Grove Colliery shaft accident, 1855

Two colliers fell to their deaths from a stage being lowered down the shaft of the Grove Pit, Kilgetty, on 14 May 1855, a year before the pit was opened for coal.

Date	14 May 1855
Mine	Grove Colliery, Kilgetty
Region	Pembrokeshire
Type	Winding / Shaft Accident
Fatalities	2 (Two killed: John Barnett and George Thomas. Isaac Howells, killed at the same pit the same day by a fall from the basket, was a separate accident.)
Context	During active mining

Cause

A fall from a stage being lowered down the shaft.

What happened

The Grove Pit at Kilgetty, sunk to supply the Pembrokeshire ironworks, did not open for coal until 1856. On 14 May 1855 two colliers, John Barnett, 31, and George Thomas, 35, were on a stage being lowered down the shaft when they fell from it and were killed. The same day another collier at the pit, Isaac Howells, 47, fell out of the basket and died.

Recorded claims

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

On 14 May 1855 the colliers John Barnett, 31, and George Thomas, 35, were killed at the Grove Pit, Kilgetty, when they fell from a stage that was being lowered down the shaft. ^1,2
On the same day Isaac Howells, 47, a collier at the Grove Pit, was killed when he fell out of the basket. ²
The pit is recorded under the Pembroke Coal Co. ¹

Related terminology

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

Shaft (contextual relationship)
Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “Two colliers fell to their deaths from a stage being lowered down the shaft of the Grove Pit, Kilgetty, on 14 May 1855, a year before the pit…”

Sources

(secondary) 1850s B: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)
(secondary) Welsh Coal Mines: fatalities, 1855 — Welsh Coal Mines

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026