Risca Colliery Black Vein Pit Explosion – Risca – 1846

RISCA. Black Vein Pit. Monmouthshire. 14th. January, 1846.

The colliery was the property of Mr. J. Russell and Company. The explosion occurred about 8.30 a.m. and thirty-five lives were lost.

There were two shafts, the downcast, 146 yards deep and 9 feet in diameter and the upcast 24 feet away to the same depth. This was oval-shaped 16 by 10 feet and had a ventilating furnace fed by the return air. The ventilation was divided into two splits with the circuit to east 2,200 yards and that to west, 2,600 yards. The quantity of air was not stated by the return drift was only 5 feet by 4 feet so could not have been very great. The ventilation of the colliery was dependent on a large number of doors. If one set of doors near the shaft was left open or destroyed then the intake air would go directly into the upcast shaft without entering the mine. The ventilation of each heading was also dependent on a door.

About 150 men and boys were employed underground of whom about two-thirds used candles and the others Davy lamps. The men were paid extra if they used lamps which were tested by placing them in a small volume of firedamp. Two or three men worked with lamps because they could not keep candles lit in ventilation current.

Blowers were very common in the mine, some lasting for a few days, others for weeks. The blowers were more common in the soft coal and near faults and they came mainly from the top part of coal and the black shale above. Sometimes they caught fire but they did not explode. The way gas fired at a candle was described, “it struck back like a train of gunpowder in the wind road, when it exploded”. It was common to have a little firedamp in the top of the headings where the men worked and a little in some of the stalls in the morning. If any place was thought to be dangerous, a cross made of two sticks was put up by the fireman to prevent the men from going further and if he could find their lamps, he brought it back and drove a nail inside of the place and left it for them to see. The firedamp came mainly from the Black Vein Coal and an efficient ventilation system was considered essential.

On the day before the explosion, one of the guide chains in the upcast shaft was broken by a fall of ironstone from part of the shaft and so the men were not allowed down that shaft. Many of them took the opportunity to “carouse and drink” and several were intoxicated until after midnight. On that night the fireman was repairing some fallen ground and did not personally visit the west side but the man usually employed with him and lad, went through the various windways but did not examine stalls, concluding that if former were in good condition so would be the latter also. They finished their inspection about 5 a.m. and on their return to the bottom of the shaft one of them reported that all was safe.

That morning, the 14th, the day foreman did not arrive at work due to illness but he sent his brother in his place. He went down pit about 6 a.m. and went to back of No.2 cross heading, west of shafts where firedamp had been found on the evening of 12th. While he was there with other men beating out gas with their coats into the airway and just about to test the air for gas, the explosion occurred.

Those who died were:

• John Danks who left a wife and family.
• John Danks, son of John.
• John Watts who left a wife.
• George Sommers who left a wife and two children.
• Isaac Brison who had a wife and family in Somerset.
• William Bryant of Somerset.
• Bryant, son of James Bryant.
• John Attwell.
• William Harrison.
• John Bath, a young man.
• James Gambel, left a wife and children.
• John Powell, left a wife and two children.
• Charles Hoarse, a young man.
• Elias Jones.
• George Williams.
• William Thomas.
• Isaac Fuidge.
• Emmanuel Crook.
• James Crook.
• Samuel Silous, a young man.
• James Pike, left a wife and family.
• Jesse Hedges.
• Thomas Wendward.
• John Peel, a young man.
• John Evans, widower with five children some of whom were married.
• Bodies not recovered:
• James Lease, left a wife and child.
• George Curtin, a young man.
• George Bamfield, left a wife and family.
• George Bamfield jnr.
• Thomas Bamfield, son of above.
• Isaac Lavel, wife and five daughters.
• James Gullock, wife and family.
• John Crook, a boy.

A. Gething said that the place where he was working on the Monday prior to the explosion was so full of firedamp that he had failed to get it out after two or three hours brushing. Lamps were used in the colliery but the men worked mainly with candles. The colliers had not been working the day before the disaster and the accident was put down to colliers approaching too near an old goaf with a naked light.

All the doors near the bottom of the shaft were blown out and this caused the ventilation to cease on the west side of the mine. Very few of the men were killed by the explosion but many of those who died from suffocation by the afterdamp as they tried to make their way to the shaft. The explosion killed thirty-five and was made the subject of a special inquiry on behalf of the Government by Sir H.T. de la Benche.

REFERENCES
Annals of Coal Mining. Galloway. Vol.2, p.116.
Mining Journal. Vol. xvi, p.35.
The Report of the Select Committee on Accidents in Mines, 1853.
Appendix to the joint report by Messrs. Dickinson, Wales and Cadman as to the cause of the frequent explosions in the Risca coalfield. Mines Inspectors Report 1880.
The Cambrian.

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