Senghenydd Colliery Disaster
In October 1913, a small community in South Wales experienced the worst coal mining disaster in UK history
The history of UK mining is lined with disasters, with the blood of thousands of miners soaking coal over the years. Workers’ safety was often low on the priorities for colliery owners, and in 1913 the worst disaster ever to be inflicted on the UK mining industry highlighted this perhaps more than ever.
The Universal Colliery in Senghenydd first mined coal in 1896 and had two shafts. These were the downcast Lancaster and upcast York, both were almost 600 metres deep. Names of certain areas of the colliery were influenced by the Boer War, which was ongoing during the early years of the pit. Pretoria was a significant place in the war and the name of a section of workings.
The South Wales coal mine boomed through the early 1900s, and by 1913 it employed 250,000 people. The same year, the colliery (which was located just a few miles away from Caerphilly), produced 1800 tonnes of coal a day. A disaster in France in 1906 killed 1000 miners, and was the result of firedamp, a flammable gas found in coal mines.
This was a concern to bosses in the UK, and improvements to safety were passed in the Coal Mines Act 1911. Amongst these were works to improve ventilation fans in collieries so that they were able to reverse air out of the pit. A deadline of January 1913 was set for mines to complete this work, a deadline that was extended until September 1913 for the Senghenydd pit- a deadline that was missed, with disastrous consequences. October 14 would be a day that would change the small town forever.
At 3am, the firemen went down underground to carry out their safety checks for gas. They were given three hours to do this before the morning shift got to work, and at an area called the Mafeking workings, the firemen had to walk two miles to get to the bottom of the shaft. This didn’t leave enough time to carry out the gas checks, which involved hovering a flame into a cavity to see if it expanded. There were other tests, but management considered these to be too ‘time-consuming’.
By 6am, 950 miners had descended underground for a shift that was due to finish at 2pm. At 8am, a huge explosion took place deep underground, the destruction of which was increased through the coal dust igniting as it rose from the face. A shock wave followed the initial explosion, which is believed to have been started by a spark from electrical signalling equipment igniting the firedamp.
These explosions were horrific and had so much power that the cage in the Lancaster shaft was blown back up to the surface and into the winding gear. A worker standing nearby was killed by flying debris from the gear.
Fire spread around the pit workings and the firedamp helped to spread it quicker. Miners who escaped the initial explosion were suffocated by the poisonous gases. Rescue teams from Senghenydd were joined by colleagues from other South Wales collieries, but rescue efforts were hindered by wreckage and fire.
At the surface, worried family members gathered at the pit head, anxiously awaiting to see if their loved one would emerge from underground alive. Men and boys were found alive in the rubble, and each survivor was greeted with a cheer. Yet the rescue efforts went on for three weeks, and the number of dead bodies brought from underground soon overtook survivors.
When the efforts were called off, it was tallied that 439 miners and one rescue worker had been killed in the disaster. An estimated 1000 people were left bereaved by the horrific incident in South Wales, and people wanted answers as to how and why so many men and boys were killed in this way.
An inquiry into the disaster discovered faults at the colliery that could be easily placed at the feet of owners and management. A fine was handed down to the colliery chiefs that came to just £24. This in modern terms is the equivalent of six pence per miner lost in the explosion- the bleak truth of how much the workers meant to their bosses.
The colliery was back in full working order by November 1913 and was back to full production by 1916. However, the colliery would only remain open for another 11 years when in 1927 the pit closed with just a day’s notice- a final insult to years of unappreciation of hundreds of workers.
Senghenydd Colliery is a reminder of the dangers of coal mining, but also of how little management cared for the men and boys who toiled deep underground for their benefit. In 1901, 12 years before the major disaster, the colliery was hit with an explosion that killed 81 miners- on this occasion, just one survivor was pulled from the rubble.
The history of the UK coal mining industry is lined with disasters, but none had a more devasting loss of life than at Senghenydd in 1913. The contempt for human life by management was never made more clear than with this disaster, and 440 men and boys paid the ultimate price for this.
