Middle Duffryn Colliery Explosion, 1852

Ninety-two men and boys went down Middle Duffryn Colliery on the morning of Monday 10 May 1852. Shortly before nine o'clock a fall in the deep heading released gas which exploded; sixty-four died and twenty-eight came out alive. Fifty-five were killed in the explosion and its afterdamp, and nine more died escaping when the platform they had gathered on in the shaft gave way. It was the worst disaster in the Cynon valley to that date.

Cause

A fall in the deep heading dislodged gas — what the reports called a blower — which reached either the ventilating furnace at the bottom of the winding shaft or a naked light on its way, and fired. Men had been sent to timber the anticipated fall shortly before nine o'clock; they were among the first found dead.

Contributing factors

Naked candles were burning in parts of the workings, permitted under the colliery rules wherever no firedamp appeared, and the firemen had reported the pit safe that morning. The ventilating furnace stood at the bottom of the winding shaft, in the path of any gas driven towards it. Most of the deaths were caused not by the blast but by the afterdamp overtaking men who ran for the shaft; a horse left at the far end of the main level was found alive and unhurt days later, and the reporters concluded that had the men stayed where they were most might have lived.

What happened

The pit had been left free of gas on the Sunday evening and two firemen went in at four on the Monday morning, attended the furnace, examined the workings and found nothing wrong. The colliers and boys began to descend in lots of eight at about half-past six, and by eight ninety-two people and several horses were at work underground. Between seven and eight the fireman, Evan Beddoe, noticed stuff working loose in the roof of the deep heading and told the agent, Mr Shipley, who examined it by candle and sent for four men to timber it. Shortly before nine the fall came, and with it the gas. Beddoe met it rushing along the levels, shouted to his partner to run one way while he ran the other, and was making for the air-doorway when he heard the explosion; the force of it knocked him down some eighty yards from the shaft bottom. On the surface, a booming roar and a cloud flung out of the pit mouth told the men above what had happened. Shipley went down the ladders of the descending shaft as fast as he could, met men climbing out, and found the bottom ladder — about twenty yards of it — broken away; he slid down a rope and found three or four dead men at the foot of it, the party he had sent to the heading. Going in-bye as far as the afterdamp allowed, he and his men helped out survivors staggering half-suffocated along the levels, re-hung an air-door the blast had blown away, and rescued one man alive at the deep heading end. About a hundred yards from the winding shaft they came on a heap of dead: men who had run for the shaft, been met by the afterdamp, and fallen over one another until the pile stopped anyone else getting past. Beyond it they found a second heap. Among them was Ebenezer Morris, found with his two boys, aged nine and ten, clasped one under each arm. All the men in the west side of the workings escaped easily.

Rescue & recovery

Twenty-eight of the ninety-two came out alive. Word was sent to Thomas Powell at the Gaer near Newport, and his manager Mr Oakley and his engineer Mr Watson came at once; twenty-four or twenty-five carpenters were set to making coffins, the works surgeon Mr Davies of Aberdare attended the burnt, and Powell paid for the funerals and instructed his agent to provide for the families, with a weekly allowance to follow. The gas had so affected the bodies that immediate burial was necessary, and on the Wednesday the whole of them were taken to Aberdare, Neath and Merthyr.

Investigation & inquiry

Notice went to the Home Government from H. A. Bruce, the magistrate, and the government inspector J. Mackworth, who happened to be at Cardiff, went straight to the colliery and examined the plans of the workings, with a fuller inspection to follow once the workings were cleared. The coroner, George Overton of Merthyr, opened an inquest on Tuesday 11 May; the jury viewed the bodies and the hearing was adjourned to allow the inspector to be present. A mineral surveyor, Mr Llewellin of Pontypool, who had inspected the colliery for the landlord four days before the explosion, had written to Powell expressing himself satisfied with the management and especially with the ventilation.

Legal & regulatory aftermath

The verdict of the adjourned inquest is not recorded in the sources read. The contemporary reporting took the view that no blame attached to anyone, the colliery having been inspected and reported well ventilated days before.

Changes to practice & legislation

The disaster is often said to have weighed in the argument that led to the requirement for a second shaft, but nothing in the sources read for this record establishes that, and the claim is left unmade here.

Memorials & commemoration

No memorial specific to the explosion has been identified in the sources read. The dead were buried at Aberdare, Neath and Merthyr on the Wednesday after.

Recorded claims

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

• The explosion happened on Monday 10 May 1852, shortly before nine in the morning. ^1,2
• The Welsh Coal Mines colliery page dates the explosion 15 May 1852, against its own death roll and the contemporary newspapers. (disputed) ³
• Sixty-four of the ninety-two underground died: fifty-five in the explosion and its afterdamp, and nine escaping by the shaft. Twenty-eight came out alive. ^1,3
• Welsh Coal Mines describes the nine as killed when a wooden platform they had gathered on in the pumping shaft collapsed to the pit bottom; the Monmouthshire Merlin's account has the bottom ladder of the descending shaft broken away, with three or four dead found at its foot. (disputed) ^1,3
• Only about six of the bodies showed the marks of fire; the works surgeon said no death was caused by burning except the two who died after being brought out, the rest having been suffocated by the afterdamp. ¹
• The explosion was attributed to a blower — a sudden dislodgement of gas from a fissure by a fall in the deep heading — which rushed towards the ventilating furnace or met an open light on the way. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this disaster.

Sources

1. (secondary) The Aberdare Valley Colliery Disasters 1845-1861 — People's Collection Wales
2. (secondary) Death Rolls: Middle Duffryn Colliery, 12 December 1850 and 10 May 1852 — Welsh Coal Mines
3. (secondary) Middle Duffryn Colliery, Aberdare — Welsh Coal Mines

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