Naval Colliery Explosion – Llantrisant – 1884

NAVAL COLLIERY. Penycraig, Glamorganshire. 27th. January, 1884.

The colliery was the property of Mr. Moses Rowlands and Mr. William Morgan with Daniel Daniels as the manager. The downcast shaft was at the northern extremity of the Parish of Ystradyfod and was sunk to 413 yards. The upcast shaft had a ventilating fan at the southern extremity of the Parish of Llantrisant and was about 440 yards deep. Both shafts were sunk to the Six Feet Seam and were about 1,100 yards apart. The shafts were joined by a main heading which met at a fault and effectively divided the colliery into two parts.

The workings on the north side of the fault were entirely in the Six Feet Seam. On the south-west of the fault, the third seam was thrown up 35 yards and below this, the seam on the south-west a Nine Foot Seam was found which was about on the level of the Six feet on the northeast side. There was a heading across the fault, from the northeast side of the fault in the Six Feet Seam, ascending into that which was thrown up 35 yards on the North Westside. Access was also gained from the incline into the Nine Feet workings lying below the up thrown Six Feet Seam. The workings were on the longwall system and were of considerable dimensions.

The colliery was worked on two shifts consisting of 328 men and boys by day and 167 men and boys at night. At the time of the explosion, there were 11 men in the pit and it was not the custom for more to be underground on Sundays.

The coal at the colliery was a steam coal which was dry and dusty and was of a fiery nature. At the working faces, blowers were common and the daily report books made frequent mention of small bowers in the three months previous to the explosion but no outbursts had been noted. Accumulations of gas had been found by the Assistant Inspector, three times in the previous twelve months and on two of these occasions, the men had been withdrawn from one stall on the advice of the Inspector.

The mine was ventilated by a Guibal fan, made at Penycraig and placed at the top of the upcast shaft on the 16th of January the air current was measured at 88,035 cubic feet per minute and the expert opinion was that it was properly distributed through the mine. Clanny lamps were used in the mine.

On Saturday 26th January, the day before the explosion, the barometer was unusually low and the manager telephoned the overmen to tell them to be extra careful and repeated the warning to the day officers between 1 and 2 p.m. when William Williams was present. At about 6.20 a.m., seven men were let down the downcast shaft and four others down the upcast shaft simultaneously. At about 6.40 the explosion was heard and everyone in the pit was killed and all the horses also died.

About half an hour later a rescue party descended and three members of this party suffocated and the rest withdrew. It was not until the 30th of January that an exploring party penetrated the workings and the bodies were recovered.

The men who died were:

• David Jones aged 52 years, fireman,
• Fred Neydd aged 44years, ostler,
• John Escott aged 27 years, ostler,
• William Williams aged 61 years, fireman,
• Oliver Jones aged 33 years, ostler,
• James Seville aged 49 years, ostler,
• Solomon Edwards aged 42 years, ostler,
• John Heycock aged 42 years, fireman,
• John Heycock aged 19 years, collier,
• John Price aged 43 years, fireman and
• Thomas Davies aged 46 years, contractor.

On the 30th of January, a formal inquest was opened on two of the bodies by Mr. Thomas Williams, Coroner and Mr. H. Grover, Deputy Coroner in whose respective districts parts of the colliery were situated and was continued on the 28th and 29th of February. The adjourned inquest was attended by Mr. T. E. Wales, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Mines and Mr. Randell, Assistant Government Inspector.

After the inspections of the pit after the explosion, it was decided that the explosion originated in the intake level between Simon’s heading and Penybont heading where a shot had been fired in the stone roof of the main level. The explosion swept through the whole pit with gas kindled at the point where the shot was fired and the blast gained force as it passed through the pit until it rushed with great force through the main return airway and hurled itself against the stables at the south-eastern extremity of the colliery. The stables were completely demolished.

The proof that the explosion was caused by a shot was stated in the report by the following facts:

a). The party that descended the pit of 27th January had the intention of firing shots.

b). William Williams, fireman, was one of this party and it was his job to fire shots.

c). His dead body was found at about the distance from the spot a man would naturally retire after lighting a fuse.

d). The hole for the shot was drilled and charged the day before.

e). The charge was not fired until the party descended.

The mine was dry and dusty and it was known that there was gas present from frequent blowers at the coal faces. The attention of the management had been drawn to these blowers by the Assistant Inspector. In his evidence to the great explosion at the same colliery in 1880, Mr. Wales, Her Majesty’s Inspector stressed the dangers of firing shots in the Welsh steam coal collieries and in a report by Mr. Wright, the representative of the Secretary of State, emphasised the defects of the Naval Steam Colliery in respect to firing shots.

At the inquiry, two firemen Thomas Beddoes and John Ingram said that shots were fired when there were as many a sixty men in the pit. The manager admitted that he left the firing of shots to the discretion of the firemen or shotmen and that he did not always know when shot firing was going on. At a date which was not exactly clear but was not more than three months before the explosion, Thomas Beddoes fired a shot in the same level less than 20 yards from the spot where the fatal shot was fired. The effect of this was to light and fire a shot which had been charged nearby. This was probably due to some gas being fired and after this Beddows refused to fire shots near this pace. This ought to have indicated to the manager that the place was dangerous and he should have forbidden shotfiring.

Alfred Lyttleton stated:

Having regard to these circumstances, I do not think that in no respect to the firing of the shot which caused the deaths of 11 men, the manager has been guilty of such criminal negligence as to justify a prosecution against him for manslaughter.

I think, however, that knowing what he did the manager displayed grievous want of judgement in ever permitting shots to be fired at all at that spot and in according such permission to the firemen did that which in such a colliery no prudent and skilful manager would have done.

At the close of the inquiry the jury found the following verdict:

(a) We are agreed that Thomas Davies’s death was accidental It was caused by the explosion We are also agreed that the explosion was caused by a shot fired by the late William Williams. But we beg to add that the manager should have given the shotman more explicit orders not to fire the shots at that particular time and place

(b) Daniel Thomas’s death was accidental and was caused by suffocation. Paragraph 9a), dealing with the cast of Thomas Davies is applicable to the 11 men who were in the pit at the time of the explosion. Paragraph (b) is applicable to the three rescuers who descended into the pit shortly after it.

Mr. Lyttleton suggested an amendment to the Special Rules concerned with blasting. He suggested that:

1). The duty of shotfiring shall be confined to one or at most two officials of special competency.

 2). No blasting shall in any case take place unless every person is out of the pit whose presence is not absolutely necessary for the operation.

REFERENCES
Mines Inspectors Report 1884. Mr. Wales?
Report to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State from the Home Department on the circumstances attending an explosion which occurred at the Naval Steam Coal Colliery at Penycraig on the 27th January 1884 by the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, Barrister-at-Law.
The Colliery Guardian, 8th February 1884, p.224, 7th March 1884, p.379.
“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.