Dinas Colliery explosion, 1844

On the first morning of 1844 the miners of Dinas went down wishing each other 'Blwyddyn newydd dda i chi!' Shortly afterwards the village of Storehouse heard a roar it had never heard before. Twelve men and boys, the youngest nine years old, had died in Walter Coffin's Middle Pit — the first great explosion in the Rhondda. The stall where it began had been examined not by the overman but by the manager's young son, whom the overman had taken down with him; the coroner invited the jury to find manslaughter and the jury returned accidental death.

Cause

Firedamp accumulated in a heading and fired at the naked candles of the men going to work. The contemporary press attributed the accumulation to the overman not having properly secured the air door of the heading on the Saturday night.

Contributing factors

The overman, Griffith Williams, went down at about four in the morning to make his inspection and took a boy with him, Edmund Llewellyn — son of the colliery manager Daniel Llewellyn — who made the tests in the heading where the explosion happened. Naked candles were in use. There had been no serious accident at the colliery for years, which a contemporary account thought had made the men confident and careless.

What happened

Walter Coffin had sunk Dinas Lower in 1812, the first shaft in the Rhondda, beside levels of 1809; the Middle Pit followed in 1832, 560 yards away, both on the No. 3 Rhondda seam whose coking coal was known as 'Coffin's celebrated coal'. About a hundred and fifty men were employed. The day shift had gone down and the explosion came at about eight o'clock. A local newspaper was blunt about it: 'This, to be sure, was an accident, but was not either unavoidable or uncontrollable, and cannot fail to be aggravated by the fact that common precaution might have prevented it.' Seven men and five boys died in that heading; two lads were badly hurt, one with both legs broken and one with a dislocated shoulder blade. Because the gas was confined to one of the two headings and the rest of the pit was well ventilated, nobody else was lost — and had it happened half an hour later, the loss of life would have been far greater. Gareth F. Harris's account of the Dinas explosions preserves what the rescuers found. The explorers, among them Samuel Edmunds — who would himself be killed at Cymmer in 1856 — went into the district known as Heading Shoni Harri as far as a certain door, and heard beyond it a voice in earnest prayer. The fume drove them back and they had to run for the shaft, one of the party carried out exhausted. Days later, when the ventilation had been restored, they went past that door and found a body on its knees in an attitude of supplication: Thomas Rowlands, deacon with the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists at Dinas, with his three sons lying dead near him.

Rescue & recovery

The machinery at the shaft top was badly disordered by the concussion and had to be partly put right before anyone could be wound up. The engineer James John, who lived close by and had run to the pit, went down and found about fifty men at the bottom waiting to be drawn up; he brought up William Llewellyn, Thomas Evans, and William Williams, whose leg was broken, and by noon the whole of them were at the surface. The dead could not be reached until the damaged brattice carrying the air down the shaft had been repaired. David Morgan's body was found on the Thursday night at about seven o'clock, at the bottom of the pit under rubbish and bricks from the partition; David Llewellyn found him and James John carried him up in his arms.

Investigation & inquiry

The inquest on the boy David Morgan opened on Saturday 6 January 1844 before Lewis Reece, coroner, at the Dinas School House, with a jury of colliers under Mr Fisher as foreman. The evidence turned on the morning inspection: it was the overman's business to go into every stall of each heading and see that all was safe, and Griffith Williams had let the manager's boy do it. The coroner severely censured the overman and invited the jury to return manslaughter against him.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

The jury declined. Edmund Llewellyn was the son of the colliery manager, and the jury intimated that such a charge would receive no countenance from them; they returned accidental death. The case ran in the Monmouthshire Merlin and the Merthyr Guardian into February, with a letter signed 'One of the colliers that sat on the inquest'.

Changes to practice & legislation

The explosion came two years after the 1842 Act had barred boys under ten from working underground — Walter Coffin had been the only coal-owner in the district to favour a limit as low as eight, the others holding out for twelve — and among the dead were David Rowland, nine, and three boys of twelve, fourteen and fourteen.

Memorials & commemoration

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Twelve died - seven men and five boys by the contemporary press, eight men and four boys by the NMRS account - and three lads were injured. The youngest was David Rowland, nine. ^1,2,3
• The overman left the examination of the stall to the manager's young son who went down with him; when the men entered with naked lights, the gas fired. ^4,2
• The contemporary newspaper account attributed the accumulation to the overman's neglect in not properly securing the door of the heading where the dead were at work on the Saturday night. ¹
• The coroner severely censured the overman and invited the jury to return manslaughter; the jury, the boy being the manager's son, intimated that such a charge would receive no countenance from them and returned accidental death. ^4,1,2

Related terminology

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

• Brattice (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s rescue and recovery: “…were at the surface. The dead could not be reached until the damaged brattice carrying the air down the shaft had been repaired. David Morgan's…”
• Firedamp (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s cause: “Firedamp accumulated in a heading and fired at the naked candles of the men…”
• Overman (contextual relationship)
  Named 5 times in this record, first in the summary: “…examined not by the overman but by the manager's young son, whom the overman had taken down with him; the coroner invited the jury to find…”
• Shaft (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the narrative: “Walter Coffin had sunk Dinas Lower in 1812, the first shaft in the Rhondda, beside levels of 1809; the Middle Pit followed in…”
• Stall (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…Coffin's Middle Pit — the first great explosion in the Rhondda. The stall where it began had been examined not by the overman but by the…”

Sources

1. (secondary) The Dinas Colliery Explosions and the heroics of Daniel Thomas — Gareth F. Harris, via People's Collection Wales
2. (secondary) Dinas Middle Pit Explosion – Glamorganshire – 1844 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Colliery Disaster: Dinas, Middle Pit, 1st January 1844 (Walter Coffin, Esq.) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Dinas Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 20 September 2026 · Last researched: 20 September 2026