Penygraig Colliery inrush, 1875

About ten o'clock on the morning of Saturday 4 December 1875 the No. 2 level of the Penygraig Colliery, worked by Rowlands, Morgans and Co., holed into the flooded old workings of the neighbouring Penrhiwfer Colliery. Most of the fifty or sixty men below waded out, but Zachariah Williams and his brother-in-law Thomas Thomas were drowned.

Cause

Inundation from the abandoned, waterlogged workings of the Glamorgan Coal Company's Penrhiwfer Colliery, which the Penygraig workings reached because the fault expected to divide the two collieries died out.

Contributing factors

Both leases fixed a movable boundary at the Cilely Great Fault, which the Penygraig company had to work up to and prove. Everyone in the district believed the fault lay where the plans showed it, but it died out about a hundred yards away, and Penrhiwfer's No. 2 Rhondda workings there had been abandoned to water since November 1873.

What happened

A great volume of water burst from the mouth of a disused level, overran the culverts and poured into the street near Mr Davies's timber yard, filling houses with coal and rubbish. At the works it was found that water had been struck in No. 2 level while fifty or sixty men were below. Rowland Rowlands and his son went straight up against the stream, breast-high, and Moses Rowlands led a second party round by another way; the men made their way out through rolling trams and displaced timber, all but Zachariah Williams and Thomas Thomas. Relays of men searched, and Thomas's body was found about six in the evening and Williams's about ten. Much of the water drained away through old workings of the company towards the brook; had it all come out of the main level mouth above the most populous part of Penygraig, the loss of life and property would have been far greater.

Williams had worked for some years in the Australian goldfields and had done well enough to live without labour, but chose to go on working. Thomas had been married four months. Work at the collieries stopped for the funerals, with a great crowd following the bodies four or five miles to Hendreforgan; Williams was buried at Kenfig Hill and Thomas at Newton Nottage.

Rescue & recovery

The owners led the rescue themselves, wading into the stream, and relays of men searched until both bodies were recovered the same evening. Within days the level was expected to be back in working order.

Investigation & inquiry

Because the two men died in different parishes, the deputy coroners for Ystradyfodwg and Llantrisant, Thomas Williams and R. L. Grover, held a joint inquest at Penygraig, opened on 6 December and resumed at Pandy on 17 December with the assistant inspector of mines, Mr Galloway, present. W. G. McMurtrie, underground manager of Penrhiwfer, gave evidence on the abandoned workings and the fault. The jury found that the men were accidentally drowned.

Recorded claims

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

• About ten o'clock on Saturday morning, 4 December 1875, water broke into No. 2 level of the Penygraig Colliery and drowned two of the fifty or sixty men at work. ^1,2,3
• The water came from workings of the Glamorgan Coal Company's Penrhiwfer Colliery, abandoned in 1873 because of water coming from the roof. ^2,4
• The boundary between the two collieries was to be the Cilely Great Fault, but the fault was found to die out about a hundred yards from where it had been supposed to lie, so the Penygraig workings ran into the flooded ground. ^2,4,3
• The owners, Rowland and Moses Rowlands, led parties breast-high into the water to bring the men out. ²
• The joint inquest at Pandy found that the two men were accidentally drowned. ³

Related terminology

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

• Deputy (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s investigation: “Because the two men died in different parishes, the deputy coroners for Ystradyfodwg and Llantrisant, Thomas Williams and R. L.…”
• Fault (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the cause: “…Colliery, which the Penygraig workings reached because the fault expected to divide the two collieries died out.”
• Inrush (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s cause: “Inundation from the abandoned, waterlogged workings of the Glamorgan Coal…”
• Level (contextual relationship)
  Named 5 times in this record, first in the summary: “…ten o'clock on the morning of Saturday 4 December 1875 the No. 2 level of the Penygraig Colliery, worked by Rowlands, Morgans and Co.,…”
• Old Workings (contextual relationship)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…worked by Rowlands, Morgans and Co., holed into the flooded old workings of the neighbouring Penrhiwfer Colliery. Most of the fifty or sixty…”

Sources

1. (secondary) Welsh mining fatalities, 1875 — Welsh Coal Mines
2. (primary) The Cardiff Times, 11 December 1875: Flooding of a colliery in the Rhondda Valley — The Cardiff Times (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
3. (primary) South Wales Daily News, 18 December 1875: Summary: the adjourned inquest at Pandy — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
4. (primary) South Wales Daily News, 18 December 1875: The flooding of a colliery in the Rhondda Valley: the inquest — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
5. (primary) South Wales Daily News, 8 December 1875: The flooding of a colliery at Penygraig — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 19 October 2026