DINAS MIDDLE PIT. Glamorganshire. 1st. January, 1844.

The overman had left the examination of a stall to a little boy who accompanied him. When the men who worked there entered with a naked light, there was an explosion. Eight men and four boys lost their lives and three other lads were injured. There had not been a serious accident at the colliery for years and this was supposed to have made the men confident and careless.

The day shift had descended and the explosion occurred about 8 a.m. after the overman, Griffith Williams, had gone down about 4 a.m. to make his inspection. He took a boy with him, Edmund Llewellyn, who made the tests in the heading where the explosion took place and was confined to one of the two headings. Had the accident occurred half an hour later, the loss of life would have been much greater.

Those men who died were:

  • William Harrhy aged 20 years.
  • David Job aged 14 years.
  • Thomas Leyshon aged 16 years.
  • David Morgan aged 14 years.
  • Thomas Morriss aged 48 years.
  • William Morriss aged 17 years.
  • Lewis Morriss aged 12 years.
  • David Phillips aged 22 years.
  • Edward Powell aged 21 years.
  • John Richards aged 14 years.
  • Thomas Rowlands aged 61 years.
  • David Rowlands aged 9 years.

The injured were:

  • William Llewellyn,
  • William Williams,
  • Thomas Evans.

At the inquest, the Coroner severely censured the overman and invited the jury to return a verdict of manslaughter against him. Edmund was a son of the manager of the colliery, Mr Daniel Llewellyn and the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death.”

 

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p.113.
Mining Journal. Vol. xiv, p.2 11.
”And they worked us to death” Vol.1. Ben Fieldhouse and Jackie Dunn. Gwent Family History Society.

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

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