DINAS. Rhondda, Glamorganshire. 13th. January, 1879.

The colliery was at Llantrisant, in Glamorganshire about four miles from Pontypridd and sixteen miles from Cardiff. It was one of the oldest and deepest in the Rhondda and had been sunk about forty years before by Mr. Walter Coffin but was the property of Colonel Hunt and worked under the name of Coffin and Company. Mr. Charles Henry James, mining engineer of Merthyr Tydfil was the agent for the colliery and Samuel Hughes the manager with John Chubb as the overman. The coal was worked on the longwall system and the discipline at the colliery was said to be good.

The colliery was sunk to the bituminous and semi-bituminous household coals but work had been going on to reach the steam coal measures and several seams of this coal were being worked at the time of the disaster. There were two shafts, one, the downcast, was about 360 yards deep and the other, the upcast, about 440 yards deep. They were about a quarter of a mile apart. The downcast was known as the Little Pit and 10 feet in diameter and sunk top the Polka Seam, 329 yards from the surface. This was 560 yards from the Middle Pit which passed through the Polka at 301 yards at which point there was a landing.

The upcast and coal winding pit was 15 feet by 12 feet and 407 yards deep, sunk to the Two Foot Seam from which coal was raised. The shaft passed through the Four Foot Seam at 329 yards and there was an opening to that seam but no coal landing. Both shafts were large enough to pass the large quantities of air that were required for the ventilation of the workings. A powerful Waddle fan, forty feet in diameter was placed at the top of the Middle Pit, upcast shaft and both pits were used for winding men, coal and materials. There was a good travelling road driven through the coal to the upcast shaft. It was known to be a fiery mine and worked with locked lamps.

The pit had been managed for a great many years by Mr. Morgan Rowland who, not long before the disaster was superseded by Mr. Chubb who had been the overman at the pit. The year before a Mines Inspector, Mr. Galloway, prosecuted Mr. Chubb for breach of the Mines Regulation Act. A fine of £10 was imposed and his certificate was suspended for six months by the Court. This left the colliery without effective management and another inspector, Mr. Wales, sanctioned Mr. Samuel Hughes and the provisional manager with Chubb being employed as the colliery overman. Mr. Charles Henry James, a mining engineer from Merthyr Tydfil had been retained by the previous manager as a consulting engineer and he continued to work in that capacity at the colliery.

Before the explosion, the air current was split along the Lower Pit, some going to the Two Feet Nine opening and some to the Four Foot opening. These two currents, after ventilating the workings, joined at the bottom of the staple pit sunk from the Two Foot Nine to the Four Foot Seam and passed in one current to the top of the staple and down it. The staple was 78 yards deep from the Four Foot Polka to the Six Foot Seam. It then went to the bottom of the upcast Middle Pit and then to the fan.

The Inspector had instructed that four inspections should have been made by the assistant Inspector between 13th April 1878 and 6th August. Inspections were made on the 13th and 27th April but no gas was found. On the 13th June, the Two Foot Mine and the Four Foot Seams were inspected and gas was found in both districts which were cleared in two or three days. The condition of the ventilation was considered in relation to the Coal Mines Act, 1872, by the Inspectors and proceedings were instituted against Mr. Chubb, the manager for a break of the First General Rule. Another inspection was made on the 6th. August and an accumulation of gas was found on the extreme south of the workings in the Six Foot Seam. The temperature was also high and the Inspector pointed out that this was due to the depth, 1,700 to 800 feet. He said that the ventilation should be increased. Mr. James said that the gas had been cleared out of the South end of the Six Foot workings and that steps had been taken to increase the ventilation throughout the colliery.

The pit employed 400 men and boys of whom not quite half worked in the Six Feet Seam and the remainder worked in the Four Foot Seam. After the day shift had finished and the colliers were leaving the pit, the night workers were going to do repairs to the working places, clear rubbish and other work that was required. Sixty men and two hitchers were working at the bottom of the shaft in all. The pumping engineer was stationed in the No.3 heading, about 300 yards from the bottom of the main shaft.

At twenty minutes to eleven, the engineer, John Burton, heard a crash at the mouth of the pit and on going out, saw that a heavy iron cap that diverted the air through the tunnel into the fan had been blown up into the pit head and was fixed there. The banksmen, William Taylor and William Webber, had also been blown from their places, directly afterwards came the sound of a deep reverberation followed by a cloud of dense, sulphurous vapours.

The manager, Samuel Hughes, and overman Chubb were sent for and the engineman ran back to engine house and made an attempt to raise the cage but it was stuck in shaft. The news spread rapidly and within a few hours the managers of surrounding collieries, Mr. Hoed of Llwynpia Colliery, Mr. Daniel Thomas and Mr. Curnew of Bute Colliery, Mr. D.D. Evans of the Ferndale Colliery and other owners gathered at the colliery to offer their help.

There were dense volumes of gas coming from the upcast shaft and it was useless to try to get to the men below, even so, the exploring parties lost no time in going down the downcast shaft and making their way to upcast. When they arrived at a point where the air was taken between strata from Four Foot workings to six Foot workings, they found that there had been a heavy fall which had completely blocked Eight Yard Staple. Going further on, they found that doors which opened to upcast shaft were blown down so that air current was passing directly from the downcast to upcast shaft, leaving bottom working completely without air. The condition of air in the mine could be gauged from a comment of one of the engineers, “that no man could put his nose three inches below the level in shaft without being suffocated.” It was not known whether the fall over the Staple was the cause of the explosion or a consequence but there was no evidence to show that blast had come from that way from workings below. All rescue efforts at this time were to get new tubes of sufficient size to take the air from staple into the workings below.

When Mr. Wales, the Inspectors, heard of disaster, he was at the inquest into Abercarne explosion and reached colliery at 11.30 a.m. with his assistant, Mr. Galloway. After finding the staple pit blocked, he went down Lower Pit to Polka landing and the Middle Pit. There was little hope of anyone being left alive in workings but there was hope for some of men in more remote workings of the mine.

At the inquiry, an eyewitness account of the explosion was related to court by an engineman named Morgan. He said:

I was taken to my work on Monday afternoon at a quarter past four o’clock and engine under my care was situated in an old working 100 yards from the surface along the Polka shaft, 15 to 16 yards from the shaft. Shortly after 10 o’clock, I oiled my engine by the light of my lamps there being three burners in shaft. About twenty-five minutes past ten, I sat down on a box near one of the lamps and was amusing myself reading – I generally take one or two papers or periodicals with me as I have not much to do – when I heard a loud report. Almost immediately the two air doors between which I was placed were blown down and one of them fell on me and knocked me several yards along the shaft. I fell on some iron pipes sustaining serious injuries to my right leg. I must have remained stupefied for some time. When I came to I scrambled up. I could feel no pain then and groped about for my lamps all of which had been extinguished. I could not find them but managed to get hold of the knocker, with which I signalled to the top for the cage.

All this time and in fact as long as I was in the pit, there was a humming sound in my ears and a shivering in the air and besides this, the shaft was filled with a thick cloud of coal dust blown from the old workings which I could taste and feel though I could not see it. I had no idea of the locality of the accident but I had no doubt that a serious one had occurred. I was convinced that many lives would be lost as no sound came from the hitchers at the bottom of the pit. I listened attentively but could hear nothing but a distant rumbling and from that, I gathered that there had been a heavy fall at the bottom. I was rescued between one and two o’clock in the morning. The delay occurred in relieving me from my position owing to the cage having caught in the gearing at the top of the pit, and the men being unable to get it to work. I had myself found one of the guides broken so I had made up my mind to be left for some hours in the pit. I thought I was out of reach of the afterdamp so that I was not uneasy. I do not know much about collieries having recently returned from the Australian mines but I have always been used to the surface and I shall stick to that in future. I may tell you that it is not in accordance with the rules for an engine driver to be at work by myself but the fact that no one was with me could not possibly have anything to do with the accident.

Relays of men tried to restore the ventilation. They were under the direction of competent engineers who pushed the work forward as safely as they dared. The fall over the 80 Yard staple was a serious matter and it was found necessary to timber the place and erect mechanical appliances to raise the rubbish which choked it. Attempts were made to get to the bottom of the upcast shaft and a party went down of Wednesday afternoon including Mr. C. H. James, the consulting engineer of the Company, Mr H. Lewis of Treherbert, Mr. William Davies of Coedcae, Mr. J. Habbard of Mountain Ash and Mr. T. Davies of the Tylacock Collieries. They were able to get with 15 to 20 yards of the landing. At the bottom of the shaft, they found that the air was improved and they could see the old cage fixed in the debris. There was no air current and they could see no one, living or dead. The walls of the shaft had been blown down and stones wee galling all the time. There was little hope of anyone being left alive but at the time it was thought that the explosion had not extended through the whole of the Six Foot workings and some men might be alive who could be reached in a few days.

The efforts of the rescue parties were rewarded when Mr. Wales went to the colliery and cheered up the men who were working. Colonel Hunt, had been at the mine from Tuesday, directed his agents to help the suffering and distress of the bereaved families.

From the 14th to the 23rd January, every possible effort was made to reach the workings from the Middle Pit but due to the wrecking of the bottom of the shaft and the fact that large quantities of gas were encountered, it was quite impossible to proceed. At noon on the 23rd, a consultation among the mining engineers took place and it was decided to suspend operations in the Middle Pit and work was concentrated to clear the staple and restore the ventilation. The work was very slow and only a small portion of the mine was opened at the time of the inquiry and 63 bodies recovered.

The men who died were:

  • William Lloyd aged 20 years, night fireman.
  • Thomas Watkins aged 34 years, night fireman.
  • Stephen Williams aged 37 years, timberman.
  • William Cross aged 31 years, timberman.
  • Charles Penny aged 34 years, timberman.
  • William Jones aged 26 years, timberman.
  • Robert Chubb aged 30 years, timberman.
  • Evan Jenkins aged 16 years, haulier.
  • David Thomas aged 34 years, haulier.
  • William Williams aged 28 years, haulier.
  • Daniel Dunn aged 34 years, haulier.
  • James Edwards aged 17 years, haulier.
  • Edward Rees aged 19 years, haulier.
  • William Roberts aged 28 years, haulier.
  • John Edwards aged 20 years, haulier.
  • Daniel Morley aged 18 years, haulier.
  • Joseph Evans aged 18 years, haulier.
  • Lewis Williams aged 33 years, haulier.
  • Edward Sullivan aged 30 years.
  • Daniel Dunworth aged 30 years.
  • Daniel Smith aged 49 years.
  • Evan John aged 34 years.
  • James Harris aged 33 years.
  • Thomas Richards aged 26 years.
  • Thomas Jenkin Holmes aged 40 years.
  • Henry Hayter aged 22 years.
  • William Jenkins aged 35 years, hitcher.
  • John Griffiths aged 30 years, hitcher.
  • Evan Davies aged 52 years, lamp station man.

The labourers:

  • Charles Westlake aged 52 years.
  • Henry Taylor aged 30 years.
  • George Sutton aged 35 years.
  • Elisha Upjohn aged 51 years.
  • River Jordan aged 51 years.
  • John Hawkins aged 48 years.
  • Samuel Pryor aged 39 years.
  • Thomas Roberts aged 59 years.
  • Charles Wheadon aged 24 years.
  • William Griffiths aged 50 years.
  • Isaac Martin aged 24 years.
  • John Romseville aged 39 years.
  • David Hughes aged 34 years.
  • David Rees aged 28 years.
  • Octavius Whealdon aged 40 years.
  • James Bowen aged 45 years.
  • John Landregan aged 26 years.
  • John Lewis aged 49 years.
  • Frank Moore aged 26 years.
  • Samuel Romseville aged 37 years.
  • Henry Williams aged 28 years.
  • Edward Davies aged 20 years.
  • Robert Emery aged 29 years.
  • John Jenkins aged 30 years.
  • Richard Howells aged 31 years.
  • William Richards aged 18 years.
  • Thomas Hughes aged 30 years.
  • Thomas Rees aged 21 years.
  • David Jenkins aged 27 years.
  • John Griffiths aged 21 years.
  • William Williams aged 22 years.
  • William Evans aged 27 years.
  • James Rossin aged 26 years.
  • Charles Meade aged 22 years.

The Inspector examined that part of the colliery that had been opened and he came to the conclusion that the explosion had occurred in Morris’ heading or cross measure drift from the Six Foot to the Four Foot. The ventilation was taken there by three iron pipes, 12 inches in diameter which the force of the explosion had twisted into every conceivable shape. About 70 yards in a straight line with the cross measures there were many signs of fire, many more than in any other part of the colliery that was inspected. This evidence led Mr. Wales to his conclusion as to the source of the explosion.

The cross measure drift was about 150 yards long, rising at 1 in 7 or 8. All the air came into the place through three 12 inch pipes which the Inspector thought were totally inadequate. He also thought that this was where the gas had accumulated but he could not say how the gas ignited. Shot firing was prohibited in the mine but he thought that if gas had accumulated that sooner or later it would be ignited. According to the Inspector, the primary cause of the explosion was the use of the ventilation pipes. This mode of ventilation was common at the time and Mr. Wales stated that the hoped that the practice would be abandoned.

The inquest into the disaster was held on the few bodies that had been recovered and was conducted by Mr. E. Bernard Reece, Coroner. The point was made that the colliery was left without a certificated manager. Mr. Hughes who was appointed at the temporary manager until a certificated manager could be appointed but the manager said he had taken steps to remove the gas.  When Chubb was appointed as the overman of the Middle Pit, it meant that their positions were reversed.

Evidence was given that there was nothing wrong until 11th December when gas was reported daily until 19th December when Mr. James inspected the place and advanced the ventilation with another row of pipes. The work was completed on the 26th December was the men were allowed to go back to work when the gas was cleared. Gas was not seen in the pit until 12th January when a blower was seen by Mr. Miles, the fireman, in his district.

The explosion occurred on the night of the 13th January and some of the witnesses thought the charges of Morgan Rowlands against Chubb had nothing to do with the present case as they occurred 15 months before the disaster.

Mr. Rowlands was called to give evidence on this point. He had sent a letter to Mr. Hunt because of his concern about what Chubb was doing at the colliery. In his opinion, if matters continued, there would be an explosion. He did not know if Chubb was guilty of negligence in this case but he certainly was guilty of negligence in June 1878 when his certificate was suspended.

Mr. James said that Hughes was appointed manager to consult with Chubb and himself but Chubb was accountable for the expenses at the colliery. It became a matter for the jury to decide whether Hughes was really appointed as manager and had sufficient power to manager the mine safely and to meet the requirements of the act. To do this the jury was referred to the evidence of Samuel Hughes.

Hughes said Mr. James told him that he was responsible for the safety of the mine in accordance with the Act and the Mr. Wood, Colonel Hunt’s manager at the Cardiff Office, told him that Chubb was the older man and that he must not do anything without consultation with Chubb. Hughes told the court that he thought he had full power to countermand anything that Chubb had ordered to be done if he thought it dangerous.

It was an important point on which the jury had to decide. Mr. Wales said:

If they were of the opinion that the Mines Regulation Act had not been complied with, then both the owners and the agent could be rendered criminally responsible for the accident occurring in not appointing a proper manager.

If Hughes stated the truth of the difference of opinion between Chubb with regard to the gas accumulation so that there was negligence they would both be equally liable.

John Ace, fireman, stated that there had been gas in Morris’ heading for several days between 26th and 28th December. He stated:

I reported gas in John Morris’ heading on the 11th December. The ventilation was increased by brattice across the landing and a row of ventilation pipes. There was no blasting in the mine.

Gas was again found on the 19th December and was again cleared with brattice and air pipes. Lewis Jones, collier, Phillip Wyld and Thomas Llewellyn were chosen by the men to make an inspection of the mine and reported his findings to the Committee of Colliers who appointed two men every month to make an inspection. He reported in a written report that the mine clear of gas.

Mr. Wales did not think there had been an outburst of gas and if gas had accumulated there was negligence by Mr. Chubb, Mr. Ace and Mr. Hughes. He also stated his opinion that air pipes were not sufficient ventilation.

The jury retired and brought in the following verdict:

That the deaths of John Griffiths and William Jenkins occurred through an explosion of gas at the Dinas Colliery and that the explosion was accidental and it was believed on the evidence adduced that it occurred through a sudden outburst of gas in or near Morris’ level.

At the same time we strongly censure the course adopted by the colliery authorities in placing John Chubb nominally overman but really part manager after his certificate had been suspended through incompetence in conducting the management of the said colliery.

Mr. Wales concluded his report:

It is with deep regret that John Chubb, who only two months before the explosion, had been found guilty of incompetence and of gross negligence in the management of this very colliery, and had his certificate suspended should have been appointed to act, ostensibly as overman but fro the evidence adduced really acted as manager thus practically ignoring the judgement from the court-appointed by The Right Honourable Home Secretary under Section 32 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872.

 

REFERENCES
Mines Inspector Report, 1879.
Colliery Guardian, 17th January 1879, p.64, 2nd May 1879, p.706, 6th June 1879, p.896, 18th July 1879, p.99
”And they worked us to death” Vol.1. 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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