Bedwellty Pits Explosion, 1865

An explosion at the No. 1 pit of Bedwellty Pits near Tredegar on 16 June 1865 killed twenty-seven miners, six of them boys under sixteen. It was reported to the country in the Illustrated London News, which printed engravings both of the colliery and of the colliers' funeral.

Cause

Not established from the sources read.

What happened

The explosion took place at the No. 1 pit on 16 June 1865 and killed twenty-seven men and boys; six of the dead were under sixteen. The Welsh Coal Mines death roll gives their names, ages and the streets they came from — William Allen, twenty-eight, of Duke Street; David Beynon, twenty-five, of Georgetown; George Carter, fifty-two, of Cinder Tips, and the rest. The disaster reached a national audience. On 1 July the Illustrated London News gave two pages to it, printing an engraving of the colliery as the scene of the explosion and another of the funeral of the colliers killed — the second of those images being, then as now, the part of a colliery disaster the country actually saw.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The explosion at the No. 1 pit killed twenty-seven miners, six of them boys under the age of sixteen. (medium) ^1,2
• The Welsh Coal Mines death roll and the Museum Wales record of the Illustrated London News prints both give 16 June 1865; the Welsh Coal Mines list of disasters gives 21 June. 16 June is followed. (disputed) ^3,1,2
• The Illustrated London News of 1 July 1865 carried two engravings on pages 629 and 630: 'The Bedwellty Colliery, Tredegar, Monmouthshire, The Scene of the Late Fatal Explosion' and 'Funeral of the Colliers Killed by the Late Explosion at Tredegar'. (high) ²

Related terminology

Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.

• Coal (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…men and boys; six of the dead were under sixteen. The Welsh Coal Mines death roll gives their names, ages and the streets they came…”
• Colliery (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…in the Illustrated London News, which printed engravings both of the colliery and of the colliers' funeral.”

Sources

1. (secondary) Bedwellty Pits: disaster death rolls — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) Bedwellty Colliery explosion 1865, print (Illustrated London News, 1 July 1865) — Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales
3. (secondary) Welsh mining disasters: list of accidents with five or more fatalities — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026