Cymmer Colliery explosion

The Cymmer Colliery explosion occurred in the early morning of 15 July 1856 at the Old Pit mine of the Cymmer Colliery near Porth (lower Rhondda Valley), Wales, operated by George Insole & Son. The underground gas explosion resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country"^[1]: 141 in which 114 men and boys were killed. Thirty-five widows, ninety-two children, and other dependent relatives were left with no immediate means of support.

Cymmer Colliery explosion

Cymmer Colliery c. 1905
Cymmer Old Pit mine Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales
Date	15 July 1856 (1856-07-15)
Location	Cymmer Colliery near Porth, Wales
Coordinates	51.6107°N 3.408°W / 51.6107; -3.408
Type	Underground gas explosion
Cause	Defective mine ventilation and the use of naked flames underground
Deaths	114 men and boys
Inquiries	Coroner's inquest: July 1856
Coroner	George Overton
Accused	Jabez Thomas (mine manager), Rowland Rowlands (overman), Morgan Rowlands (fireman), David Jones (fireman), William Thomas (fireman)
Charges	Manslaughter
Trial	Glamorgan Assizes: March 1857, judge Baron Watson
Verdict	All defendants were acquitted

The immediate cause of the explosion was defective mine ventilation and the use of naked flames underground. Factors contributing to the explosion included the rapid development of the mine to meet increased demand for coal, poor mine safety practices allowed by management despite official warnings, and deteriorating working relationships between miners and management.

After the explosion, mine owner James Harvey Insole and his officials were accused of "neglecting the commonest precautions for the safety of the men and the safe working of the colliery".^[2]: 2 At the coroner's inquest into the deaths, Insole deflected responsibility onto his mine manager Jabez Thomas and the jury brought a charge of manslaughter against Thomas and the four other mine officials. To the outrage of the local mining communities, the subsequent criminal proceedings resulted in the exoneration of the mine officials from any blame for the disaster.

The Cymmer Colliery disaster influenced the introduction of mine safety improvements including legislation for improved mine ventilation and the use of safety lamps, employment of children, and qualifications of mine officials. The tragedy highlighted the need for a workable compensation scheme for miners and their dependents to reduce their reliance on public charity after such disasters.

Background

George Insole and his son James Harvey Insole purchased the Cymmer Colliery in 1844. In 1847 they sank the No. 1 Pit which, after 1853, became known as the Cymmer Old Pit. James Insole took control of the business on his father's death in 1851.^[3][4]

Between 1852 and 1855, HM Inspector of Mines Herbert Francis Mackworth inspected the colliery twice and sent letters to Insole recommending safety improvements, in particular to the mine's underground ventilation system and the use of safety lamps underground.^[3][5]

Colliers (miners) relied on the colliery firemen's daily reports of gas hazards before entering the mine. In 1854, mine manager Jabez Thomas summarily dismissed two experienced firemen and appointed two others from outside the colliery. The workmen complained to Insole they had no confidence in these replacements. The men's refusal to work under the new firemen, and Insole's insistence on exercising his "authority to dismiss or employ those whom I please, without consulting any body of men",^[3]: 133 led to a twenty-two week miners' strike. Financial loss and threat of legal action eventually compelled the men to return to work under the new firemen.^[a][3]

By the mid-1800s, the Rhondda variety of coal was in high demand as a coking coal.^[6]: 48 The Crimean War created additional demand for coal, and in 1855 Insole intensified his mining operations at the Old Pit, doubling the number of colliers and increasing the mine area by over a third.^[3] Welsh historian E. D. Lewis concluded that,

It was the success of [the Cymmer Old Pit mine] when developed with such inordinate speed and recklessness by [George Insole's] son, James Harvey Insole, that led directly to the terrible mining disaster of 1856.^[3]: 123

Explosion

Two thrusters and a trapper (who worked the ventilation doors, usually boys) in a UK coal mine about 1853

On Tuesday, 15 July 1856, 160 men and boys descended the Old Pit mine shaft to commence their 6:00 a.m. shift. As they made their way to their workplaces underground, there was an explosion of gas near the mine entrance which trapped the colliers already deeper in the mine. It was three hours before rescuers could reach the site. They found that many of the colliers had congregated in groups to die together as they ran out of air. By that evening, 112 bodies had been recovered, another was brought up the next day, and a severely burnt collier died the following day.^[3][7][8] In his report to the Secretary of State for the year 1856, Mines Inspector Mackworth described the disaster as "the most lamentable and destructive explosion which had ever occurred in any colliery either in this country or abroad".^[5]: 118

Inquest

The coroner's inquest into the deaths began on 16 July 1856 in Porth before the North Glamorgan coroner George Overton and a jury of eighteen. It was adjourned to allow the jurors to view the bodies and reconvened eleven days later in Pontypridd. Twenty-nine witnesses were called. The evidence indicated that the explosion resulted from defective mine ventilation and the use of naked flames underground, (Note: both the Davy lamp and Geordie lamp safety lamps had been invented in 1815, and widely used in mines at the time) despite warnings having been sent to the mine owner by Mackworth.^[2][5] He told the inquest that "the explosion arose from the persons in charge of the pit neglecting the commonest precautions for the safety of the men and the safe working of the colliery".^[2]: 2

The inquest determined that, apart from the collier who died later of burns, all the deaths were the result of "suffocation, caused by the post-explosion effects of afterdamp or methane poisoning".^{[3]: 138–139} Among the 114 victims, thirty-four were boys under the age of sixteen and another fifteen were under the age of twelve. Insole, the mine owner, walked free from the inquest after claiming he took "no part in management"^[9] of the mine. The mine manager, Jabez Thomas, and the mine's officials, Rowland Rowlands (overman), Morgan Rowlands (fireman), David Jones (fireman), and William Thomas (fireman), were charged with manslaughter for negligence causing the deaths of 114 men.^[2][3][10]

Cymmer Colliery explosion victims as reported on 26 July 1856^[8]

#	Surname	Forename	Age	Condition	Reported description
1	Evans	Matthew	66	suffocated	married
2	Evans	Philip	22	burnt
3	David	Jenkin	32	suffocated
4	Daniel	David	25	suffocated	married
5	Lewis	Thomas	30	burnt	married
6	Hugh	Evan	24	suffocated	brother of John (18) and William (14), the three brothers and Thomas Lewis (30) lodged in the house of Lewis Powell who was unable to go to work that morning from having a day or two before accidentally hurt his arm
7	Hugh	John	18	suffocated
8	Hugh	William	14	suffocated
9	Griffiths	Peter	15	suffocated
10	Griffiths	Henry	13	burnt	this poor little fellow was literally charred
11	Powell	David	13	suffocated
12	Llewellyn	William	33	suffocated	wife and three children
13	Jenkins	Rees		suffocated and bruised	brother of John (18) and David (10)
14	Jenkins	John	18	suffocated
15	Jenkins	David	10	suffocated
16	Thomas	David	29	suffocated and bruised
17	Isaac	John	17	suffocated
18	Martin	William	23	suffocated and bruised
19	Jones	Thomas	10	suffocated and bruised
20	Rees	Benjamin	42	burnt badly	leaving a wife and five children
21	Llewellyn	Thomas	28	burnt slightly	leaving a wife and four small children
22	Thomas	David	17	burnt badly	he supported his widowed mother
23	Salathiel	Jaconia	18	suffocated and bruised	brother of John (14)
24	Salathiel	John	14	suffocated and bruised
25	Lewis	Thomas	36	suffocated	wife and five children
26	Lewis	David	22	burnt badly
27	Davies	David	15	burnt	the mother of this lad depended upon his labour for her support
28	Thomas	John	18	burnt very badly
29	Callacott	William	12	suffocated
30	Howells	Edward	22	suffocated	brother of David (17), they kept their mother, a widow at Dinas
31	Howells	David	17	burnt
32	Hopkins	Thomas	26	burnt badly	wife and infant
33	John	Joseph	64	burnt	leaving a widow and several children all grown up
34	Morgan	John	15	suffocated
35	Rees	Thomas	36	suffocated	married
36	Evans	W	17	suffocated and bruised
37	Morgan	David	14	suffocated
38	Williams	Thomas	38	suffocated	wife and four children
39	Rees	Richard	27	suffocated	wife and one child
40	Davies	Thomas	45	suffocated	wife and four children depending upon him for support, his son William (12) died with him
41	Davies	William	12	suffocated
42	Davies	Thomas	46	burnt badly	leaving a widow and one child, his three sons William (16) Thos (13) David (10) also killed
43	Davies	William	16	burnt badly
44	Davies	Thos	13	burnt badly
45	Davies	David	10	burnt badly
46	John	Isaac	18	suffocated
47	Griffiths	George	18	burnt slightly
48	Rees	Aaron	23	suffocated	wife and one young child
49	Davies	William	28	burnt	leaving a wife and one child
50	Roberts	John	11	burnt
51	Matthews	Thomas	40	burnt	wife and six children
52	Williams	Thomas	40	burnt
53	Jones	Billy		burnt	a young orphan lad, inmate of the same house as Thomas Matthews (40) and Thomas Williams (40)
54	Thomas	Gomer	11	suffocated	kept his mother who is a widow, her husband having been killed at these works a short time ago
55	Jervis	Henry	18	burnt badly
56	Evans	John	16	burnt
57	Evans	John	12	suffocated
58	Thomas	Rees	16	burnt
59	Miles	Walter	17	suffocated	brother of Richard (10), the two brothers kept their mother. Their father was formerly a fireman at the colliery, but he and the other fireman apprehended danger. They were discharged and the whole of the colliers turned out in consequence. He left to seek a home for his family in Australia leaving strict injunctions during his absence for neither of the boys to work in this colliery or he should not find them alive when he came back or send for them to come out to him.
60	Miles	Richard	10	suffocated
61	Davies	Hezekiah	37	burnt	leaving a widow and two children
62	Davies	Thomas	11	burnt
63	Davies	Eli	10	suffocated
64	David	Morgan	18	suffocated
65	Miles	Matthew	11	suffocated
66	Morgan	Isaac	18	burnt	he supported his mother a widow
67	Morgan	David	23	suffocated
68	Lewis	Evan	26	burnt badly	leaving a widow and one child
69	Evans	Morgan	15	suffocated
70	Evans	Nathaniel	57	suffocated	wife and five children
71	Thomas	Daniel	21	burnt badly
72	Davies	Thomas	20	suffocated
73	Soloway	George	65	suffocated	wife and four children two of whom are grown up, his son Henry (13) also killed
74	Soloway	Henry	13	burnt
75	Phillips	Evan	45	suffocated	wife and 4 children
76	Thomas	W	19	burnt
77	Andrews	Thos	26	suffocated	wife and one child
78	James	Richard	15	suffocated
79	Morgan	Morgan	18	suffocated	brother of Enoch (15) and Thomas (12)
80	Morgan	Enoch	15	suffocated
81	Morgan	Thomas	12	burnt
82	Jones	Enoch	22	suffocated	brother of Henry (18)
83	Jones	Henry	18	suffocated
84	Lewis	Daniel	30	suffocated	leaving a widow and three children
85	Richards	David	34	burnt	wife and one child
86	Richards	Zacheniah	24	burnt slightly	wife and three children
87	Morgan	David	17	suffocated
88	Jenkins	William	40	suffocated	leaving a widow and three children, his son William (12) also killed
89	Jenkins	William	12	suffocated
90	Williams	William	28	burnt	wife and three small children
91	Rees	John	11	burnt badly
92	Morgan	Morgan	42	suffocated	wife and six children
93	Evans	Benjamin	14	suffocated
94	Williams	John	48	suffocated
95	Williams	Daniel	17	suffocated
96	Davies	Edward	10	suffocated
97	Edwards	Thomas	12	suffocated
98	Morgan	William	11	suffocated
99	John	David	37	suffocated	leaving a widow and three small children, his two sons John (11) and Lazarus (10) also killed
100	John	John	11	suffocated
101	John	Lazarus	10	suffocated
102	Williams	Thomas	15	burnt
103	Davies	Thomas	17	suffocated
104	Harris	David	15	suffocated
105	Rees	William	41	suffocated	leaving a widow and four children
106	Edmunds	Samuel	37	suffocated	leaving a widow and seven children, his son William (11) was clasped fast in his father's arms
107	Edmunds	William	11	suffocated
108	Haynes	William	12	suffocated
109	Lewis	Edward	37	burnt	wife and one child, his son Thomas (12) also killed
110	Lewis	Thomas	12	suffocated
111	Evans	William	46	suffocated	wife and one child, his son John (18) also killed
112	Evans	John	18	suffocated
113	Thomas	Llewellyn	13	burnt badly
114	Evans	Morgan	16	burnt badly	died the day after he was removed from the pit

Trial

At the Glamorgan Spring Assizes held in Swansea in March 1857, the judge, His Lordship Baron Watson, made his own position clear in his pre-trial address to the grand jury. Noting that the mine manager did not go underground, and that "no direct case of omission" had been brought against the other mine officials, he indicated that they could not be guilty of manslaughter.^[1]: 142 Nevertheless, the grand jury returned a "true bill" (indictment) against Jabez Thomas, Rowland Rowlands, and Morgan Rowlands, who were then tried on the charge of "having feloniously and wilfully killed and slain one William Thomas,^[b] on the 15th July, 1856".^[11] At the trial, it was reported that the judge made clear he sided with the defendants and thought the matter should not have come to court.^[12]

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury complied with the judge's directions to acquit the defendants.^[1] To the deep distress and anger of the local mining communities, the final result of the legal proceedings was that the mine owner and his officials were exonerated from all blame.^[3] However, E. D. Lewis' analysis of the disaster concluded that:

Possibly the legal processes of the time were insufficient to punish those who were culpable, but of the moral responsibility of owner and officials, even when judged against the background of their own time and place, there can be no question.^[3]: 153

Survivors

Gravestone of "three sons of Thomas and Catherine Morgan, namely Morgan aged 18 Yrs Enock 14 and Thomas 11 who died by the Great Explosion in the Cymmer Colliery July 15th 1856". They were buried in the Cymmer Independent Chapel graveyard.^[13]

Among the small local communities no household was left untouched, almost all the working-age men and boys having perished. Thirty graves were opened at the Cymmer Independent Chapel graveyard and the bodies of forty-eight victims were interred on 17 July 1856 in the presence of huge crowds (estimated at 15,000 people). Smaller numbers of burials occurred in other local communities, with "11 at Tonyrefail, nine at Ffrwd Amos, eight at the Dinas Methodist Chapel, and the rest at Pontypridd, Treforest, Coed Cymmer, Llantrissant, Llanharry, Bedwas, Trelanos, Brynmenyn, Wauntrodau, Llanwonno".^[8][3][7] Thirty-five widows, ninety-two children, and other dependent relatives were left with no immediate means of support.^[14] The court's verdict meant the Fatal Accidents Act 1846, which required compensation to be paid only when a mine manager or proprietor was held to have been at fault, did not apply.^[3]

However gross may have been the neglect which caused the husband's death, all interests are arrayed against the survivors. The colliers, the jury, the means of legal redress, are subject to the influence ... [of] the proprietor of the colliery. The cost of an administration, before an action can be commenced, and the difficulty of obtaining a solicitor who will undertake the odium and the risk, unite in forming an insuperable bar to the claim due to the widow and the fatherless, who, by the neglect or cupidity of others, have been plunged in one moment into the deepest affliction and most abject poverty.

Mines Inspector Mackworth's report to the Secretary of State, 1855^{[15]: 118–119}

The dependents of the victims of the disaster had to rely on public charity and "the final humiliation" of seeking poor relief.^{[3]: 160 [14]} Insole contributed £500 (approximately equivalent to £59,000 in 2023) to the Cymer Widows' and Orphans' Fund, set up shortly after the disaster, and undertook to meet the cost of the thirty graves.^[3][16] However, local coal owners also combined to deny work to those colliers who had given evidence against the mine officials at the inquest and trial.^[3][5] Laments were published and, marking the first anniversary of the disaster, a song was published under the patronage of Mrs Insole of Ely Court (Insole's wife) in aid of the relief fund.^[17][18][19]

Legacy

Described by Mines Inspector Thomas Evans as a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country",^[1]: 141 the Cymmer Colliery disaster of 1856 influenced future coal-mining practices, locally and nationally. After another gas explosion at the colliery in December 1856,^[20] the single-shaft Cymmer Old Pit and New Pit mines were linked to create a safer and better ventilated two-shaft arrangement. Although mechanical mine ventilators had been used in the Lower Rhondda from 1851, they were installed at the Cymmer Colliery in the mid-1870s. Also by the mid-1870s, the colliery management realised it was safer and cheaper to provide colliers with safety lamps. The Cymmer Old Pit was worked by the Insole company until the mine closed in 1939.^{[3][6]: 149–160}

More broadly, influenced by the number of children killed in the disaster, the Mines Regulation Act 1860 prohibited employment of boys under twelve years of age, unless they could read and write and were attending school for at least three hours a day on two days a week.^[3] Two-shaft mines were made compulsory by 1865. Mackworth's safety recommendations, sent to Insole in 1854 and including "that a qualified mining engineer and a sufficient number of competent subordinate officers and deputies should take complete charge of the machinery, ventilation, ways and works and watch over and provide for the safety of the workmen during the hours of labour",^[3]: 159 were passed in the Mines Act 1872. Following the Cymmer Colliery explosion, steps were taken to reduce the reliance on public charity in the case of fatal disasters by introducing comprehensive compensation schemes, but the first successful scheme did not emerge until 1881.^{[3][5][21][22]}

See also

• List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll

Notes

1. The two fireman at the centre of the 1854 strike were replaced in 1855.^[3]
2. Evidence given at the inquest indicates William Thomas (19) and his brother (13) were probably closest to the source of the explosion.^[3]

References

1. Evans, Thomas (1857). "X. Report of the Working of the Coal Mines Inspection Act (18 & 19 Vict. c. 108.) in the South Wales District". House of Commons Papers (Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines, to Her Majesty's Secretary of State to December 1856). XVI: 132–144.
2. "Cymmer Colliery Explosion". The Merthyr Telegraph. 23 August 1856. pp. 2 (quoted text at end of 'Wednesday' section), 4.
3. Lewis, E. D. (1976). "The Cymer (Rhondda) Explosion". Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion: 118–161. hdl:10107/1419644.
4. Lewis, E. D. (1976). "Pioneers of the Cardiff Coal Trade". Glamorgan Historian. 11: 22–52. Archived from the original on 11 November 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
5. Mackworth, Herbert (1857). "IX. Report of the Inspection of Coal Mines in the Southern District, during the Year ended 31st December 1856". House of Commons Papers (Reports of the Inspectors of Coal Mines, to Her Majesty's Secretary of State to December 1856). XVI: 109–131.
6. Lewis, E. D. (1959). The Rhondda Valleys. London: Phoenix House.
7. "[July] 15. Accident at the Cymmer Colliery near Ponypridd – 114 Lives Lost". The Annual Register, or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1856. London: F. & J. Rivington. 1857. pp. 138–139.
8. "Further Particulars of the Dreadful Explosion in the Rhondda Valley". The Merthyr Telegraph. 26 July 1856. p. 4. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
9. "[Not stated]". The Cambrian. 1 August 1856. Cited in Lewis (1976). p. 139.
10. "Insole, James Harvey (1821–1901), colliery proprietor". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
11. "The Cymmer Colliery Case". The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian. 7 March 1857. p. 6.
12. "The Cymmer Colliery Explosion". The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian. 25 April 1857. p. 8. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
13. "Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council. Notice of Intended Application to the Home Secretary for a Licence for the Removal of Human Remains from the Burial Ground at Cymmer Chapel, Cymmer, Porth". The Western Mail. 28 July 2004. Classified Advertising: Legal Notices.
14. "The Terrible Accident at Cymmer". The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian. 26 July 1856. p. 5. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
15. Mackworth, Herbert (1855). "VI. Report of the Working of the Coal Mines Inspection Act (13 & 14 Vict. c.100) in the Southern District, during the Half Year ended 31st December 1854". The Sessional Papers Printed by Order of the House of Lords, or Printed by Royal Command, in the Session 1854–5 (18 & 19 Victoriae) Arranged in Volumes. (Reports of Messrs. Dunn, Dickson, Morton, Williams, Wynne, and Mackworth, Inspectors of Coal Mines, to Her Majesty's Secretary of State). XXVI: 112–126.
16. "Public Meeting at Newbridge, in Aid of the Widows and Orphans, and Dependent Relatives of the Deceased". The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian. 26 July 1856. p. 5. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019.
17. Meirion, Ywain (1856). Galargerdd am y ddamwain ofnadwy, yr hon a fu ar y 15fed o Orphenaf, 1856, yn Ngwaith Glo Insole & Co., yn y Cymer, gerllaw Pontypridd, Sir Forganwg [A Lament for the Terrible Disaster, that Occurred on the 15th of July, 1856, at the Colliery of Insole & Co., in Cymmer, near Pontypridd, Glamorganshire] (in Welsh). Llanidloes: J. Mendus Jones. hdl:10107/1104044.
18. Hughes, Richard (1856). Galarus goffadwriaeth am y ddamwain arswydus a gymerodd le yng ngwaith Mr Insole, yn y Cymer, ar fore dydd Mawrth, Gorffennaf 15, 1856, pryd y taniodd y damp, a chollodd 114 o goliers eu bywydau [A Sad Memorial to the Terrible Accident that took place in the Works of Mr. Insole, in Cymmer, on the morning of Tuesday, 15 July 1856, when the Firedamp Ignited, and 114 Colliers Lost their Lives] (in Welsh). Merthyr: T. Howells. (National Library of Wales catalogue).
19. "For the Benefit of the Cymmer Colliery Accident Fund. The New Song, "There's No Dearth of Kindness"". The Monmouthshire Merlin. 18 July 1857. p. 1. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2020. (Located in lower half of column 1).
20. "Colliery Explosions". The Times. 12 December 1856. p. 7.
21. "The South-Wales Colliers' Provident Society". South Wales Daily News. 19 January 1881. p. 3.
22. "Monmouthshire and South Wales Provident Society of Miners". The Monmouthshire Merlin. 18 February 1881. p. 5.

Further reading

• "Dreadful Explosion in the Rhondda Valley". The Merthyr Telegraph. 19 July 1856. p. 2. (Early accounts of the disaster and its aftermath, lists of victims and inquest jurors)
• "Dreadful Colliery Explosion". The Monmouthshire Merlin. 19 July 1856. p. 5. (Summary of the disaster and its aftermath, alternative lists of victims and inquest jurors)
• Watson, Richard C. (1997). Rhondda Coal, Cardiff Gold: The Insoles of Llandaff, Coal Owners and Shippers. Cardiff: Merton Priory Press. pp. 42–55.
• "Cymmer Colliery Disaster". The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. 2008. p. 185. (Brief summary)

External links

• Cymmer Colliery (possibly showing the owner James Harvey Insole and family members)
• Family of James Harvey Insole
• Herbert Francis Mackworth
• Welsh Coal Mines