Welsh National Mining Memorial, Senghenydd

The Welsh National Mining Memorial at Senghenydd, unveiled on 14 October 2013, a hundred years after 439 men and boys died at the Universal Colliery. A bronze of one miner leading another to safety stands in a garden whose path of memory has a ceramic tile for each of Wales's 152 mining disasters.

The mining history in this record

The Universal Colliery at Senghenydd worked from 1893 to 1928. An explosion there in 1901 killed 81 men, and the explosion of 14 October 1913 killed 439, the worst disaster in British mining history. A memorial to both was unveiled at the gates of Nant-y-Parc Primary School in 1981, and another followed in 2006.

For the centenary the village made a national memorial. The bronze sculpture by Les Johnson shows a miner leading another to safety; around it Stephanie Wilkins laid out a garden with a wall of remembrance and a path of memory, in which a ceramic tile records each of the 152 mining disasters in Wales, its date and its dead. It was unveiled on 14 October 2013.

People

Les Johnson, sculptor. Stephanie Wilkins, landscape architect.

Legacy today

In March 2024 Cadw registered the garden at Grade II as a park and garden of special historic interest, describing it as an important site of public commemoration and memory.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The National Mining Memorial was unveiled at Senghenydd on 14 October 2013, the centenary of the Universal Colliery disaster. (documented fact) ^1,2,3
• It commemorates the 439 killed at Universal Colliery in 1913 and the 81 killed in 1901, and the dead of all 152 mining disasters in Wales. (documented fact) ^1,3
• Its bronze sculpture by Les Johnson shows a miner leading another to safety; the garden, by Stephanie Wilkins, has a remembrance wall and a path of memory with a ceramic tile for each disaster. (documented fact) ^1,3
• Earlier memorials to the Universal Colliery disasters were unveiled in 1981, at the gates of Nant-y-Parc Primary School, and in 2006. (documented fact) ^1,2
• In March 2024 Cadw added the garden at Grade II to its Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. (documented fact) ¹

Mines

• Universal Colliery — Caerphilly
  The memorial garden stands at Senghenydd for the 1901 and 1913 Universal Colliery disasters and for every mining disaster in Wales.

Disasters

• Senghenydd colliery disaster, 1901 — 24 May 1901
• Senghenydd colliery disaster, 1913 — 14 October 1913

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh National and Universal Mining Disaster Memorial Garden — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) National Mining Memorial, Senghenydd — People's Collection Wales
3. (secondary) Welsh National and Universal Mining Memorial Garden, Senghenydd — Visit Caerphilly

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026