COURT HERBERT.  Neath, Glamorganshire. 1st. June, 1906.

The colliery was the property of The Main Colliery Company Limited, Neath Abbey, Neath and the Company owned three other collieries close by, Main No.1, Main Nos, 3 and 4 and Wainceirch but the Court Herbert Colliery worked quite separately from the others. At the Court Herbert Colliery there were two shafts, No.1 the upcast which was sunk in 1870. It was elliptical in shape, 19 feet by 12 feet and was sunk 154 yards deep to the Graigola seam and passed through the Victoria Seam at 125. No.2, the upcast, was 14 feet in diameter and 150 yards deep. Coal was wound from both seams from the lower landing in the Graigola seam.

The managing director of the Company was Mr. Henry T. Wales, mining engineer of Cardiff who was also the consulting engineer to the Company, a position he had held for 12 years. Mr. Rice Vaughan Price, who was formerly Mr. Wales’ assistant had been the agent for six months. The manager was Mr. Thomas Jones, who had been appointed in April, 1904. Mr. Thomas Williams had been the undermanager since 1880 but had been absent from work due to illness for some weeks prior to the explosion.

One overman and one fireman were employed on the day shift and a fireman on the night shift. About 128 men worked on the day shift and 50 on the night shift, most of the men being employed in repair work.

The explosion occurred in the Victoria Seam which mined bituminous coal and the workings in this seam had always been liable to gob fire was a result of spontaneous combustion. Above the Victoria Seam there was a little seam where, occasionally, large falls of bedrock occurred and in the cavities caused by these falls, gas sometimes accumulated. It was always difficult and sometimes impossible to clear these accumulations by the ordinary and proper means of ventilation.

During the previous seventeen years, gob fires had occurred, generally in the disturbed, faulty ground where the “rashings” were thicker than usual. At one time these rashings were filled out, but as the fires continued, this practice was abandoned. All the fires up to that time had been dealt with no loss of life or personal injury.

In 1900 some “gaugings” or stoppings which had shut off a gob fire were blown out as by an explosion but this occurrence was so slight that the officials thought that there had been a large fall within the enclosed area. Some of the officials were still of this opinion but Mr. Lewis, in retrospect, thought that there had been an explosion.

The ventilation of the Victoria Seam was produced by a Waddle fan, installed in 1870, 25 feet in diameter which usually circulated 22,000 cubic feet of air per minute at a water gauge of 0.9 inches while the fan running at 52 r.p.m. There were three ventilating districts in the seam. The 1st Split went down No. 2 Dip, through No. 2 district, back to the lower end of No.2 dip over No.3 dip, by an air bridge and into the main airway at the main dip. The 2nd and 3rd Splits went down the No. 3 dip and divided at Edward Davies’ heading, one portion of the current travelling through the stalls of the No. 4 district, which was where the explosion occurred, to the No.2 dip and back to the return with No.1 split. The other portion went west from No.3 dip through the main district and up the main dip to the return. The whole of the air was equally divided between these three splits. Although the ventilation appeared to be sufficient for the working places when everything was in good order, it was not always sufficient to prevent gas from accumulating in every cavity caused by the falls of the roof.

The seam dipped to the northeast at about 1 in 9 and was worked by the longwall system. No large faults had been encountered and the faces worked forward fairly regularly, except where a pillar had been left to protect the surface or for other reasons. The stalls were about 12 yards apart and the entire seam was worked with the exception of 5 inches of bastard coal under the shale which was left to strengthen the roof. The gobs were filed with the rubbish from between the two coals and the furthest point of the workings from the shaft was 900 yards.

The roads were dry but not dusty. In No.4 district they were damped by a water pipe from No.2 discharging water on the floor which found its way into the dip workings. Water was “tanked” from the dip workings of the No.2 district and discharged into the No. 4 district.

Bonneted Clanny safety lamps were used by the men and they were secured by a lead rivet. The fireman used bonneted Davy lamps for their inspections. No blasting was carried out in working the seam.

When the first smell of a gob fire was detected, the manager had found, after trying sand and other substances, that a mixture of small coal and rubbish, finely divided and called locally, “black-jack”, was the best thing to put out the fire but excluding the air supply. If a fire occurred in a road which could be abandoned without much interference with the working, alternate packs of black-jack and rubbish were built in it to the mouth. The last four yards of packing was placed in a space cleared from the gobs on either side of the road. If it was impracticable to abandon the road, the gob was removed for 6 to 8 feet towards the fire and for 15 to 20 yards along the road and replaced with a thick packing of black-jack. It was not the practice to isolate the fire by driving roads through the gob on every side, but occasionally, where roads existed, a packing of black-jack was put in around the seat of the fire.

In the previous may, a gob fire was known to exist on the upper side of the return, on Gregory’s Road. The fire was dealt with by raising the road above the seam and filling in half its width along the side next to the fire, a distance of 20 yards, with a packing of black-jack. No heat or gob smell was detected on the lower side of the road.

On May 23rd, a fall occurred in D. Davies’ road which gradually extended towards the face. Gas appeared in the cavity and the working place was stopped and the road “crossed off”. The manager and the overman had a consultation at the place on the 31st May when it was decided to close off the road by gaugings.

On the night shift of that day a gauging was built three and half feet high, on the face side of the fall at 9 p.m. On the following morning, repairers were sent into the place to build another gauging on the outer side of the fall and it was intended to complete the two gaugings. During that day there was gas in the cavity above the fall to within about 5 five feet above the level of the rails, and as the hole was about 15 feet high, and several feet in length and width, it must have contained a large volume of gas. While these operations were being carried out there was no smell of fire near the place.

At 3.45 p.m., when the second gauging had reached a height of three and a half feet, and the two repairers, Fred Jenkins and George Folland were resting near the parting of Elias Jones’ stall; an explosion took place, presumably between the gaugings. Folland heard a slight report and then saw flame coming towards him. he lay down and as the flame passed, he rose and ran long George Richards’ heading. A lay down again and remained until George Richards came to him. Folland had kept his light all this time.

George Richards worked in the straight road and he and other colliers felt a rush of air in their faces and ran out. He came up the road and met Fred Jenkins. When hey reached the returning to D. Davies’ road, he saw flame at the inner end of it and immediately a rush of flame came out, knocking him down and passing over him. Both these men were badly burned.

The flame of the second explosion appeared to have come through the faces as wells as out on the road and in passing through the face burned Elias Jones, Isaiah Jones, William Jones, Hopkin Jenkins, John William and William Thomas.

The men working in the faces of J. Rees’ heading felt a slight gust of wind and thought a fall had occurred. The force of the explosions seemed to have been slight. Mr. Price, the Agent was quickly on the spot and went through the workings with an hour or two of the explosion. He saw lamps hanging on timbers and brattice sheets and timbers undisturbed. Although some dust was raised by the explosion, it had little effect in intensifying the explosion.

Most of the injured stayed in the face of William Jones’ stall until the afterdamp cleared and afterwards were assisted out to the No.3 double parting where they were attended to before being taken out of the mine by men who came from other districts and from the surface.

Those who died were all listed as colliers. They were:

  • Hopkin Jenkins aged 51 years,
  • John Jenkins aged 19 years,
  • Elias Jones aged 62 years,
  • Isaiah Jones aged 31 years,
  • William Jones aged 37 years.

Mr. Lewis, the Inspector, made an inspection and tried to reach the workings of No.4 by way of the No. 2 dip but had to return as there was excessive heat in the return after about 30 yards from the probable seat of the explosion. It was clear that there was standing fire and the ventilation of the No. 4 was disarranged. The Inspector decided to flood the district to extinguish the fire.

The inquest into the men’s deaths was held before Mr. Edwards Powell, Deputy Coroner of Neath. Mr. Kenneth Williams barrister appeared for the Home Office and Mr. S. T. Evans, M.P., K for the owners and managers and Mr. Nicholas, solicitor for the workmen.

There was no doubt that an accumulation of gas had reached the gob fire and exploded. The Inspector commented:

It would have been more prudent for the manager to have stopped coal working in the district while the gaugings were being erected but as the same kind of operation had been carried out from time to time for several years without anything happening, he appeared to have thought that there were no special risks being run in so ding so again.

The jury returned the following verdict

  1. That the five persons died from shock due to an explosion of gas at the Court Herbert Colliery.
  2. That the explosion took place at David Davies’ stall owing to the gas accumulated there coming into contact with a fire originating in that portion of the working.

The jury added a rider to the effect:

That if gas were found at any place in this colliery, then the management should clear that part of the workings and withdraw the workmen in future.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report.

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

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