Mountain Ash, Cynon Valley (04130014)

This was a steam coal pit that was also called the Middle Pit. It was opened in the 1850s by Thomas Powell and later owned by the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited. Originally it had two shafts to the upper seams and used both shafts for coal winding.

On 25th February 1858, an explosion of ‘fire-damp’ took place at two o’clock this morning in one of the coal pits of the Lower Duffryn Colliery, the property of Messrs. Thomas Powell and Son, at Cwm Pennar, by which nineteen men were killed. It has caused the greatest consternation and alarm in the neighbourhood, and large crowds of friends of colliers continue to assemble at the pit’s mouth, where some distressing scenes occurred.

It is supposed to have happened as a consequence of a ‘fall’ in the roof of the mine, as the man working nearest the place was found without his lamp, which is supposed to have been broken by the accident, and to have ignited the large quantity of gas that escaped. All the other men’s bodies were found with their safety lamps properly locked beside them.

On March 6th, the Bristol Mercury named the victims as:

  • George Cox, collier, married, aged 35 years
  • Joseph Cox, his son, aged 15
  • Henry Morris, haulier, aged 17
  • David Davies, collier, aged 20
  • William Awberry, collier, married, aged 36
  • William Awberry, junior, his son, aged 12
  • John Morgan, collier, aged 24
  • Richard Jones, collier, married, aged 28
  • Thoma Sheercross, collier, widower, aged 33
  • Daniel Jones, collier, married, aged 25
  • Edwin Strong, door-boy, aged 10
  • Levi Davies, collier, married, aged 45
  • Thomas Richards, collier, aged 14
  • Peter Mormon, collier, married, aged 44
  • James Rumley, collier, married, aged 40
  • Henry Salmon, collier, aged 10
  • John Rosser, collier, aged 22
  • Owen Jones, haulier, aged 18
  • George Gale, door-boy, aged 15

In the Glasgow Herald dated, Saturday, November, 10th, 1860:

An explosion took place on Wednesday afternoon, in a colliery belonging to Messrs. Powell & Son, situated near Mountain Ash, on the Taff Vale Railway, Glamorganshire, which resulted in the death of at least nine persons, and the serious injury of a large number of the colliers. The explosion occurred in what is called the nine-feet vein of the lower pit of the Lower Duffryn Colliery, on the west side of No.1 heading, where a vast accumulation of gas had taken place, judging from the effects of the explosion. Soon after the accident occurred the whole of the colliers, between 400 and 500, came to the surface, and then a band of men went down to ascertain the extent of the explosion. They found the various stalls in No.1 heading all blown down, and the air crossing, formed of half-inch plates of iron, all crumpled up like a piece of parchment. On looking into the various stalls they found a number of men, some dead and some alive, who were as speedily as possible removed to the air shaft, and thence to the surface.

Those that died were:

    • Thomas Evans, 31, wife and four children
    • John Rendall, 26, single
    • John Davies, 33, single
    • Richard Williams, 15, single
    • George Morgan, 11
    • John Box, 35, wife and child
    • John Regan, 62, wife and three children
    • Evan Thomas, 34, wife but no family.

At the inquest, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

The following little piece was in the Western Mail on Saturday, September 30th, 1882. There had been a long series of disputes, strikes and lock-out in South Wales which resulted in the men being unable to pay for various services. One was for the education of their children. Here was the school board’s response to their dire straits:

The chairman said that there were fees due at Capcoch and Cwmbach to the extent of £21.10s., and they had not received a penny of the amount – The superintendent stated that there were 57 such children at Capcoch, and 19 at Cwmbach.

He thought that they should instruct the teachers at Capcoch and Cwmbach to give the children referred to notice, either written or printed, that unless the poundage fees due from the Lower Duffryn Colliery were paid at the end of the month the children could only be admitted on the payment of fees. This was agreed to unanimously.

The one pit was sunk deeper and by 1914 it was used to work the Gellideg, Seven-Feet and Nine-Feet seams, employing 800 men. This shaft was 16 feet 6 inches by 15 feet 3 inches elliptical in shape with winding from the Seven-Feet seam at a depth of 348 yards. It was sunk to the Seven-Feet seam which it struck at a depth of 1,038 feet 5 inches. Amongst other seams that were worked at this pit were the Lower-Six-Feet which had a thickness of coal 5 inches, dirt 10 inches, coal 39 inches. The Four-Feet seam was extensively worked and had a thickness of between 66 inches to 72 inches.

The colliery employed 893 men and produced 191,694 tons of coal in 1870 but was temporarily closed in 1875 due to a slump in the coal trade but re-opened and in 1896 employed 766 men underground and 94 men on the surface, the manager was Gwilym Jones. It employed 682 men in 1907 and 660 men underground and 73 men on the surface in 1908 when John Powell was manager. It employed 823 men in 1913/16, in 1918 there were 754 men underground and 107 men on the surface, and in 1919 there were 800 men working at this pit. It was managed in 1878 by J. Harvard in 1913/16 by A. Moore and in 1918/19 by D.J. Davies. In 1923/7 it was managed by J.J. Hughes.

This colliery was the scene of a bitter industrial dispute in 1910 which spread to the rest of the Cynon Valley. Following the company’s attempt to remove old established customs from the men they went out on strike, supported by most of the mines in the Valley. Riots and disturbances spread throughout the area but to no avail and the men returned to work defeated.

It stopped working in 1927 and officially closed as a production unit in July 1932. In 1938 there were 9 men working underground and 27 men
on the surface.

On Nationalisation in 1947 only three men were employed at the pit on pumping operations which ceased in the 1970s.

Some of the many fatalities at this colliery:

  • 26/9/1853, Oliver Jonas, aged 12, labourer, run over by trams.
  • 21/8/1854, Richard Lewis, aged 20, collier, run over by trams.
  • 31/3/1855, James Davis, aged 32, collier, shaft accident.
  • 18/3/1857, John Morgan, collier, fall of roof.
  • 11/11/1857, James Woodward, aged 30, haulier, crushed by trams.
  • 29/5/1858, James Murray, aged 30, haulier, crushed by trams.
  • 27/11/1858, Rees Watkins, aged 3, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 19/5/1859, Thomas Morgan, aged 16, banksman, fell down the shaft.
  • 26/7/1859, Thomas Davies, aged 46, collier, fell down the shaft.
  • 2/5/1860, George Morris, aged 29, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 5/5/1860, Edmund Miles, aged 33, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 26/9/1860, J. Jones, aged 17, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 12/10/1860, T. Williams, aged 41, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 1/12/1860, George Evans, aged 32, fireman, G. Llewellyn, overman, explosion of gas.
  • 8/1/1861, David Roderick, aged 20, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 15/1/1861, Charles Smith, aged 20, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 21/1/1862, Richard Taylor, aged 47, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 27/1/1862, Jonathan Lloyd, aged 13, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 16/12/1862, James Perkins, aged 28, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 24/12/1862, Thomas Rees, aged 12, door boy, run over by trams.
  • 10/1/1863, Richard James, aged 12, door boy, fall of the roof.
  • 21/5/1863, John Davies, aged 29, hitcher, coal fell down the shaft.
  • 4/8/1863, Richard Jones, aged 54, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 12/11/1864, Thomas Watkins, aged 27, collier, shaft incident.
  • 5/4/1865, John Jones, aged 35, hitcher, something fell down the shaft.
  • 15/6/1865, Richard Williams, aged 18, haulier, fall of the roof.
  • 11/9/1865, John Barker, aged 21, haulier, suffocated.
  • 20/9/1865, Lewis Jones, aged 13, labourer, run over by trucks.
  • 17/4/1866, Henry Pugh, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 12/12/1866, William Gibby, aged 30, collier, coal fell down the shaft.
  • 2/5/1867, Edward Edwards, aged 56, shotfirer, John Morgan, aged 26, collier, explosion of gas.
  • 19/9/1867, William George, aged 15, Doorboy, fall of the roof.
  • 7/1/1868, Peter Murphy, aged 26, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 5/10/1868, J. Rees, aged 19, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 22/10/1868, J. Passmore, aged 29, collier, run over by trams.
  • 2/1/1869, David Lewis, aged 35, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 12/1/1869, J. Phillips, aged 31, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 25/2/1869, David Evans, aged 32, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 6/7/1869, John Havard, aged 27, collier, shaft incident.
  • 14/9/1869, Thomas Thomas, aged 48, collier, scalded by water.
  • 2/12/1869, J. Chapel, aged 27, labourer, run over by surface trucks.
  • 29/10/1870, R. Evans, collier, fall of roof.
  • 22/3/1871, J. James, aged 38, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 1/1/1872, Benjamin Eynon, aged 47, fell down the pit.
  • 10/1/1872, F. Smith, aged 11, door boy, strayed into old workings and was not found for several days.
  • 20/3/1872, John Hopkins, aged 28, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 10/7/1872, J.A. Jones, aged 12, labourer, run over by surface trucks.
  • 16/8/1872, W. Hutchings, aged 27, labourer, run over by surface trucks.
  • 10/10/1872, H. Prosser, aged 17, door boy, killed by a horse.
  • 6/11/1872, William Hughes, aged 11, a boy not employed killed when illegally riding trams on the surface.
  • 8/2/1873, B. James, aged 30, wasteman, fall of the roof.
  • 20/3/1873, John Davies, aged 25, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 18/4/1874, T. Cribb, aged 25, run over by trams.
  • 27/4/1874, H. Williams, aged 13, run over by trams.
  • 23/11/1874, S. Prosser, aged 23, labourer, run over by trams.
  • 29/3/1876, J. Perry, aged 54, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 19/11/1878, Richard Cooney, aged 15, haulier, killed by trams on the surface.
  • 7/4/1879, John Jones, aged 54, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 23/3/1880, John Evans, aged 49, collier, run over by trams
  • 17/12/1880, Ebenezer John, aged 51, stower, run over by trams.
  • 28/10/1881, Thomas Morgan, aged 50, roadman, run over by trams.
  • 8/2/1882, Thomas Harris, aged 12, door boy, run over by trams.
  • 14/11/1882, John James, aged 31, stower, fall of the roof.
  • 9/2/1883, Roger Evans, aged 29, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 26/4/1883, Evan Davies, aged 48, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 12/5/1884, William Evans, aged 26, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 17/1/1885, Albert Mitchell, aged 18, labourer, fall of the roof.
  • 21/7/1885, David Thomas, aged 28, ostler, fell down the pit.
  • 23/7/1885, James Williams, aged 21, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 1/12/1885, Jacob Williams, aged 27, rider, fell under a surface truck
  • 10/12/1886, David Price, aged 28, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 11/3/1887, David Thomas, aged 13, collier boy, fall of the roof.
  • 17/2/1888, James Thomas, aged 20, shackler, crushed by trams.
  • 8/10/1888, John Davies, aged 21, fall of the roof.
  • 20/7/1889, David Davies, aged 26, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 6/3/1890, John Dalton, aged 15, collier, strain.
  • 21/5/1891, John Roberts, aged 39, sinker, fell down the pit.
  • 20/12/1892, John George, aged 43, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 28/9/1893, John Griffiths, aged 20, shackler, crushed between trams.
  • 12/10/1894, Andrew Davies, aged 24, tipper, run over by trams.
  • 3/4/1895, Samuel Hughes Jones, aged 19, labourer, crushed by haulage drum.
  • 4/7/1896, Benjamin James, aged 43, rider, crushed by trams.
  • 7/7/1896, James Bowen, aged 28, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 15/8/1896, Thomas Eynon, aged 21, haulier, run over by trams.
  • 9/5/1911, George Young, aged 26, excavator, John Christy, excavator, electrocuted.
  • 23/11/1911, Thomas Thomas, aged 61, fitter, blood infection.
  • 7/9/1912, Henry Watkins, aged 45, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 27/2/1913, Thomas Gain, aged 26, coal cutter, fall of the roof.
  • 30/8/1914, Edward Davies, aged 26, coal cutter, fall of the roof.
  • 30/11/1914, Edward Jones, aged 44, collier, fall of the roof.
  • 29/7/1927, William Davies, aged 40, collier, fall of the roof.

Some Statistics:

  • 1889: Output: 104,122 tons.
  • 1894: Output: 201,077 tons.
  • 1896: Manpower: 860.
  • 1899: Manpower: 868.
  • 1900: Manpower: 957.
  • 1901: Manpower: 864.
  • 1902: Manpower: 897.
  • 1903: Manpower: 922.
  • 1905: Manpower: 878.
  • 1908: Manpower: 733.
  • 1910: Manpower: 860.
  • 1911: Manpower: 885.
  • 1912: Manpower: 866.
  • 1913: Manpower: 832.
  • 1916: Manpower: 832.
  • 1918: Manpower: 861.
  • 1919: Manpower: 800.
  • 1922: Manpower: 999.
  • 1923: Manpower: 926.
  • 1924: Manpower: 804.
  • 1925: Manpower: 850.
  • 1926: Manpower: 800.
  • 1927: Manpower: 824.

 

Information supplied by Ray Lawrence and used here with his permission.

Return to previous page