LETTY SHANKLIN. Aberdare, Glamorganshire. 10th August 1849.
Letty Shenklin Colliery was on the eastern side of the Aberdare Valley about two miles south-west of Aberdare and was joined to the Old Duffryn Colliery where there was an explosion in 1845. Both collieries were working the same seam of coal, the Upper Four Foot Seam which was known to be a seam that gave off firedamp. The coal had so much gas in it that several explosions occurred in ships that were carrying the coal from Cardiff.
There were two shafts at the colliery which were on the extreme western boundary. One was a pumping and downcast shaft which was nine feet in diameter, the other was a winding and upcast shaft which was thirteen feet in diameter and sunk to a depth of 360 feet. The colliery was worked by naked lights. There were no records of explosions having taken place at the colliery but at the inquiry, it as learned that there had been one or two small incidents. On the evidence of Mr. Blackwell’s Report on the explosion, three persons had been slightly burned and on another occasion, a boy had been injured when gas-fired with he went to the top of an old, abandoned stall. David Thomas told Mr. Blackwell of this and related that the stall had been stopped off for about eighteen months and gas had accumulated and accidentally fired.
The main feature of the working that had a bearing on the explosion was a point about 450 yards from the shaft where the main road divided. One branch was known as the Lower Level and went to the east, turning a little to the south on a level with the seam for about 900 to 1,000 yards from the shaft. The other branch which was known as the Upper Level turned to the north near the mouth of the workings which was known as No.1 Cross-heading to the rise for a distance of 200 yards and from there to the No.2 Cross-heading, descending a little and then passed the mouths of Nos. 3 and 4 cross-headings to the rise when it finished near the shaft as the Lower Level.
The area enclosed between these two levels varied from 100 to 150 yards wide. It was traversed by a heading which was known as crossings, on which Nos. 1 and 2 extended all the way from one level to the other, while No.3 was still in the course of being driven at the time of the accident. All the workings on the west side of the No.2 crossing had been exhausted and abandoned which left a considerable area of waste between the levels. Since conditions were right, a third range of the workings, consisting of five cross-headings, had been opened out below the Lower Level. On these, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 had been exhausted and abandoned and Nos. 4 and 5 were being worked. At the division of these levels, the lower was left open and free air passed, which was the main route for the ventilation. This portion of the ventilation went to the workings of the Nos. 4 and 5 dip Cross-headings and then back along the south return airway to the upcast shaft.
In the Upper Level, about 30 yards inside the point of the division, there was regulating door 9 feet by 6 feet, through which only part of the air was allowed to pass to ventilate the rise workings. When the main current of air reached the lower end of the No.1 crossing, a spilt was added to it to ventilate the workings between the levels. Parts of his air was intended to ventilate the old workings between the level and another route was opened and it was intended to pass directly into the Upper heading. There was another split was taken from the main current at the bottom of the No.2 Crossing. It went through the airway between the Nos. 2 and 3 crossings and eventually joined the currents at the Upper Levels and passed into the northern air course to the upcast shaft. The ventilation system made a large part of the Upper workings, extending from the door at the division of the levels to the north of the No. 2 Crossing, about 300 yards that were dependent on leakage and so had no effective ventilation. This area was a natural collecting place for gas given off from the abandoned workings on the low side.
There were only slight indications of the explosion at the surface with a small amount of dust and smoke rising from the shaft and no damage to the machinery on either of the shafts. Of the three ventilating doors at the bottom of the shaft, only one, the innermost, was damaged. The manager descended the pit and commenced the rescue work within half an hour of the accident. Operations were delayed when two of the men who went down were overcome by the afterdamp and rendered unconscious. There was a delay in putting out the furnace who probably helped the rescue work as no damage had been done to the stoppings in the main roads and the air continued to pass long its original course until it reached the branching roads where the doors had been blown down.
On examination, it was found that the indications pointed to the explosion had taken place in the Upper Level and to have extended down through the old workings to the Lower Level. The doors surrounding this part of the mine had been blown out from the centre and near the division of the levels; they were blown towards the shaft. The inside of the No.2 Crossing was blown towards the face of the Upper Level and those in Nos. 1 and 2 and 3 rise cross-headings were blown upwards. Those in Nos. 2 and 3 dips cross-headings were blown downwards.
It was in the Upper Levels that the evidence of the flame of the explosion was found. The keeper of the door near the division of the levels was found alive but severely burned and he later died. He had not suffered the effects of the afterdamp and seemed to have been at the limit of the fire on the shaft side. Another victim was found near the shaft that had been killed by concussion but was not burnt. Further, along the Upper Level, two hauliers and a doorkeeper were found dead and severely burned. There were four loaded trams standing close by.
At the request of the Coroner and jury, Messrs. D. Williams, a mineral surveyor, J., Smith, a mineral agent and S. Dobson, a mineral agent to the Hon. Mr. Clive surveyed the pit and gave evidence at the inquest. Mr. J.K. Blackwell took part in the investigation on behalf of the Government and presented a report to Sir George Grey. Mr. Blackwell said:
Part of the coal had been blown off the end of the one nearest to the No.1 crossing. The coal was thickly coated with fine coal dust which, being taken up from the floor of the level by the violence of the blast, covered everything to which it could adhere. The side of the level, and the timbers set in it, were coated with this dust. The surfaces of the coal on the tram, under this dust, appeared to be slightly charred. Some of the setting of the timber in this part had been removed by the force of the blast, which appeared to have been at its maximum near this point.
Mr. Dobson also observed that coal on the lower trams was charred and that the timber was covered with coal dust that was also charred near this point. The theory that the flame extended down to the lower level through the old workings was backed up by the fact that four bodies, slightly burned, were found along the Level. The fireman, William Williams, was slightly burned and gave evidence to the inquest. He said:
When the explosion took place I was in the lower parting of the No.,2 crossing. I saw the fire it came from the lower level it appeared to cease as it reached me. I was on my knees at the time. I heard the explosion and fallen on my knees to avoid the effect. I was slightly burned.
The main explosion was supposed to have been caused by firedamp oozing out, or being driven out, by a fall of roof in the hold workings, into the No.1 crossing and accumulation in the Upper Level where it was ignited by the light of one of the hauliers but two smaller explosions were thought to have occurred. One at the upper end of the No.1 rise cross-heading, where three men were found slightly burned and the other at the lower end of the No.4 cross-heading to the dip where two men had been slightly burned. These explosions were thought to have been caused by the main explosion forcing local accumulations of gas onto the miner’s naked lights.
Of the other people in the mine at the time of the explosion, they heard the report but their lamps were not extinguished. They went out of their working places and found that they were imprisoned by the afterdamp which shut off their escape route. On the eighty-seven men and boys in that part of the mine, only eight escaped unhurt, six of whom were near the shaft. Fifty-two died of which forty-two were brought out of the pit, dead and ten died at the pit head after being found alive. Twenty-seven of those recovered unconscious later. all the bodies were recovered within twelve hours of the accident due to the prompt and heroic actions of David Thomas, the manager of the colliery and those who aided him in the operations.
The Derby Mercury 22nd of August 1849 reported:
Last Saturday morning 112 colliers descended the Lletty Shenkin Colliery, in the parish of Aberdare…and about four in the afternoon, just at the time when the men were busy at work below, a cloud of smoke issuing from the mouth of the pit was the only indication that an explosion of fire-damp had taken place.
Yet this simple indication – unaccompanied by any report or noise, unattended by the groans and cries which herald death from great accidents – was the sole announcement of the explosion that had just taken place in the bowels of the earth. In a few minutes afterwards, however, the whole neighbourhood was alarmed.
The people had observed it, and the screams and cries of those who saw it immediately drew hundreds to the mouth of the pit, when, horrible to relate, it was too quickly discovered that no less than 52 had fallen victims to the terrible fire-damp and its accompanying choke-damp.
This occurred on Friday, 10th of August 1849 at 05.30 when 52 of the 112 men at work underground at the time were killed. The explosion happened in the Four-Feet seam and the men were working with candles at the time. Four of the men who were killed died alongside two of their sons. One of the victims, Thomas Smith, was only 8 years old, and another, Isaac Jenkins, was 11 years old. There were 12 widows and 36 children left fatherless.
Those that died were:
- Thomas Abraham aged 24
- Morgan David aged 40 father of David 19
- David Davies aged 36 father of two sons aged 15 and 13 years who also died
- Ebenezer Davies aged 14
- John Davies aged 28
- William Davies aged 50
- Ebenezer Edwards aged 12
- Evan Edwards aged 32 father of John Edwards
- Thomas Evans aged 51
- William Griffiths aged 60 and his two sons aged 15 and 22 years
- David Howell aged 34
- Isaac Jenkins aged 13
- Rees Jenkins aged 23
- Benjamin John aged 27
- David John aged 22
- John John aged 32
- John Jones aged 22
- John Jones aged 25
- William Jones aged 27
- William Jones aged 35
- Edward Llewellyn aged 53
- Jenkin Llewellyn aged 40
- William Marks aged 33
- John Morgan aged 53 and his sons aged 17 and 26 years
- John Morris aged 26
- Nathaniel Phillips aged 25
- Thomas Phillips aged 23
- Llewellyn Rees aged 11
- Stephen Rees aged 30
- William Roland aged 11
- Benjamin Sims aged 10
- Thomas Smith aged 12
- Ebenezer Thomas aged 32
- Evan Thomas aged 23
- John Thomas aged 39
- Thomas Thomas aged 25
- Thomas Thomas aged 66
- William Williams aged 46 and his sons Morgan aged 15 and Llewellyn aged 19
- William Williams aged 54 and his sons John aged 15 and Esa aged 21 years.
The jury, after hearing the evidence and the Coroner’s summing up returned the following verdict:
Firstly, we find that persons into the cause of whose death we have been inquiring, acme to their deaths by accident in consequence of an explosion of firedamp caused by gas oozing out of old stalls in the No.1 crossing in the Letty Shanklin Colliery, caused either by a fall of roof in those stalls, or by a sudden fall of the barometer, or by a combination of these causes, the gas this sent out, coming into contact with the naked lights of the hauliers at the time engaged in the upper level. and e further find that the fire that took place in the no. 1 cross-heading to the rise, and in the face of the No.4 dip heading, was caused by the first explosion the air and causing the gas to descend in contact with the naked light of the men working in those places.
Secondly, we also recommend that in all instances that the gas which generates in old wastes should be carried off by a separate air current from that which ventilates the workings, and then brought into the return air course without any communication whatever with the intake air. It should be kept entirely secure from any communication with the naked lights of the workmen.
Mr. Dobson commented that is was the only explosion known which had taken place in the intake airway at a colliery. It was noted that many on the victims had died from the effects of the afterdamp and Mr. Blackwell remarked that:
The number of those who perished by the explosion itself is thus shown to have been a very small part of those who lost their lives on this occasion. The remainder died from suffocation produced by the afterdamp of nitrogen and carbonic acid, which is rendered still more fatal by the thick dust which fills the air and impedes the respiration of the survivors after an explosion.
Various proposals were made for the saving of life after an explosion. As early as 1835 there was a scheme proposed to supply workmen with a portable vessel containing compressed oxygen of atmospheric air and in 1835, Messrs, G.&W. Bursell invented a “Life Lamp and Life Apparatus” for the use among noxious gasses which held atmospheric air in portable metal cylinders. A simple apparatus of a mixture of slaked lime and Glauber’s Salts in a coarse bag to be used as a respirator after an explosion was proposed in 1839 and recommend by Messrs. De la Benche and Dr. Playfair in their report on Gasses and explosion in 1847, in 1845, Mr. T. Dickenson recommended that miners should carry bags of air with them and the scheme was enlarged by Dr Hutchinson in 1849 for the use of rescue parties after the explosion. In 1849, Sir George Elliot suggested that pipes of conveying quicklime and water, or oxygen gas in the none to counter the effects of the afterdamp and in the same year, Mr. T.J. Barkley advocated the constriction or refuge chambers in the workings of mines.
A report presented to Sir. G. Grey concluded:
The principles which first of all be observed in arranging the airways of every mine have been overlooked, namely, the protection of the intake currents from any possibility of their being rendered explosive until they reach the workings where the men are employed, the isolation of each district of the workings, along with the system of air courses belonging to it, so that an explosion may be only partial in its effects and the ventilating of exhausting proportions of the mine by such parts of the return air as are never traversed by naked lights. Naked lights were used in this pit.
REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p. 377.-82
Mining Journal. Vol. xix, p.394, 402.
The 1832 Report. p.13-15.
The 1849 Report. p.160, 299, 408.
The Report of the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines. 1853.
“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.
and by Ray Lawrence and used here with their permission.
