DINAS MAIN, No.3. Gilfach Coch, Glamorganshire. 14th. December, 1907.

The colliery was the property of the Britannic Merthyr Coal Company Limited and was in the Little Ogmore valley. The owners also worked the adjacent Britannic Colliery and house coal at the Dinas Main Level. Mr. David Bowen Jones was the manager of both collieries. Mr. Enoch Jones was the undermanager of the Dinas Main Colliery and under him were two firemen, Joan Davis on the day shift and David Meyrick on the night shift.

At the Dinas Main Colliery over 100 men were employed underground of whom about 93 were on the day shift and from 10 to 15 on the night shift. There was only one seam worked, the No.3 Rhondda which was a house copal which, at the shaft was at a depth of 79 yards.

The Dinas main shaft was the downcast ad winding shaft and was 11 feet by 7 feet in section. It was a wet shaft. The upcast was the Britannic Colliery south shaft, where there was a Walker’s Indestructible Fan, 26 feet in diameter and 8 feet wide which produced ventilation for both collieries. With the fan running at 95 r.p.m. it circulated about 115,000 cubic feet per minute at a water gauge of 3 inches. Of this 22,500 cubic feet per minute went to Dinas Main. As well as the two shafts that have been named there was an outlet from No.3 Rhondda seam at Dinas Main by way of an inclined roadway to the surface which started near the shaft and came to the surface about 450 yards away. This road was known as the “horseway”.

The workings in the No.3 Rhondda seam consisted of an intake and a main haulage road extending from the shaft to the west for 2.500 yards to the engine landing or double parting. Beyond this there were horse roads to the working faces which comprised 26 working places. There were also a few workings in a branch district called the air-bridge heading.

On the main haulage road, the trams in journeys of from 15 to 12 were drawn by the main haulage and tail ropes by an engine near the bottom of the shaft. The return air road was to the south of the main intake and a considerable distance from it, until near the outer end; it approached the downcast shaft and crossed the intake to reach the upcast shaft.

There was a chamber in which there was a boiler on the north side of the main intake and haulage road, 1,160 yards from the shaft used for generating steam for a pump fixed 30 yards further in on the opposite side of the main road. The smoke from the boiler fire was taken to the upcast shaft by a small section road, called the flue, which ran parallel to and on the north of the main haulage road for most of its length. Trouble had been experienced in raising steam from this boiler owing to the condition of the flue and it had been decided to replace the pump with an electric one. In order to fix the cables along the main haulage road it was found necessary to widen the road in certain places and this work was in progress, by blasting off the side, at the time of the explosion.

The colliery was worked with naked lights sand gunpowder was used for blasting in coal and Saxonite in stone. It was stated that no firedamp had been seen in the mine for many years and none was detected after the explosion.

The mine was not dry and dusty. The inner parts of the haulage roads, the working faces and the return airways were wet or damp and free from coal dust. The only part of the mine which was dry was the main intake and haulage road for a distance of 1,700 to 1,800 yards from the shaft and this was the only part traversed by the explosion. Even in this part of the mine, there were parts that were wet or damp and it was stated that just before the disaster, there had been an accumulation of water on the road and the men had to be taken into work in trams to keep their feet dry but the roof and side of this haulage road were dry and dusty.

On Saturday the 14th December, the day of the explosion, the day shift miners came out of the pit at or before 2 p.m. and about 1.30 p.m. a repairing shift of A fireman and 11 others went down. About 2.15 p.m. a loud report was heard at the surface followed by smoke coming up the shaft. The bottom and cover of the cage at the surface were blown out and planks over part of the shaft were displaced which gave a man who had just come up the pit a narrow escape from falling down the shaft.

Mr. Bowen Jones, the manager, was on the scene in a few minutes and an attempt was made to descend the shaft but this failed as part of the timber brattice in the shaft had been displaced. Mr. Jones returned to the surface and with others, went into the pit by way of the horse way slant. the effects of the explosion were found a few yards before they reached the shaft where a door in the horseway was blown outwards. Smoke and some small smouldering fires were seen but were quickly extinguished.

The explorers went along the main haulage road for about 100 yards where they were stopped by a fall and had to return. They then went by the return airway to a point where it crossed the intake by an undercast air crossing. They passed through here into the intake again. the crossing had been demolished by the explosion causing the ventilation to short circuit and the intake beyond was full of afterdamp.

Some smouldering debris was found near crossing and steps were taken to restore ventilation and the exploration continued until the bodies of the seven men were recovered the next morning.

The men who were in the mine at the time of the explosion, escaped by the return airway. These men were led by David Meyrick, the fireman who acted with great coolness and good judgment. At the time of the blast he was near stables, 1,700 yards from the shaft. He was blown down, losing his cap, lamp and stick but soon recovered himself and being a naked light pit, he had means of re-lighting his lamp. First, he made an attempt to reach a haulier named Phillips who was about 50 yards further out in the main road but was unable to do so because of afterdamp. He then went in the opposite direction to where his son was found half-conscious, and brought him back to better air in road leading to the return airway. Meyrick also made an attempt to reach place near boiler, where three other men were working but this was not possible because of afterdamp. He then led the men out by the return into which the afterdamp had not yet reached. They reached the surface about 5.30 p.m.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • Nichols White aged 45 years, ripper,
  • William White aged 24 years, ripper,
  • David J. Miles aged 32 years. labourer,
  • John Jenkins aged 65 years, roadman,
  • Richard Evans aged 33 years, rider,
  • Watkin Evans aged 39 years, ripper,
  • William David aged 40 years, ripper.

As the victims lived in the districts of two Coroners, a joint inquest was held by S.H. Stockwood, Coroner for the Manor of Ogmore and David Rees, Coroner for East Glamorgan. Two theories were put forward as to the cause of the explosion. The first by the manager and mining engineers representing the owners was that the explosion was initiated by the ignition of firedamp by a naked light on the main haulage level but the Mines Inspectors thought the explosion caused by a shot of compressed gunpowder fired on the main haulage level.

At the conclusion of the evidence and a careful summing up by the two Coroners the following verdict was recorded:

That the jury is of the unanimous opinion that Dinas Main Colliery Explosion, on the 14th December 1907, was caused by the firing of the so-called disputed shot igniting coal dust and the verdict is accidental death under those circumstances.

In the opinion of Messrs. Atkinson and Lewis, the Inspectors, the cause of the explosion was the firing of a charge of compressed gunpowder which was probably stemmed with coal dust which ignited coal dust on the roads.

There were breaches of the regulations with respect to the use of explosives. The use of gunpowder or any other explosive other than permitted explosives was illegal on the main haulage road as the mine was not “naturally wet” throughout and the use of coal dust to stem a shot hole was also illegal.

The question arose whether the haulage road was dry and dusty. The manager contended that it was not and said that the dust that was found came from the flue but all indications were that it did not. Mr. Atkinson commented:

Exact experimental investigation on the subject of dust explosion is urgently needed and some means of convincing working miners of the danger would be also of the greatest advantage. There is little doubt that none of the men engaged about the firing of these shots at Dinas Main were aware that there was any particular danger connected with the operation.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report.
Report to Right Honourable Secretary of State for the Home Department on the Explosion Coal Dust which occurred at the Dinas Main Colliery, in the Swansea Inspection District of the 14th December 1907 by W.N. Atkinson and J. Dwyer Lewis, H.M. Inspectors of Mines.
Colliery Guardian, 15th May 1908, p.943, 24th January 1908, p.168, 15th May, p.943.

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

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