Morfa Colliery Explosion – Port Talbot – 1863

MORFA. Port Talbot, Glamorganshire. 17th. October 1863.

Morfa Colliery was owned by Messrs. Vivian and Sons and was the largest colliery in that part of the South Wales coalfield, producing about 190,000 tons of coal a year. Several coal seams were worked at the colliery and they dipped sharply to the north. All the seams were worked through the same shaft but there were separate arrangements underground to make each seam a separate colliery. It was in the parish of Margam three miles from Port Talbot station and eight miles from Neath. It was leased to and worked by Messrs. Vivian and son with Mr. Pendarvis Vivian was the resident partner.

The shafts were sunk to one hundred and two and one hundred and twenty fathoms with some of the levels as far as nine hundred yards from the shafts. The mine was known to give off gas and was known as a fiery mine which required great care in its working. The colliery employed hundreds of men and boys and the underground workings extended for miles. It raised six hundred tons of coal a day which was shipped to Port Talbot, Neath, Britain Ferry, or Swansea. The coal was bituminous coal and the highly prized Welsh Steam Coal.

Everything that could have been done was done in the interests of safety and no expense was spared by the proprietors. There had been only two fatal accidents in the past ten years before this explosion. Eight years before sixteen lives were lost and five years before four workmen had been killed in the pit.

The workings of the Nine Feet mine were about 300 yards from the shaft bottom and there was an engine to pull coal up the incline to the shaft. The ventilation passed down the engine bank and split to the east and west, passed through the working places, and went to the upcast shaft through the main airway. At the bottom of the upcast shaft, there was a large furnace and several engine boilers.

The coal was worked by pillar and stall as was the usual practice in South Wales at the time. Exploring drifts were worked on each side of the engine bank to the boundary and all the coal was worked back to a convenient distance from the incline. This system had great merits as all the coal was extracted, the ventilation was brought directly to the working places and the only goaf that was left was at the extreme end, along the edge of which there was a strong current of air.

The explosion occurred shortly after 10 a.m. on Saturday morning on the west side of the Old Mine Foot seam when there were four hundred men in the mine and five hundred yards from the bottom of the shaft. There were forty-three men and boys in the heading at the time and thirty-eight died, either from burns or the equally fatal afterdamp.

The local population knew only too well what had happened and they had gathered at the pit head. There were rumours in the valley that one hundred and fifty lives had been lost and many more injured. Happily, this proved to be incorrect but the grim total came to thirty-eight. The great majority of those in the pit had got out alive. Many of them uttered “Thank God” as they reached the surface and saw their loved ones.

The pit was not greatly damaged and only the Nine Foot workings were involved in the explosion. Air doors were blown down and there were extensive falls of the roof. Foul gasses had to be cleared and many men volunteered to go down the pit and render assistance to their dead and dying comrades. Colliers from the Cwnavon colliery deserved special mention in the Inspector’s report as they risked their lives to save one man.

Several of the survivors recorded their experience in the explosion. An old man named Stephens was almost flattened by the explosion, and he had a twelve years old son in the mine, whom he went to search for him but was driven back by the afterdamp. After further attempts, he got to the place where he knew his son was working and found him dead. The body was brought out of the mine in a sack, carried by his father.

A man named Williams was working with his son who was overpowered by the gas and collapsed. His father caught his boy in his arms and although he was very weak he carried him for a few yards but then was compelled to drop his load. He went to the bottom of the shaft to save his own life. Both father and son were got out alive but the son died later.

William Grey, the manager of the colliery who had been there for fifteen years, was in the heading at the time of the explosion he was knocked unconscious but later came to his senses and brought some men to safety. He was carried out by men that stopped him working and he could scarcely walk. The doctors at the surface were Mr. Pritchard, the works surgeon, and Mr. Russel of Cwmavon.

Seven men were got out alive but in an exhausted state and two of them died within a few minutes of them being got to the surface. Twelve bodies have been recovered and it was thought that there were twenty-four still in the pit. By Monday twenty-three had been removed but there were still about ten bodies in the pit.

The explosions blew away the timbers and in some cases the arches that were supporting the roof causing very large falls hat had to be cleared before the bodies in the workings could be recovered. The work took a long time and the last body was recovered only at the end of November.

A list of the dead that had been brought out of the pit was published in the local papers:

• Thomas Lodwick a married man,
• Thomas Thomas married,
• William Grey single,
• Thomas Morris married,
• David Grey single,
• John Thomas married,
• Thomas Thomas married,
• Thomas Morris married,
• David Morgan single,
• Thomas Hunt married,
• William Hopkins single,
• Nathaniel Williams married,
• Thomas Richards married,
• Hopburn Richards single,
• William Lewis married,
• John Arford married
• William Prosser single,
• William Nicholas married,
• William Jones married,
• Michael Croly
• John Bevan married,
• Samuel Davies single,
• William Jones married,
• John David married,
• John Tanner single,
• Peter Sutton married,
• Joseph Johner married
• Thomas Coxer single.
• Humphrey Jenkins married,
• David Matthew married,
• Herbert Griffiths married,
• Rees Williams single.
• Benjamin James single.
• William Roberts married.
• Evan Morgan single.
• Henry Wilkins married
• John Edwards married
• John Stevens single.

Most of the men met their deaths by the effects of chokedamp. The dead were placed on biers and take to their homes. The lessor and lessee of the mine Messrs. Talbot and Vivian made provision for the widows and orphans left by the disaster. Two of the injured died on Saturday and the inquest was opened on Monday at the Police Court in Aberavon to identify the bodies before Mr. Alexander Cuthbertson, the Coroner.

The manager, Mr. Grey, was underground on the day of the explosion and he heard a loud report and was knocked down. He set off down the engine plane towards the Mine Feet Vein where he thought the explosion had occurred. It took him 9 or 10 minutes and he found very large falls of roof 100 yards down the engine plane and it took him perhaps fifteen minutes to get through the fall which had almost stopped the ventilation. The people with him made a hole through the fall  and he crawled through.

Mr. Barrass, the underlooker at the colliery, followed him with a lamp and almost 100 yards further on they found Humphrey Jenkins who was the attendant on the engine plane lying beside some trams in a great deal of pain and injured but alive. They left him to be looked after and they pressed on. They came to the upper east station and about 100 yards further on there was a further fall and they found the doors blown towards the face of this level. They could not get over the fall so they went back to the engine plane, down the lower range along with the level to the lower east level until they came to the doors. The first door was blown in and the second was damaged but they found the ventilation in this part of the pit, good.

They went on until they could do no more and they went back to the engine plane and then to the lower west where he found the stoppings blown down. They then tried to get to the face of No.7 level but were driven back by the afterdamp. They got to the No.6 range and he was on his way to the No.5 when the whole party became ill and Mr. Grey collapsed. When he came to some men were carrying him out of the pit and he was ill until the Monday but he still managed to give his orders from his bed.

On Saturday and Sunday, the falls in the engine plane were cleared. Some of these were up to the roof and the work was slow and dangerous. At this point, fourteen bodies had been got out of the mine but there were still many below. The greatest damage was in the No.5 west and 9 to 10 yards of arching had been blown away. The witness thought that the explosion took place in the No.5 because the men that were found there were badly burnt.

William Barrass, the underviewer of the colliery had also worked in the pits for 15 years and started at the age of 9 years. His duties were to see to the ventilation and that there was a good supply of timber for the supports. He had to report to Mr. Grey if there was anything wrong. On the morning of the explosion, he had had reports from John Evans and William Drummer the night overman. Evans said he had been through the Cribbar Vein and it was all right as was the Nine Feet and the men were allowed to go to work. Drummer had been in the Nine Feet and reported that everything was all right.

Barrass was in the pit before Grey and had come through the Cribbar seam and he saw Grey about 9.45 am. He had then come up for his breakfast and was going down again as Grey had sent a message for him to come down and make haste. He was going down he felt the cage shaking but he did not hear the explosion but he felt the reversal of the air and he knew what had happened. At the inquiry, he said he had been in five explosions in the North of England. Barrass went down the main drift and along the main drift to the seat of the explosion where he met several men and boys and he asked where Grey was. He met him at the foot of the main engine plane and they went on together.

William Grey fell down and he went back on his hands and knees and met several men who helped him and told them to go back and get Grey. He said, “I was so far gone that I could scarcely crawl and answer the questions that they asked me”.

He thought that a fall had caused the explosion in William Morris’s heading. Morris was found by Barrass with a large quantity of coal on his body and his lamp was broken. He found Robert’s body at his workplace and his lamp was locked and there was a fall but not as much as in Morris’s heading. They also found the body of a boy named Coxen was drawing for Morris and he thought that the explosion occurred in the lower No.5 level. Five colliers and a boy were found in the No.6 level and their bodies recovered.

Barrass saw the night overman, John Evans who reported the faces clear but a little gas around the edge of the goaf and there was no squeeze in the roof. Evans had found gas in Thomas Lodwick’s No.7 east level. He reported to Barrass that everything was all right at 6 a.m. Peter Sutton was opening out between Nos.5 and 6 and the hole was not yet through.

William Drummar, a master shotfirer, was at the bottom of the pit and everything was all right when he left. Thomas Hughes, a coal cutter said that there was gas in the workings.

In his report on the disaster, Mr. Evans, the Inspector commented:

I carefully examined the mine on many occasions after the explosion, and from the observation I made, and the evidence adduced at the coroner’s inquiry, it is my impression that the explosion took place near the goaf in the western workings. It is difficult to come to a conclusion as to how the gas was ignited for all the lamps, except one, were found locked, and that one, although not locked, was in good order with its top on. Three of them were damaged and found near the spot where I believe the explosion originated they might have become damaged by the explosion, or possibly they may have been defective and unfit for use. The general ventilation of the colliery was good, and for many years past I have held it to be one of the best arranged and one of the most efficiently conducted mines in my district. The discipline was unusually good, and no expense spared by the proprietors in carrying out the recommendations of their able viewer. On this particular occasion, I am inclined to believe that some matters of detail had not received the amount of attention which is necessary in a colliery of this description, where gas is known to exude from the coal and to be given off with great pressure from the floor and roof. I think that gas on the morning in question had accumulated in the goaf near the workings and that the ventilation in that part had been disturbed by the falling of the roof and side, and thereby partially closing the airway. I cannot attribute any blame to the manager in such a case, for it is quite impracticable for him to attend to every minute detail in such an extensive mine.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report, 1863. Mr. ??
The Colliery Guardian, 24th October 1863. p.324, 31st October 1863. p.352, 7th November 1863. p.364. 21st November 1863. p.411. 5th December 1863., p.449.

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