Dinas Colliery explosion, 1879

At twenty to eleven on the night of 13 January 1879 an explosion at Dinas blew a half-ton iron cap off the mouth of the upcast shaft and fixed it in the headgear. Sixty-three men died, and forty-four horses. Two months earlier the colliery's manager, John Chubb, had had his certificate suspended for incompetence and gross negligence in the management of that same colliery, and had been reappointed as overman under a nominal head manager. The jury censured the owners for it; the inspector called the arrangement a practical ignoring of the court's judgement.

Cause

Firedamp accumulated in Morris's cross-measure drift, ventilated only by three twelve-inch iron pipes which the inspector thought wholly inadequate, and ignited by a means that could not be established. Shot firing was prohibited in the mine.

Contributing factors

A hundred and fifty yards of cross-measure drift rising at about one in seven, with all its air coming through three twelve-inch pipes. Gas reported daily from 11 December until the 19th, cleared, and a blower seen again on 12 January, the day before. A colliery whose certificated manager had been suspended and who was nevertheless running it in fact, under a temporary manager who had been told by the owner's Cardiff office not to do anything without consulting him.

What happened

Dinas was one of the oldest and deepest pits in the Rhondda, sunk about forty years before by Walter Coffin, by 1879 the property of Colonel Hunt and worked as Coffin and Company. The downcast was about 360 yards, the upcast 407, a quarter of a mile apart, with a forty-foot Waddle fan on the Middle Pit. It was known to be a fiery mine and worked with locked lamps. Four hundred men and boys were employed, and on the night of the explosion about sixty were below with two hitchers at the shaft bottom. The engineman John Burton heard a crash at the pit mouth, went out and found the heavy iron cap that diverted air into the fan blown up into the pit head; the banksmen William Taylor and William Webber had been thrown from their places. Then came a deep reverberation and a cloud of dense, sulphurous vapour. Another engineman, Morgan, was a hundred yards down the Polka shaft: 'About twenty-five minutes past ten, I sat down on a box near one of the lamps and was amusing myself reading... when I heard a loud report. Almost immediately the two air doors between which I was placed were blown down and one of them fell on me and knocked me several yards along the shaft.' His lamps were out; he groped for the knocker and signalled the surface, and lay there hurt until between one and two in the morning, listening to a humming in his ears and tasting the coal dust he could not see. 'I do not know much about collieries having recently returned from the Australian mines but I have always been used to the surface and I shall stick to that in future.' Managers came from the collieries round about — Llwynypia, Bute, Ferndale — among them Daniel Thomas, who had won the Albert Medal for the Tynewydd rescue two years before, and who crawled in with the exploring parties here too.

Rescue & recovery

The upcast was pouring gas and nothing could be done that way. The exploring parties went down the downcast and worked towards the upcast, and found a heavy fall had completely blocked the eighty-yard staple, and the doors to the upcast blown down so that the air was short-circuiting from one shaft to the other and leaving the bottom workings with none at all. One of the engineers said no man could put his nose three inches below the level in the shaft without being suffocated. From 14 to 23 January every effort was made to reach the workings from the Middle Pit, and on the 23rd the engineers gave it up and concentrated on clearing the staple and restoring ventilation. Only a small part of the mine had been opened by the time of the inquiry. Harris's account records the further hazard the recovery men worked in: the loosened roof, and the carcasses of forty-four horses.

Investigation & inquiry

The inspector, Mr Wales, was at the inquest into the Abercarne explosion when he heard, and reached Dinas at half past eleven the next morning with his assistant Mr Galloway. He concluded that the explosion had begun in Morris's heading, the cross-measure drift from the Six Foot to the Four Foot: the three twelve-inch ventilation pipes there had been twisted into every conceivable shape, and about seventy yards in a straight line with the cross measures there were far more signs of fire than anywhere else he could reach. The primary cause, he said, was the use of ventilation pipes — a common practice at the time, which he hoped would be abandoned. The inquest, before E. Bernard Reece, coroner, turned on who had actually been managing the colliery. Samuel Hughes, the nominal manager, said Mr James had told him he was responsible for the mine's safety under the Act, but that Colonel Hunt's manager at the Cardiff office had told him Chubb was the older man and that he must do nothing without consulting him. Morgan Rowlands, the manager Chubb had displaced, gave evidence that he had written to Hunt warning that if matters went on as they were there would be an explosion.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

The jury found the deaths accidental, believing on the evidence that the explosion came through a sudden outburst of gas in or near Morris's level — and added: 'At the same time we strongly censure the course adopted by the colliery authorities in placing John Chubb nominally overman but really part manager after his certificate had been suspended through incompetence in conducting the management of the said colliery.' Wales closed his report in the same terms, writing that it was with deep regret that a man found guilty of incompetence and gross negligence in that very colliery only two months before should have been appointed to act ostensibly as overman while really acting as manager, 'thus practically ignoring the judgement from the court appointed by the Right Honourable Home Secretary under Section 32 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1872'. The question was raised in Parliament by the miners' member Alexander Macdonald; the men of the district believed that because neither manager was properly certificated nobody could be held responsible at all.

Changes to practice & legislation

Wales's technical conclusion was that pipe ventilation at a rising cross-measure drift was the primary cause and that the practice should be abandoned. His constitutional one was that a suspension of a manager's certificate meant nothing if the owners could put the same man back in charge under another title.

Memorials & commemoration

The dead left fifty-five families without a breadwinner — forty-six widows and a hundred and thirty children. A relief fund committee under Gwilym Williams appealed on 27 January 1879 for £10,000, reporting that most of the families had been visited at home and were so destitute that without the fund they had no prospect of support but the parish. South Wales miners had voted down a Permanent Relief Fund by some 20,000 to 5,000, distrusting a fund they would pay for and the managers would run, so there was nothing else.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• An early count in the immediate aftermath put the toll at fifty-nine men and forty-four horses. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Wales, the inspector, placed the seat of the explosion in Morris's cross-measure drift and held that the primary cause was the use of three twelve-inch ventilation pipes to air a drift a hundred and fifty yards long rising at one in seven, which he thought totally inadequate; he could not say how the gas was ignited. ¹
• Sixty-three men died and forty-four horses; sixty-three bodies had been recovered by the time of the inquiry and the Durham Mining Museum names them all. ^2,3,1,4
• An early count in the immediate aftermath put the toll at fifty-nine men and forty-four horses. (disputed) ³
• The jury returned accidental death but strongly censured the colliery authorities for placing John Chubb nominally as overman but really as part manager after his certificate had been suspended for incompetence in the management of that same colliery. ^3,1
• The explosion left forty-six widows and a hundred and thirty children in fifty-five families, and a relief committee appealed on 27 January 1879 for £10,000, there being no Permanent Relief Fund in South Wales after the miners voted one down by roughly 20,000 to 5,000. ³

Related terminology

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

• Blower (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s contributing factors: “…Gas reported daily from 11 December until the 19th, cleared, and a blower seen again on 12 January, the day before. A colliery whose…”
• Drift (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the cause: “Firedamp accumulated in Morris's cross-measure drift, ventilated only by three twelve-inch iron pipes which the inspector…”
• Outburst (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s aftermath: “…believing on the evidence that the explosion came through a sudden outburst of gas in or near Morris's level — and added: 'At the same time we…”
• Overman (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…in the management of that same colliery, and had been reappointed as overman under a nominal head manager. The jury censured the owners for it;…”
• Waddle Fan (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…yards, the upcast 407, a quarter of a mile apart, with a forty-foot Waddle fan on the Middle Pit. It was known to be a fiery mine and worked with…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Dinas Colliery Explosion – Rhondda – 1879 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Dinas Colliery — Welsh Coal Mines
3. (secondary) The Dinas Colliery Explosions and the heroics of Daniel Thomas — Gareth F. Harris, via People's Collection Wales
4. (secondary) Colliery Disaster: Dinas, 13th January 1879 (Coffin and Co.) — Durham Mining Museum

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