The Llanerch Colliery Disaster - 6 February 1890

During the early hours of Thursday 6th February 1890, a man named Henry Hillier awoke from a disturbing dream.  He was a young man, 31, not long married but he dreamt that he was dead and while being carried to his final place of rest he could hear a hymn being sung by mourners in the procession behind.  Mr Hillier awoke, being alarmed by the dream.  He also woke his wife who told him to go back to sleep, it was only a dream, it was nothing and he had to be up for work soon.  So he did, only for the dream to repeat, this time more vivid than before.  He awoke and told his wife again and this time recited two of the verses of the hymn.

7 a.m., at Llanerch Colliery about three hundred men descended to work.  Richard Ashman was the fire man.  He went around the mine workings and by 8 a.m. pronounced that all was fine.  Then, around fifty minutes later a violent explosion occurred, so loud it was heard for miles around.  On the surface, a witness described the banksman being shot up into the air like a stick.  The timber around the mine shaft collapsed, blocking up the entrance making descent impossible.

News spread of the explosion.  It wasn't long before hundreds of men, women and children from neighbouring villages, Abersychan, Cwmffrwdoer, Talywain, Snatchwood, Garndiffaith etc, came running to the pit.  Some offered to assist in the rescue.  The crowd would stay all night in the bitter cold, hoping and praying their loved ones had survived.

The first party of rescuers entered the mine through the water pit.  Relief gangs had also been put on standby for those exhausted or overcome by gas.  Falls of roof continued through the day further endangering the rescue attempt. Owen Morgan was the first man discovered, semi unconscious he was only slightly injured. The rescuers continued along the workings cautiously.  Four more bodies were found, burned and badly mutilated, one so much he was not recognisable.  The discoveries began to take effect on the rescuers.  One broke down when he was the first to find his brother.

By early afternoon the rescue party had reached a point adjacent to Cook's Slope, the point of the explosion.  At 4 p.m. one hundred and ten men were sent to the surface alive, though with serious injuries. Some didn't survive.  John Beard was brought out alive, minus his leg but later died in the fan engine house, a temporary mortuary.

Once the rescuers reached Cooks Slope, no one else was found alive.  They met with the the wreckage of doors blown off mingled with mutilated corpses.  Some were legless, some armless and most burned so much they could barely be recognised.  The only consolation for the rescuers was knowing their deaths were instant.  No one could have survived a blast so ferocious.

Through the night, large fires were lit to enable the banksman to carry on working.  There were few women present at this point, the task of identifying the dead fell to the men.  By 5 a.m., the following day, one hundred bodies had been recovered.  They were brought to the surface piled into empty trams, not brought out singly, to have done so would have prolonged the operation and prolonged the misery of those anxiously waiting on top.  So trams were brought, filled with corpses, needing a dozen men to wheel them from the cage, such was the weight.

At the mortuary a crowd gathered.  One man had been waiting for hours, asking the same question - 'Have you found Sam yet?'  For hours he received the same negative reply.  Then, at last, he was called in. Witnesses recalled his wails as he identified his son's body.  He left the mortuary, wringing his hands and led his son's stretcher bearers to his home.

The scene was repeated, over and over, bodies identified, stretchered to wagons then taken home.  Some refused to claim bodies, not believing an unidentifiable, shapeless mass could be their relative.

Newspaper reporters arrived quickly.  Accounts of families and heroism were recorded along with the rescue effort.  The Bridges family of Snatchwood, for example, lost a father, three sons and a son in law. Charles Langley left a wife and ten children all under working age.  In River Row, Abersychan, thirteen houses had eighteen victims.  During the rescue, a boy aged about fifteen had been found on his knees, palms of his hands together as if praying.  In that posture he stayed, having to be straightened out for his coffin. William Reed had waited to put on his coat and search for his boy.  Had he been quicker he would have made it out.  Both he and his son were found clinging to each other.  His widow had previously been married to another miner, killed at Abercarn.  Richard Ashman, the fire man, escaped with few injuries but his three sons, his son in law and his grandson, all died.

Joseph Morgan the manager, was hailed as a hero.  He had been working on the same seam though not the same slope.  He felt weight pressing into his ears at the time of the explosion and a rushing wave of air.  He and eleven men ran to the bottom of the shaft. where three were unconscious.  Men were running around wildly.  He managed to calm them and begin a search.  Anyone they found unconscious they brought to cleaner air.  He eventually managed to signal the surface and was rescued along with the others.  Once on top he returned back into the pit to help with the rescue.

In total, one hundred and seventy six men and boys were killed.  Queen Victoria sent her condolences to the families and a relief fund was set up, the Lord Mayor of London was asked to receive subscriptions at Mansion House. The inquest ruled the explosion was caused by the men using naked lights.  No one in management was found responsible.  No one was fined.  Llanerch Colliery re opened on 19th February 1890

As for Henry Hillier, the hymn he had heard in his dream was sang at his funeral, and his story reported to a newspaper by his widow.

The Llanerch Colliery Explosion depicted in the Illustrated London News showing the dead being brought home.

Sources - Cardiff Times 8th February 1890

                Weekly Mail  15th February 1890

Read more about POntypool in Victorian times in my book 'Victorian Pontypool' available in paperback from Amazon or as a download to Kindle.



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