Westminster Colliery gas accident, 1889

On the afternoon of Wednesday 27 November 1889 a fireman, a shot-firer and a collier went to clear gas that had built up in an old wicket in No. 5 pit at the Westminster Colliery, near Wrexham, after a fall in the air-road. They were overcome and suffocated, and the gas lay so heavy that rescuers could not reach them until the Friday.

Date	27 November 1889
Mine	Westminster Colliery
Region	Wrexham
Type	Gas / Asphyxiation
Fatalities	3 (Robert Griffiths, 23, collier; Samuel Hughes, 42, shot-firer; and William Hughes, 42, fireman.)
Context	During active mining

A leaf-covered path runs between trees and ivy-covered banks in autumn sunlight. — A path in Moss Valley Country Park on the former railway trackbed near the Westminster pits John S Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph

Cause

Gas had accumulated in an old wicket because a fall had blocked the air-road, and it overcame the three men sent to let it off.

Rescue & recovery

Rescue parties worked from the Wednesday afternoon. On the Thursday night there was still no sign of the missing men: the inspector, Henry Hall, his assistant Mr Hedley and several colliery managers had been down, but the gas was too heavy to reach the place where the bodies were thought to lie. They were found on the Friday.

Investigation & inquiry

Mr Thelwall, the Denbighshire coroner, opened the inquest at the Bridge Inn, Moss, on the Saturday, took evidence of identification and adjourned it.

Recorded claims

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

On 27 November 1889 three men, Robert Griffiths, Samuel Hughes and William Hughes, were suffocated by gas in No. 5 pit at Westminster Colliery, near Wrexham. ^1,2
They were letting off gas that had accumulated in an old wicket because of a fall in the air-road. ^1,2
Rescue parties worked from the Wednesday afternoon, but the gas was so heavy that they could not reach the place where the men lay; the inspector Henry Hall and his assistant went down with them. ³
The coroner opened the inquest at the Bridge Inn, Moss, on the Saturday and adjourned it after evidence of identification. 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: “…that had built up in an old wicket in No. 5 pit at the Westminster Colliery, near Wrexham, after a fall in the air-road. They were overcome and…”
Fireman (contextual relationship)
Named in this record’s summary: “On the afternoon of Wednesday 27 November 1889 a fireman, a shot-firer and a collier went to clear gas that had built up in…”

Sources

(primary) Disasters - Names: Westminster, 27 November 1889 (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
(primary) The North Wales Chronicle, 7 December 1889: The explosion in a Welsh colliery: inquest — The North Wales Chronicle (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
(primary) South Wales Daily News, 29 November 1889: The Wrexham colliery disaster — South Wales Daily News (Welsh Newspapers Online, National Library of Wales)
(primary) Durham Mining Museum: Westminster Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026