MineArchiveWeigfach Colliery Explosion, 1877
| Date | 9 March 1877 |
|---|---|
| Mine | Weigfach Colliery |
| Region | Swansea |
| Type | Explosion |
| Fatalities | 18 (Eighteen according to the colliery page, which names them; the site's disaster list gives 19. The roll records what each man left — five children, four children, two children.) |
| Context | During active mining |
An explosion at the New Weigfach colliery at Fforestfach near Swansea on 9 March 1877 killed eighteen men and boys. The dead included the overman and two trammers aged sixteen and twenty, and most of the men left widows and young children.
Cause
Not established from the sources read.
What happened
The explosion happened on 9 March 1877 at the colliery Thomas Glasbrook had developed seven years earlier, after it struck the rich bituminous seam in 1870 and began supplying the Landore Steel Company. The roll of the dead reads like the census of a small street. Abraham Bevan, the overman, was forty-eight and left a wife and five children. Isaac Williams, a collier of thirty, left a wife and five children; David Williams, thirty-three, a wife and four. John Davies, a trammer, was sixteen; William Williams, another trammer, twenty. Thomas Thomas, a collier of forty-six, was already a widower and left two children. Of John Morris the record says only 'unknown'.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- The Welsh Coal Mines colliery page says eighteen were killed and names eighteen; the same site's list of Welsh mining disasters gives 19. (disputed) 1,2
- Those named include Abraham Bevan, the overman, forty-eight, who left a wife and five children; the colliers Isaac Williams and David Williams, both with wives and young families; the trammers John Davies, sixteen, and William Williams, twenty; and Thomas Thomas, a widower of forty-six with two children. (medium) 2
Related terminology
Mining terms this disaster is structurally linked to, with the nature of the relationship.
- Colliery (contextual relationship)
Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “An explosion at the New Weigfach colliery at Fforestfach near Swansea on 9 March 1877 killed eighteen men and…” - Overman (contextual relationship)
Named twice in this record, first in the summary: “…on 9 March 1877 killed eighteen men and boys. The dead included the overman and two trammers aged sixteen and twenty, and most of the men left…”
Sources
- (secondary) Welsh mining disasters: list of accidents with five or more fatalities — Welsh Coal Mines
- (secondary) Worcester and Weigfach Collieries, Fforestfach — Welsh Coal Mines
Record created: 3 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 September 2026