Argoed Colliery Inrush – Mold – 1837

ARGOED. Mold, Flintshire. 10th. May, 1837.

The colliery was the property of Messrs. Hampton and the colliery was inundated with the loss of twenty lives. Ten others were rescued after being in the pit for three days. Water had been coming into pit from old workings for ten days before the disaster but work continued as the pumps were able to cope with the water.

On the day of disaster the flow suddenly increased and the men in the engine pit, eighteen in number, managed to climb to safety on machinery in shaft. By the following Monday, ten bodies had been recovered.

Three days later sounds were heard in shaft and four men and six lads were rescued alive. They were exhausted and wet but happy, Roberts, one of those recovered said:

I heard the alarm from a collier named Jones calling me to leave the seam as water was flooding in. I thought it a false alarm and went on working for a few minutes until a second alarm was given. I went to Engine shaft and found the water too high and returned passing through the air cut into Bye shaft but the passage was too small and I stayed where I was. Three others named Ither, Williams and Jones were swept away by the flood trying to get to place. The boys were crying for food and Kendrick and I found some slices of bread and butter in out pockets and shared them out. Three days we were trapped but the water did not go up. Two elderly men, Robert Owens and William Williams died and we stayed together and prayed.

A first-hand account of the disaster written by one of the survivors who was 14 years old at the time but written in 1862, captures the horror of the imprisoned miner.

TRANSCRIPTION of the JOURNAL of HENRY HUGHES

Henry Hughes – June 15 1862

I, H Hughes, the son of Robert Hughes and Martha Read, Born in Flint Shire, near Mold, North Wales, on December 25th 1825 and lived at Mold until I was 15 years old and worked in the Coal mine when I was 9 years old and did not see daylight only on Saturday and Sunday in the winter season.  I felt thankful to the Lord for my mountain home, where I can bring my family up without sending them to the coal pits, for I had many narrow escape for my life on which I report to here.  Which takes place in 1837 on the 9th day of May at the Argoed Colliery, about 1 mile distant from Mold.

On the 9th day of May, in that year thirty-two souls, men and boys, including myself, descended the shaft, which was seventy yards deep, to work.  There was an old deserted pit close to the one where we worked, which sixty-five years before, had suddenly filled with water. Some of the men had been warned not to work to near to the old pit, for fear the water would break through and flood the one where we were working.

At about eight o’clock, on the morning of the above date, the men and boys were called out as the water had begun to break through from the old pit and was coming in on us.  When, however, we got to the shaft, to be hoisted up, a man named John Owens told us to go back as there was no danger.  So we returned and resumed work. In two hours, afterwards, the water rushed in, in such quantity and force that seven of our number were drowned.  And the rest of us, with the exception of two, rushed to a position in the highest part of what is called, the air course.  Twenty-two of us all huddled together without any way of escape, with no air to breathe and nothing to eat.  Death seemed to stare us in the face.

In a short time, our lights went out for want of air and to add to the horrors of the situation, we were left in total darkness. Never shall I forget the fearful picture of human despair which was presented by a young man named William Haliute.  When he realized his awful situation he uttered shrieks of agony.  He called over the names of his young wife and his little children and plunged his hands into his hair and tore it from his head in handfuls.

Some sat silent and gloomy, speaking not a word. Apparently awaiting the visit of the grim monster, death.  Others wept and I noticed two men, named respectively, Thomas Jones and William Williams. They went off a few feet, aside from the others and prayed.  These two last died in a few hours afterwards.  To add to the horror of our position, the mud was six inches deep where we were.

Among our number was a young man named John Jones who had always manifested great interest and affection for me.  This affection remained with him till death, as will be seen by the following incident.  In order to keep me out of the mud, he took me in his arms and laid me across his lap.  In this position, I went to sleep and when I awoke, my dear friend was dead.  The breathing of the gas, which had gathered in the place where we were imprisoned, caused a kind of stupor to come over us.  And it was well that it was so, else we might have been tempted to drink some of the sulfuric water, with which the pit was flooded, which would have proved certain death.  As it was, our minds were so deranged, that although suffering with burning thirst, we did not know enough to go and drink it.

We remained in this terrible condition for three days and two nights.  During which time, twelve of our number died.  A portion of the time, I lay on four dead bodies.  The people outside, meanwhile, had not been idle.  They had been doing all in their power to rescue us by emptying the pit of water as fast as possible.  On the third day, relief arrived.  The first person who came to us, was my brother, John Hughes, who was then a young man. The first man he reached was John Candrick and the first word he said to him, were, “is Henry alive?”  Candrick answered, “He was a short time since.” My brother, John, continued to crawl over bodies, of my fellow workmen, shaking them as he went, to see whether they were alive, until he got to myself.  He shook me and called me by name and I answered by making a mournful wailing noise.  He took me in his arms and as the water was only about a foot from the roof, he got on his back and paddled himself alone holding me above the water, till we got to the shaft.  Those of us who were alive were taken up a short distance at a time.  If we had been taken up to suddenly, into fresh air, it might have caused instant death.  After we were taken up, we were carefully nursed and fed sparingly, until our strength returned I was among the first to recover.

The incident caused great excitement all over that part of the country.  There was a great Fair being held at Mold, on the l2th of May, when we were being taken out of the pit.  And all the people left the fair, so that it was completely deserted and came to see us.  And when we reached the top of the shaft, the assembled crowds rent the air with deafening cheers and many of the people, wept for joy.  Two men who were in another part of the pit were found dead, 11 days after we were taken out. During all the time I was imprisoned in the pit, I had no fear of death.  And in fact, an idea of it never entered my mind.

At the inquest into disaster, a verdict on the men was that they “died from suffocation.” At a public meeting at the Black Lion Inn on 16th. May, 1837 John Wynne Eyton chaired a meeting which set up a relief fund for dependents of victims and £595. 11s. 0d. was collected.

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p.143.
The Mining Journal.
The Chester Chronicle.
The Chester Gazette.
Manchester Guardian.
TRANSCRIPTION of the JOURNAL of HENRY HUGHES, Henry Hughes – June 15 1862

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.