PEN-Y-CRAIG. Rhondda, Glamorganshire. 10th. December, 1880.

The colliery was the property of Messrs. Moses, Rowlands and Williams and was in the Rhondda valley sixteen miles from Cardiff. The Colliery was situated on the Taff Vale Railway in the Rhondda Valley, Glamorganshire and belonging to Messrs. Morgan and Rowlands of Pontypridd. and the workings extended into the district of two coroners; Mr George Overton for the North Division of Glamorgan and Mr. E. Bernard Reece for the Cardiff District.

The colliery had two shafts the No.1 four hundred and forty-three yards deep and fifteen and a half feet in diameter was in the parish of Llantrisant. The No.2, downcast shaft was four hundred and thirteen yards deep and fourteen feet in diameter was sunk to the Six Foot seam which was seventeen feet thick in the parish of Ystrad-y-fodwy. The two shafts were one thousand two hundred feet apart. Up to May 1879, both shafts had been worked as bratticed shafts and the number of men restricted to twenty descending by each shaft. At the time of the explosion a connection had been made between the two shafts in the middle of May 1879 and two hundred and twenty-eight men were employed during the day and one hundred and six at night. The colliery raised five hundred tons of coal in twenty-four hours by a system of longwall working.

Locked lamps were used but shot firing was allowed by qualified men under sub-section 1 of No.8 General Rules. Ventilation of the colliery was by a fan at the top of the upcast shaft and before the explosion, 70,000 cubic feet of air per minute were passing through the mine. This had been increased from 39,000 cubic feet per minute in September 1880. The increase in the ventilation was due to the size and number of the passages being increased.

Charles Moses, the overman of the No.1 pit left work at 6 p.m. on Thursday and saw nothing dangerous in the mine. David Davies overman at the No.2 pit said the same and John Price fireman at the No. 2 left the pit at 6 p.m. and met John Williams, the night fireman on the surface and had no gas to report. The ventilation of the mine was deranged by someone leaving a door open at the mouth of the upcast shaft where some repairs to the cage wee going on and the fan stopped drawing air from the downcast shaft through the workings. This allowed gas to collect and it was fired by a naked light or a shot.

The explosion occurred at 1.30 am, when one hundred and seven men and boys were at work below ground and claimed one hundred and one lives. Immediately after the explosion people started collecting at the pit and exploring parties of volunteers were led by Mr. Richards, Mr. David Davies, Edmund Thomas, Edmund Davis and Mr. Galloway, the Deputy Inspector of Mines went down the pit the following morning.

The rescuers found falls, rubbish and gas barring their way and their passage was difficult and dangerous but four men were found alive at the bottom of the downcast shaft. John Morgan was taken out of the pit alive of Saturday morning having been without food for fifty hours. He was found wedged into a crevice with the body of a dead comrade next to him. He had been given up as dead and the Insurance Company was ready to pay out £30. His son and daughter had come from Bristol to console their mother. The explorers descended the pit which was four hundred and fifty yards deep. The dead were carried to the village of Traedaw.

Those who lost their lives were:

  • John Jenkins, aged 54 years who died from his injuries.
  • Joseph Jones, aged 30 years who died from injuries.
  • Richard Lewis, aged 24 years who died from his injuries.
  • Griffith George, aged 24 years who was burnt and suffocated.
  • Morgan Morgan, aged 28 years who was burnt and suffocated.
  • John Morgan, aged 33 years who was burnt and injured.
  • Thomas Jones, aged 21 years who died from burns and suffocation.
  • Rees John, aged 19 years who was suffocated.
  • John Rees, aged 34 years who was suffocated.
  • Griffith Williams, aged 22 years who was suffocated.
  • William Grice, aged 23 years who was suffocated.
  • Noah Rodgers, aged 39 years who was suffocated.
  • John Lloyd, aged 40 years who died from injuries.
  • Howell Evans, aged 45 years who was suffocated.
  • James Jenkins, aged 40 years who died from injuries.
  • Phillip Samuel, aged 18 years who suffocated.
  • Sydney Welding, aged 15 years who suffocated.
  • John Davies, aged 25 years who suffocated.
  • Evan David, aged 32 years who died from suffocation.
  • Henry Brooks, aged 28 years who was injured and burnt.
  • William Davies, aged 26 years who suffocated.
  • Samuel Samuel, aged 14 years who suffocated.
  • David Lloyd, aged 70 years who suffocated.
  • Thomas Jones, aged 36 years who suffocated.
  • Evan Jones, aged 45 years who suffocated.
  • Thomas Herbert Jones, aged 25 years who suffocated.
  • James Chadwick aged 25 years, suffocated.
  • John Davies, aged 25 years, suffocated.
  • William Robling, aged 40 years suffocated.
  • John Evans, aged 35 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Jones, aged 31 years, suffocated.
  • Morgan Thomas, aged 25 years, who died from his injuries.
  • William Howell, aged 21 years who was burnt.
  • David Evans, aged 23 years who was burnt.
  • Joseph Morgan, aged 25 years, suffocated.
  • David Lodovick, aged 45 years, suffocated.
  • William T. David, aged 21 years, suffocated.
  • John Willis McCarthy, aged 32 years who died from injuries.
  • Evan Rees, aged 27 years suffocated.
  • David Rosser, aged 20 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Reed, aged 29 years, suffocated.
  • Evan Griffith, aged 22 years, suffocated.
  • James Francis, aged 50 years, who died from injuries.
  • William Lewis, aged 56 years, burnt.
  • Thomas Edwards, aged 59 years, suffocated.
  • William Parlour, aged 29 years who died from injuries.
  • William Pearce, aged 37 years died from injuries.
  • Alfred Fry, aged 30 years died from injuries.
  • William Fry, aged 27 years died from injuries.
  • William Lewis, aged 49 years, suffocated.
  • Edward Hughes, aged 42 years, burnt.
  • David Lewis, aged 43 years died from injuries.
  • James Williams, aged 38 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Morries, aged 36 years, died from injuries.
  • James Murphey, aged 50 years, burnt.
  • William Evans, aged 38 years, suffocated.
  • Benjamin Howells, aged 52 years, suffocated.
  • David Watkins, aged 44 years, suffocated.
  • William Morgan, aged 56 years, burnt.
  • Thomas Morgan, aged 17 years, burnt.
  • James Lewis, aged 15 years, suffocated.
  • Evan Radcliffe, aged 30 years, suffocated.
  • William Maskman, aged 26 years, burnt.
  • Joseph Morris, aged 32 years, suffocated.
  • Evan Williams, aged 35 years, burnt.
  • John Jenkins, aged 42 years, suffocated.
  • John Thomas, aged 18 years, suffocated.
  • J.R. Williams, aged 23 years, suffocated.
  • John Hughes, aged 29 years, suffocated.
  • George Samuel, aged 30 years, suffocated.
  • Archibald Cooke, aged 27 years, suffocated.
  • Evan Davies, aged 15 years, suffocated.
  • John Snook, aged 52 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Thomas, aged 31 years, suffocated.
  • D.D. Williams, aged 36 years, died from injuries and burns.
  • James Morgan, aged 75 years, suffocated.
  • David Thomas, aged 33 years died from injuries.
  • James Gibbon, aged 20 years burnt.
  • Zephaniah Gibbon, aged 36 years, suffocated.
  • Robert Roberts, aged 16 years, suffocated.
  • Richard Williams, aged 49 years, suffocated.
  • Samuel Lewis, aged 14 years, suffocated.
  • Edward Lewis, aged 42 years, suffocated.
  • W.R. David, aged 23 years, suffocated.
  • Evan Phillips, aged 19 years died from injuries.
  • Henry Jones, aged 32 years, burnt.
  • Ely Raps, aged 29 years, burnt.
  • David Evans, aged 26 years, burnt.
  • Henry Isaac, aged 32 years, burnt.
  • Thomas Isaac, aged 28 years, burnt.
  • John Davies, aged 42 years, burnt.
  • Thomas Williams, aged 40 years, burnt.
  • Evan David, aged 49 years, burnt.
  • Charles David, aged 24 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Simon, aged 23 years, burnt.
  • Edward Job Morgan, aged 66 years, suffocated.
  • David Williams, aged 59 years, suffocated.
  • David Roberts, aged 31 years, suffocated.
  • Thomas Grice, aged 21 years, suffocated.
  • John Stone, aged 48 years, burnt.

Subscription for the relief was opened and the Lord Mayor offered to collect subscriptions. The inquiry into the explosion that occurred at the Naval Steam Colliery, Penycraig on the 10th December was held at the Butcher’s Arms Hotel Penycraig on Tuesday. The two coroners Mr. G. Overton and Mr. E.B. Reece sat jointly. Mr. Wright, a barrister, represented the Home Office. Mr. Henry Hall, H.M. Inspector for North Wales and Mr. Wales, the Inspector for South Wales were present and Mr. Sommons solicitor, represented the Company and Mr. W. Abram the Miners Agent, the men.

The Police sergeant employed at the colliery said the 29 bodies had been recovered and it was thought that two were still not recovered.

The engineer Mr. Moses Rowland Rowlands at the colliery who also acted as manager was cross-examined and he said he had not got a managers certificate but had worked in the mines first from coal getting and then as a clerk at the colliery and with his father for who he served as assistant manager. He had been a manager and sole director of the colliery for two years with his father below him.

The mine was ventilated by a fan. On the Wednesday before the explosion there had been an accident at the colliery when the cage knocked up against framework the rope broke and the cage went back into the pit. It smashed another cage four guides and caused considerable damage at the bottom of the pit. On the evening of the 9th the damaged to the rope was repaired and 50 men went down the other shaft to clear the wreckage at the bottom of the shaft. The manager said that he was positive that the fan was not damaged.

Before the explosion, there were four overmen three of whom could not write and the timekeeper and the lampman wrote their reports for them. He thought that the explosion had originated in Turbevilles headings and he believed that shot had been fired in the seam without permission because they had found bring tolls and safety fuses there after the explosion.

The same system of management was adopted in the steam coal as in the house coal and no extra safety precautions were taken except that the men did not work with naked lights. There was no difference in the shot firing and matches had been found in the clothes of one of the dead, the body of William Davies a general labourer.

Thomas Jones lamp had been found unlocked and he probably had sent to the lamp station to be relit. The manager allowed his father to go through the mine almost every day as though he were the manager and he left one section of the pit to his father even though he was neither manager nor undermanager and the witness pointed out that he was acting as his associate and not doing his duty under the Act of Parliament in allowing persons to perform the duties of management for him.

There was no men’s examiner at the colliery but there had been an intention to appoint one but had not been done so because the colliery was small and new.

The report book for the first half of 1879 was missing and the manager could not account for this. It was the duty of the bookkeeper to keep the report books but he was unable to find them. He thought that the accident had been caused by a shot because the men who had been ripping the roof were found behind a train of coal where it was assumed they were sheltering from the blast of a shot.

Rowland Rowlands, the father of Moses, was the next to give evidence. He said his son was the manager but he received the highest salary. The Company paid him but his appointment was not defined. He had been in some trouble when he was the manager at the Cymmer but he had been a manager of a colliery since then. While he was a manager at the old Penycraig colliery the workings had flooded and two men drowned and the verdict was accidental death with no blame held on him.

John Jones Griffiths, the banksman, stated that Moses R. Rowlands left the No.1 pit about 11.15 before the explosion when he told the banksman “Mind be careful to properly cover the mouth of the pit”. They only lifted the covering three times in the night.

At the recall of the inquiry, the manager was recalled and he produced the report books which could not be found the day before. The report books containing reports of ten blowers. There had been an accumulation of gas in the downcast pit about 10 months ago in consequence of an overwinding accident at the pit and the work had to be stopped. The flue stack was struck down at the time but he did not believe that this was the result of the explosion but he thought it was struck by lightning.

The downcast was sunk through some old workings of the Dinas No.3 and the old workings were kept open to turn the foul air into the Dinas pit. The Dinas proprietor complained of this and the sub-inspector of mines complained of it as it endangered the Dinas pit and he did not believe that it had anything to do with the Dinas disaster in 1879.

The lamps stations were not placed at the safest or the most convenient parts of the pit and gas had been found in one of the lamp stations. No union men were employed at the colliery and it was the only colliery in the Rhondda where there had been no strike for the last twenty years.

The day overman Charles Moses could not write and he could only put his cross in the report book and the Coroner remarked that the Act stated that the overman should be a literate man. The overman stated that the night overman must have opened his Davy lamp to fire a shot on the night of the explosion since he had no wire but he had heard no complaint about the management of the colliery.

Shots were fired in the coal as well as in the roof for ripping. The day overman said he had inspected the workings before the men went down and he received a report from the night overman he acted on it. If any collier lost his light in his work he would go to the lamp station and relight it.

In his last examination of the working places before the explosion when did not find any gas and he reported to the night fireman that the pit was clear. The night banksman said that he was in the act of pushing a tram from the mouth of the pit when the explosion occurred and he was knocked down and stunned by the shock.

A timberman said that he had seen several fire marks fixed up in the colliery as he came to work on the evening before the explosion and there was an escape of gas near the heading. He had smelt it as he went by for the past few months. He did not report this to the overman because he did not consider it his duty to do so and because he knew he would be discharged if he said anything about it. His father had been sacked from the Llwynpia colliery for making reports of gas escapes.

The main roads were not properly maintained, the timber was bad and there were spaces left in the roof where there had been heavy falls and there were canvas doors where the ought to have been wooden ones. He had been to Turbevilles heading about six weeks before the explosion and he saw Evan Lewis give a light to Rowlands the manager and both men had their lamps open. There were double doors shown on the plan that was shown in the court but in fact, this was a single door of canvas.

He had been employed in building a lamp station with a fireman and he knew that there was a void extending 20 yards inwards behind the inner wall of the station and it was not properly walled up to be airtight. It appeared to be properly stowed but it was not.

He had seen the fireman Charles Moses opening his lamp at the bottom of the shaft. He was not a union man and he knew he would be sacked if he reported what he saw but he would rather die than live in such a place. He knew that if an accumulation of gas passed the lamps station it would at once explode.

Mr. Wales was Her Majesty’s Inspector of Mines for the district. The explosion occurred at the Naval Steam colliery on Friday 10th December 1880 which resulted in the loss of one hundred and ten lives. Mr. Wales was assisted by Mr. Henry Hall, the Inspector for West Lancashire and North Wales and Mr. Reece the Assistant Inspector for this district. From the fireman’s report book, a little gas had been found on the 13th September in a stall at the No.1 pit but had quickly been dispersed. On 22nd November 1880, gas was found between in a cavity which had been filled. In No.2 pit on the 28th October 1880 a slight blower was found but no accumulation large of gas he been found. Only small quantities had been detected and these had been dealt with.

The Inspector thought that there were three ways that the gas could have come, first it was possible that it could have lodged in the old roads, second the ventilation could have become deranged by a door being left open and third there could have been a sudden large outburst in some part of the colliery:

1). There was no gas in the old workings as they were very well ventilated but the Inspector thought that it was possible for gas to come from the old roads,

2). There was no evidence that doors had been left open and

3). He thought that an outburst was the most probable cause in the Turbevilles heading and exploded by passing through the gauze of a Clanny lamp. He did not think that it was exploded by a shot.

John Jenkins was the shotfirer and he had the reputation of being a very good and careful and throughout the valley. His lamp was found wit the top off but the Inspector told the inquiry that he did not think that this man would do anything that would injure the safety of the one hundred of his fellow-workmen the mine. A lamp with the top off was found in the lamp cabin and belonged to Thomas Jones. It was thought that this had probably been sent there to be relit by a boy but the lampman had not got the top off his lamp. The position of the No.1 lamp cabin was not in the correct place and was not in the intake air where it should have been.

Mr. Wales stated that he thought the shot firing should not be allowed in the Welsh Steam Coal collieries and he was aware that an outburst of gas would go through a safety lamp. Mr. Hall also gave evidence at the inquest. He thought that the explosion originated below the face in Turbevilles Heading and the lamp cabin. He thought that there had been a weighting of the longwall and that had forced out the gas and the gas was ignited either by a shot or an open lamp in the cabin.

A shot was fired at the time of the explosion and the position of some of the bodies seemed to indicate this but the evidence was ambiguous. Mr. Hall also thought that the lamp cabin was in a bad and he pointed out that the gob was always a source of danger. He recommended that the use of Clanny lamps to be discontinued at the colliery and Meusler lamps be used in their place.

Mr. J. Treharrne Rees, the Inspector told the court that there were one hundred and five men down at the time of the explosion. Four were recovered from the Hard heading at the back of the downcast shaft and one from the No.1 West district near the downcast shaft. The remaining one hundred and one were all killed and their bodies recovered from the mine. He condemned shot firing in the colliery and the position of the lamp station.

The jury retired and returned with the following verdict:

We the undersigned have unanimously come to the conclusion that the great catastrophe that took place at or near Turbevilles heading and was caused by a fall in the immediate locality thereby releasing a quantity of gas confined there above which becoming mixed with the necessary quantity of atmospheric air to make an explosion caused a great velocity in this mixture and coming into contact with a lamp became ignited blowing the flame through the gauze and we decided that it was accidental.

 We strongly condemn the manager Mr. Moses Rowlands for not complying with the Special Rules as follows: not recording the ventilation as per Rule 29, second, the loose manner of not recording the giving out of lamps and keys. Rule No.24, third, not producing thermometer readings and the barometer readings in No.26 General Rule, and we believe he was guilty of an error of judgement in erecting a lamp station in the return airway.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspector Report, 1880.
Colliery Guardian, 14th January 1881, p.61, 21st January 1881, p.101, 28th January, 145, 6th May 1881, p.693, 703
”And they worked us to death” Vol.2. 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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