THREE hundred men and boys from the Abersychan area set off for work at the Llanerch Colliery on the morning of February 6 1890. Fewer than half would return from their shift.
Before 9 o'clock, a huge explosion tore through the mine. The shockwave was so great, it could be felt for miles around. Boys as young as 12 years old are known to have lost their lives in the disaster.
One eyewitness, WB Witchell, told our sister title, The Pontypool Free Press, how he was close by and rushed to the colliery: “As soon as I heard of the catastrophe I went at once to the scene of the explosion.
"Such a scene I never saw before, and hope never to see again. Such a terrible stroke which has been duly brought before our notice by you, and the tremendous sorrow and affliction brought to scores of homes no words can possibly express.”
The manager of the colliery, Joseph Morgan, led a team of rescuers and told how he went to the colliery at around 6am on the morning of the explosion with men from Abersychan. He began to descend the pit with a group of miners, but was called back. He had spoken with another group led by a man named Henry Hillier; these men were all to perish in the subsequent tragedy.
After the blast had ripped through the underground workings, John Morgan fought his way underground where he witnessed a scene of unimaginable carnage. They first found an unconscious man called Tom Langley. The rescue party dragged him back to the shaft, while another man named Jenkins was taken to the pit bottom.
“I found John Beard had been dragged from the bottom of the pit and put to sit in a little airway, his foot was cut off and he was bleeding very freely. I tied a scarf round his leg, putting pressure upon the artery to stop the flow of blood," said John Morgan.
He described seeing “affecting mementoes of the dead”, and how ripped clothing was left by “poor fellows who fled for dear life”.
They walked down Cook’s Slope to reach the casualties. “It was here that the destruction was most severe,” John Morgan said. As they proceeded, they were still engulfed by flames he recalled.
The days and weeks which followed that terrible day were filled with funerals, memorials and an inquest at Pontypool Town Hall into what had caused the mining disaster.
It was heard there was a strong feeling amongst the miners against the use of ‘locked’ or safety lamps. Several nearby mines - Cwmbran, Tranch, Pontnewynydd and the British - were all worked by ‘naked lights’ which, at the time, was commonplace. The Meadow Vein coal seam at Llanerch was also worked by naked lights; it was said at the time that the men did not think the use of locked lamps necessary.
The jury then had to decide on causes of death of the men "either killed on the spot or who died subsequently". It was found that they had died “in consequence of an explosion of inflammable gas in Cook’s Slope, Meadow Vein seam, Llanerch Colliery.”
The jurors did not blame the mine owners, who believed the mine was safe for working with naked lights, and that “such belief was then reasonable”.
The local authority, which was called the Abersychan Local Board at the time, paid tribute to those who had risked their own lives to save others: “those brave men who, at the risk of their lives, so promptly descended the Llanerch Pit, almost immediately after the explosion, and continued to do so till all the bodies were recovered”.
“Our streets have been emptied of the flower and the youth of our male population, the average age of those lost by the accident being under 27 years.”
In 2015, following a service for the 125th anniversary of the disaster, an idea came about to create a permanent memorial to the disaster.
The Friends of the Llanerch Memorial Fund was founded, which raised around £16,000 for the monument.
The first part of the memorial, a plinth with the names of those killed engraved in stainless steel in front of the former shaft at the pit, was unveiled in September 2019. It also features the names of the five who died at the nearby Glyn Pits explosion 10 days earlier in January 1890.
The final part of the memorial was then installed in October 2020 and features oak sculptures created by carver, Chris Wood.
The poignant sculptures depict miners working the coal seam, the explosion, families gathering around the pit waiting for news and finally the identifying of the perished and the carrying of a body home.
Today, people will gather at the site to remember a time when simply going to work could prove fatal, and a disaster which shattered an entire community.
- This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.
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