River Level Colliery Inrush – Abernant – 1896

RIVER LEVEL. Abernant, Glamorganshire. 9th. December, 1896.

River Level Colliery was one of a group of mine owned by the Aberdare Works and Collieries Company and was at Abernant near Aberdare. At about 3.45 p.m. on the 9th December, an inrush of water occurred at the colliery and six men and boys lost their lives by drowning. The remaining one hundred and twenty men either made their way out or were rescued uninjured within two hours of the first alarm.

Richard Bedlington, one of the oldest mining engineers in Wales, was consulting engineer to the owners and Edward Morgan, a mechanical engineer, was the general manager with an experience of the collieries that went back to 1869. At the date of the disaster, the certificated manager of the colliery was Rees Howells who held a First Class Certificate of competency and was also the manager of the No.9 Pit and Park Pit. He had been in this post for only ten weeks and therefore did not have extensive knowledge of the collieries under his charge. Thomas Landeg was the certificated under manager and he had been at the colliery for many years.

Several seams of coal had been worked at the colliery and in 1868 there was sinking from the Nine Feet Seam to the Gellydeg which was the lowest seam that was worked in the coalfield. There were three seams worked at the time of the accident, the Nine Feet, No.2 Yard and the Gellydeg and it was in the Gellydeg that the inrush took place. the coal had originally been worked by the pillar and stall method but it was changed to the longwall system and the workings extended on the rise from the boundary in a southerly direction for 1,540 yards to the boundary of a neighbouring  Ysguborwen colliery. At the date of the accident, the only workings in the River Level Colliery that were approaching Ysguborwen were some that had a full 56-yard barrier between them according to the plans and another part 400 yards on the East Side which had approached to within 8 or 10 yards from the boundary of the working plan. Theses places were driven in 1872, according to the plans and for many years, Messrs. Samuel Thomas and Company owners of the Ysguborwen Colliery had worked the seam. About 1892 they worked the coal on the dip portion and the colliery was finally abandoned in December 1895.

The Ysguborwen Colliery was a very wet one and while it was working, water flowed out of a level called the “Drain Level” to the surface. Any water that was met with while working to the dip of the Drain Level was pumped to that level and there could be no doubt that when the colliery finished working the water accumulated in these workings. It was clear that, if there was any obstruction in the Drain Level, the water would fill the dip workings of the Ysguborwen unless it could reach a neighbouring colliery to the dip. It was evident that no such danger would occur if a sufficient barrier was left between the two collieries but this was no the case.

A rider on the engine plane was the first to notice the inrush when the trams on which he was riding were stopped by water running down the plane. He went to the bottom of the River Level pit and he and the hitcher immediately went to the surface. The manager and Mr. H.A. Phillips, a surveyor who had been working in the Gellydeg seam and had had to go to the surface to for something they had forgotten, descended the pit and the cage went into several feet of water at the bottom of the shaft. He returned to the surface immediately and got the manager, Mr. Howells. Both men went down the pit and entered the water which they found, was flowing down the engine plane. They were joined by David Evans, the fireman, who had been near the bottom of the shaft when the inrush was discovered.

It was found that they could not pass a journey of trams in the engine plane and realised that the men could only be rescued from the return airway. After taking steps to try to stop the water, they succeeded in reaching the engine plane by breaking down and air bridge and this made a way out for a large number of men who at reached that point by that time.

David Evans reached the No.5 West Level and warned a large number of men who were there and Mr. Howells went there as well and brought out the remainder from that level. Before Evans left he attempted to reach the No.6 West Level but found that he could not do so because of the water. He had a son working there and did not know at the time whether he had escaped or not. If these men had not acted quickly more lives would have been lost. Twelve men were brought out of the No.5 West Level and they had to wade through the water which almost filled the road a very soon afterwards was filled to the roof. Several other men and boys made their escape from No.6 West Level which was the lowest point in the workings and they ad to pass through a large body of water. They were not aware that they had left anyone behind at the time but in the course of the evening, it became known that six people were missing all of whom worked in the No.6 West Level.

During the night the source of the water was discovered. It was found to be flowing from the Ysguborwen workings down No.2 heading and steps were taken to enter the Drain Level when it was seen that the roof of this level was blocking it. When this was partially removed, the water took its normal course and stopped flowing into the River Level workings. It was then evident that the barrier between the two collieries which was supposed to be 11 feet wide was only a narrow strip of coal 2 to 4 feet wide on each side of the breach.

Mr. J.T. Robson, the Inspector was informed by telegram of the accident and reached the colliery by train in the company of Mr. F.A. Gray, anther of H.M. Inspectors, at 12.45 the following morning. The examined the plans and heard from the officials that six lives had been lost. They went down the pit and found very little water was running down the dip and the water had reached a point a little above the No.5 West Level. It seemed that the six had not got out of the No.6 West Level but there was a possibility that some small portion of the workings could have been kept free from water by the compressed air at the end of a working. It was decided that an attempt should be made to try to get through the water and pumping operations should be begun at once and continued round the clock.

A diver was brought from Cardiff but after he had had the conditions explained to him he would not make an attempt to enter the workings. David Morgan, the Miners Agent and Sir William Thomas Lewis sent to the Bute Docks for divers to go to the colliery and although these men made several attempts, the conditions were too difficult for them. The Inspector commented:

It may not be out of place to state that there was a great danger incurred by these divers because had the air pipe (over 100 yards of which was used in the last attempts) been cut by a fall of roof or side, or dragged it over uneven surfaces, the diver at the end would have been instantly suffocated.

On the 23rd September, the fourteenth day after the inundation the water in the No.6 West Level was pumped out and the bodies of the six were found together in a narrow airway which proved to be the highest point in the workings. It was evident that the water had not reached. It was evident that they had been drowned within a few hours of the water first coming in as a manÕs watch had stopped at 10 o’clock.

Those who lost their lives were:

• John Jenkins aged 52 years,
• Thomas Jones aged 29 years,
• J. Phillips aged 29 years,
• Thomas Jenkins aged 14 years,
• George Evans aged 14 years,
• John Williams aged 13 years.

The adjourned inquest was held on the 20th and 21st January and it was brought out in evidence that a workman, John Hopkins who had been working on the dip side of the heading in Ysguborwen colliery which skirted the River Level barrier in 1892 had “struck loose” into the workings of the River Level Colliery. The “skip” where he was working was found to be 8 to 10 yards wide and 30 yards long. In describing the holing Hopkins described it “as big enough to put my head through” both Samuel H. Hopkins and Mr. Evan Jones, manager and undermanager of the Ysguborwen Colliery, denied any knowledge of this hole but Hopkins, the collier, said he reported it to the Thomas Davies, the fireman but this man denied he was the fireman at the time although he admitted that he saw the hole. He tried to show that Taliesin Jones was the fireman but Jones gave evidence to the contrary.

The plans of the Gellydeg workings in the Ysguborwen colliery were deposited at the Home Office early in 1896 and on this, the workings at the spot where the hole was made were shown touching the boundary line. It was clear from an examination of the workings after the disaster that some coal had been taken away from the Ysguborwen side and therefore the plan was inaccurate as it did not show “the boundaries of the workings of the mine or seam up to the time of the abandonment” as was required by Section 38 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887 which was the Act that governed the colliery and the plans were deposited prior to the Act of 1896. The Inspector was of the opinion that no breach of the Act had occurred by any person connected with the River Level Colliery.

He went onto say:

Whether criminal liability attaches to those responsible for the working of the Ysguborwen Colliery, in destroying the barrier and brought about this disaster, will doubtless be reported upon by Mr. Woodfall, barrister, who attended the inquiry on my behalf.

I think it well to mention that, although there is no legal obligation to provide a double road in the No.6 West Level, so long as the adequate ventilation of the place could otherwise be maintained, had there been such a double road through the fault, say, 30 yards above No.6 Level or what would have been better still, a road communicating directly between Nos. 5 and 6 Levels on the inside of the fault, the six men would almost certainly have got out.

After hearing the evidence at the inquest Mr. Woodfall stated in a letter to the Inspector:

It appears to me that the managers of the Ysguborwen Colliery committed a trespass, in the course of which they did act whereby loss of life was occasioned, and the fatal consequences of their actions were one which was and ought to have been contemplated by them and assuming even that the trespass could not be established, that a legal duty lay with them to give notice to the Abernant people of the barrier having been cut away. I do not think that the managers of a pit can be heard to say that they had no knowledge of such an occurrence. No such notice was, in fact, ever given to the Abernant people.

 I am of the opinion that the managers, Samuel Richard Hopkins and Evan Jones and the fireman, Thomas Davies have been guilty of culpable omission of discharge of duty tending to the preservation of life, and, consequently, of the manslaughter of the six men drowned.

 I am informed that it would be difficult to obtain a conviction because the recklessness shown is so common in mining. Whether a prosecution, even if unsuccessful would have a salutary effect appears to be a question outside the ambit of the report I am instructed to make.

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report.
Report on the River Level Colliery Inundation on December 9th 1896 by J.T. Robson Esq., one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Mines and Robert Woodfall Esq.
The Colliery Guardian, 11th December 1896, p.119, 18th December 1898.
”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.