TIRPENTWYS. Tirpentwys, Monmouthshire. 1st. October, 1902.

Tirpentwys Colliery was owned by the Tirpentwys Black Vein Steam Coal and Coke Company, Limited and was in the Cwnfrwdoer Valley in the Parish of Trevethen about one and a half miles from Pontypool. Five men, who had been working in the Big Vein Seam, were killed when they were thrown out of the ascending cage. The shaft was 290 yards deep and had two cages that ran in four seven eight-inch rope wire guides. They had been at work for a number of years and had 8 to 9 inches clearance from the girders.

There were two shafts at the colliery, a downcast sixteen and a half feet in diameter and 430 yards deep to the Black Vein Seam and an upcast, fifteen feet in diameter, sunk to the same seam which was used for winding coal from the Big Vein Seam. There were 900 men and boys employed underground and 760 of these were wound at the downcast shaft and 140 at the upcast. The total output was about 1,200 tons of coal per day of which 1,050 were raised at the downcast shaft and the remaining 150 tons at the upcast.

The accident occurred at the upcast shaft which was connected to a 24 feet diameter Walker’s improved Guibal Fan by a large culvert which was known as the Fan Race and was a few feet below the surface. In order to prevent the short-circuiting of the air and to make it travel down the downcast shaft and through the workings, there was a tower at the top of the shaft and space around it to allow the trams to be taken off and replaced by empties. Communication with the outside was through a passage with double doors arranged in such a manner, that when the trams passed through, the outer door was closed.

The tower was 45 feet high and was within about 15 feet of the centre of the pulleys. The top was flat and covered with two and half inch planks. In the cover there were two holes, 7 inches square, for the ropes to pass through and to allow for the swaying of the rope. In order to minimise the leakage of air through these holes, there was aboard, 14 inches square and two inches thick, with a 3 inch hole through which the ropes passed over each. The loose board allowed the rope to sway. It was not realised that this could be dangerous by anyone at the colliery.

The winding ropes were 1 inch in diameter made of Elliot’s lock steel and consisted of 92 wires. The breaking stain was 42 tons when they were new and the ordinary working load was 4 tons and at the time of the accident, 38 tons to two tons with the eight men in the cage. The rope had been in use for two years and four months; immediately after the accident a section, take as near as possible to the break, was taken and sent to Lloyds Bute proving house at Cardiff where the breaking strain was found to be 36.5 tons. When opened, the rope was clean and without any signs of corrosion and showed no undue signs of wear, even after it had been working for over two years.

The winding engine had two cylinders and the diameter of the conical winding drum was 12.5 to 14 feet. the pulley was 14 feet in diameter and ran truly on its axle which was 7 inches in diameter. The trough was suitable sized for the rope and the lead from the pulley to the drum, 95.5 feet was good as was the lead from the pulley to the cage. The centre of the pulley was 60 feet above the top of the shaft. The engineman had been working the engine for over three years and had been on duty all day and was regarded as a reliable man. He stated that the accident occurred when the ascending cage had passed the descending cage and he still had the steam on and the cages were running at full speed. The first thing he noticed was a noise and the engine running away on the loss of the load. He immediately put on the brake and shut off the steam and succeeded in stopping the engine within four or five strokes. He said there was about 18 inches of slack on this rope and when at the bottom and he came away steadily, feeling the weight of the load before starting to run up the shaft. The Inspector commented that he did not think that the slack winding was necessary but it had nothing to do with the accident.

Those who died were:

  • William H. Strong aged 42 years,
  • William H. Strong aged 20 years,
  • James Lloyd aged 26 years,
  • James Parsons aged 27 years,
  • John Edward Price aged 21 years,
  • Grantley Rudge aged 21 years, all colliers,
  • John Strong aged 16 years and
  • William T. Hawkins aged 17 years, both collier’s boys.

The cages had three thimbles or shoes attached to the top and bottom bands of each, through which the wire rope guides passed. As an additional precaution in order to prevent the possibility of the cages touching when they passed at the meetings, there were two 2 inch wire ropes suspended between them to act as rubbers or fender off guides. There were various byatts or beams in the shafts to carry steam pipes and the stages at the various mouthings with sufficient space for the cages to pass without touching. Close and careful examination of the bayatts and the cages indicated that they had not been touched and it was concluded that the accident did not occur by the cage striking anything in the shaft.

Upon examination of the pulley, there was a distinct mark which indicated that some wood had been squeezed into the trough as well as indications from that point on the grease, that the rope had climbed over the flange on the side of the trough and there was a mark on the gudgeon of the pulley which showed that the rope had dropped on it with considerable force. The speed at which the engine was running it was possible for this to cause the rope to break. There were also indications on the roof of the tower that the rope has sawn its way through the planks to take the line of the gudgeon instead of the circumference of the pulley. The board that had covered the holes was found, broken, near the corner of the engine house evidently having been carried over the pulley by the rope.

Since the accident, there were similar cases but without fatal results at the Dowlais, Ferndale and Company, Colliery and a fatal case at the Harris’s Navigation Colliery in 1892. The Inspector commented:

The precautions for preventing such an occurrence are of the simplest and most inexpensive description so that no possible question of cost can be imported into the matter. It had simply been that danger from this source never occurred to any person connected with the place everyone considered that the weight of the board itself would suffice to prevent what has occurred.

 

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report 1902. Mr. Martin.
Colliery Guardian, 3rd October 1902, p.731.
”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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