THE stories of the most devastating mining disasters to ever hit Wales have been told. In November a poignant ceremony was held in Rhondda, 150 years on, to remember the 178 men and boys who died having descended 278 yards below the ground for work at Ferndale and Blaenllechau colliery.
Sadly, the disaster is one of a long list of mining tragedies that hit the thriving coalfields of Wales in the days when profits were often at the expense of colliers’ safety.
John Smith runs the extensive research website Welsh Coal Mines and said he, together with another member, was researching every fatal accident ever reported in Wales.
Mr Smith said the number of miners killed in disasters amounts to “over 6,000” down the years.
Using research from the website, which utilises information from newspapers and archives, as well as other sources, here are the stories of the six biggest mining disasters to ever hit Wales.
All of them had more than 150 casualties and it is testament to the fatal nature of such events that Aberfan, when 144 were killed after a waste tip slid down the mountain in 1966, was, according to the site, the eighth most deadly in Welsh history.
1913: Universal Colliery – Senghenydd, Aber Valley
When people think of a Welsh mining disaster Senghenydd is often one of the first mentioned, and it is said the horror of the early 20th century disaster still casts a grim shadow over the nation to this day.
At 8am on October 14, 1913, a huge explosion rocked the tiny town north of Caerphilly.
The blast came from the mine belonging to the Universal Colliery, which was the biggest employer in the area. Of the 950 miners who had been below ground that day some 439 were killed, making it the worst disaster in British history.
According to Caerphilly council, the most likely cause of the explosion was either an electrical spark from electric signalling gear igniting methane gas or firedamp.
So violent were the explosions that the cage of one of the pits was blown back up the shaft to wedge in the pithead winding gear.
Rescue teams from around the Valleys rushed to the scene but their attempts were hampered by increasingly dangerous conditions including fallen debris and raging fires.
They did have some success, with the miners’ families greeting each escape with joy and hope their loved one would be the next to surface.
Rescue attempts lasted three weeks but, by then, it was just bodies emerging from the pit.
An estimated 1,500 dependents in the area were bereaved by the huge disaster.
A subsequent inquiry heard that several breaches of regulation were uncovered, the most serious being the inability of the ventilating fans to reverse the airflow, even though legislation ruled this should have been implemented in January.
It led to 17 charges against the colliery manager and four against the Universal Steam Coal Company.
1893: Albion Colliery – Cilfynydd, Pontypridd
According to the Welsh Coal Mines website, there were 1,500 men and boys employed at Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, in 1893 and the safety record there was “second to none”.
But that record was to tragically come to an end on June 23 the next year when a massive explosion ripped through the underground workings killing 290 men and boys – the worst mining disaster in south Wales to that date.
In the coming hours and days, many of the bodies brought to the surface were so badly mutilated that identifying them was “virtually impossible”.
Almost the entire community lost someone in the tragedy and there were also upsetting reports of corpses being carried to the wrong home.
One household in the Howell Street area of the Rhondda Cynon Taf village lost 11 members: the father, four sons, and six lodgers were all killed.
A total of 123 of the 125 horses working underground were also killed.
The cause of the disaster, still the second most lethal in Wales to this day, was attributed to coal dust being ignited following an explosion of firedamp.
Despite the disaster the colliery was reopened within two weeks.
Sadly the misfortune was not to end there as fewer than 15 years later another explosion happened at the site, killing six men, this time believed to be caused by a spark from a lamp relighter igniting a pocket of gas.
1878: Prince of Wales – Abercarn, Caerphilly
In Abercarn those killed in the 2001 terror attacks on the United States are not the only people the community remembers on September 11. That’s because on the morning of September 11, 1878, some 268 of the 325 men and boys working at the Prince of Wales Colliery perished when a massive explosion ripped through its workings.
Due to the subsequent raging fires deep within the pits, and fear of further explosions, rescue teams were ordered back to the surface after only reaching 300 yards down.
The explosion also caused huge damage to the mine’s roadways and