A grim day in mining history remembered
The horror of a blast that ripped through a south Wales mine killing 45 men is still being felt 59 years later. Lewis Smith speaks to two men who were there on one of the bleakest days in Wales’ recent industrial past...
THE day a gas explosion ripped through the methane-packed tunnels of the Arael Griffin Colliery in Six Bells had started as a beautiful sunny morning.
As they did every day, a steady stream of miners made their way from the coal-marked hillsides to the colliery for their daily work.
It was at 10.45am that day, June 28, 1960, that a spark lit the gases, known as firedamp, taking the lives of 45 men. It was the last major mining accident to take place in Blaenau Gwent and devastated the entire community.
Luckily for miner David Jones he was on the afternoon shift that week, meaning he escaped the fury of the blast by a matter of hours.
Nearly 60 years on, he said the scene that greeted him upon his arrival to work as something that will stay with him forever.
“I was walking down from my home in Aberbeeg when I heard there’d been an accident down in Six Bells,” he recalled.
“Someone said a transformer had blown and they’d evacuated district 4 and 5 of the pit, but when I got there I could tell it was much worse. There were masses of families gathered around the perimeter of the pit, anxiously waiting for news of survivors. To see so many people stood in silence like that was a horrible and very harrowing thing.”
The explosion was believed to have started in a section of the pit known as ‘W’ vein, when firedamp ignited with a devastating effect. This highly flammable gas is common around coal pockets and consists of methane and carbon monoxide.
It is speculated that a spark could have been caused by a piece of falling iron stone striking a metal ring.
The subsequent blast that ripped through the colliery was so intense it toppled the steel girders supporting the roof like a stack of cards. The men inside burned or suffocated before the collapsing roof left them trapped beneath tonnes of earth and stone.
Tony Williams, from Six Bells, was only 16 at the time of the disaster and was working as a training miner in a separate part of the pit when the blast occurred.
He remembers the day as one of the saddest of his life. He said: “We were underground working a separate section so we didn’t have a clue what had happened. “They just told us there had been an accident and we had to leave straight away. When I got out it was like something from a film. My mother and father were already there waiting, and when they saw me they just screamed and started to cry. “Others weren’t so lucky, and as we left we saw the rescuers getting ready to go down for them.”
On arrival, men from Porth Central Rescue Station and Six Bells Colliery went down the pit to establish a fresh air flow and begin the search for survivors. They split into two teams, with one making safe the roof, and the other clearing the thick wall of earth that had fallen.
It was an arduous task for the rescue teams, who surfaced periodically with their faces a mask of soot and dirt. Many thought it was hopeless, but against all odds there had been survivors.
The three who lived included Michael Purnell, of Abertillery, who had been working on the fringe of the blast.
He was pulled from the earth with only minor injuries and quickly taken to the hospital. Many others were not so fortunate, killed by the brunt of the blast or the lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide present.
The casualties included 19-year-old Dennis Lane and father and son Colin and Ray Morgan.
Just hours later, David Jones, who had continued to wait up at the Harold Griffin workmen’s club, was asked to gather a team together and descend the 500 metres back in to the pit.
His task of bringing back the bodies of fallen colleagues was one that took immense bravery given the threat of further explosions and roof collapses.
“A lot of the people asked that day refused to go down and to be honest I didn’t blame them,” said 85-year-old David.
“We went down three times all in all, but the first time was the worst as we were trying to anticipate what we were going to come across.
“The air was still very warm and dusty at that point, and I don’t think we spoke a word the whole way down.
“The six of us just kept walking in silence.”
“The rescue crew had been in before us and managed to clear just enough space in the earth fall for us to squeeze through with a stretcher.
“It was very scary down there and we saw some awful things.”
“Pit work in those days meant you were part of a very close unit, to the point where your work colleagues were almost like your family.
“I was only 26 at the time, and as we were coming out from the pit with the bodies I remember thinking of how I’d been out drinking with some of them the week before. It really was awful”
Now 59 years later, the legacy of the disaster is still evident for members of the Six Bells community.
Lucy Harding, of Abertillery, is one of the volunteers at the Six Bells mining heritage centre, and says it’s something many local people still struggle to talk about even now.
“It was such a horrible thing that happened here and it really did leave its mark. The communities in Blaenau Gwent are small but very tight knit, and even all these years later we still remember those who were lost,” she said.
The Guardian statue was designed by Sebastien Boyesen to mark the 50th anniversary of the tragedy and was built over the site of the former Six Bells colliery in 2010.
It serves as a constant reminder of those who lost their lives, as well as the importance of the coal industry in shaping modern Wales.
“We’re very proud to have this statue here where the mine used to be,” said Mrs Harding. “It looks so beautiful and represents all of the miners in Wales, not just those in Six Bells.”