On 28th June 1960, at approximately 10.45, a huge underground explosion suddenly blasted through the confined roadways of the West District of the Old Coal Seam at Six Bells Colliery (then known as Arreal Griffin) at Aberbeeg, near Abertillery killing 45 men.
On the date of the explosion, 1,213 men were employed underground and 239 on the surface. A 24-hour, three-shift regime operated, apart from Sundays, producing 1,800 tons of saleable coal each week.
Six Bells village is on the southern end of Abertillery town and at the centre of an area that, to the date of this incident, contained a greater concentration of collieries than anywhere else in South Wales.
As the colliery hooter sounded and word of the explosion spread, crowds gathered quickly, as they had at every disaster since mining began. Wives, parents, children waited desperately for news. Some kept vigil without break for more than twelve hours.
While rescuers tunnelled through tons of fallen rock more than a thousand feet beneath them, people supported one another as best they could: they wept together, prayed together. The Salvation Army poured cups of tea, and ministers of various denominations led a service in Bethany, where many of the men still underground had been in Sunday School as children.
Soon they would be back again , but only because the schoolroom behind the chapel had now been turned into an overflow mortuary.
Of the 48 men at work in ‘W’ district of the Old Coal Seam, 45 were killed in the explosion, the worst post-war colliery disaster in British coal mining history.The tragedy, which a Public Inquiry later found was caused after a falling rock was thought to have caused an ignition of firedamp, a combustible gas associated with bituminous coal.The Public Inquiry also stated that “lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide gas were present which suggested the men lost consciousness rapidly and death occurred within minutes”.
While rescuers tunnelled through tons of fallen rock more than a thousand feet beneath them, people supported one another as best they could: they wept together, prayed together. The Salvation Army poured cups of tea, and ministers of various denominations led a service in Bethany, where many of the men still underground had been in Sunday School as children.
Soon they would be back again , but only because the schoolroom behind the chapel had now been turned into an overflow mortuary.
Of the 48 men at work in ‘W’ district of the Old Coal Seam, 45 were killed in the explosion, the worst post-war colliery disaster in British coal mining history.The tragedy, which a Public Inquiry later found was caused after a falling rock was thought to have caused an ignition of firedamp, a combustible gas associated with bituminous coal.The Public Inquiry also stated that “lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide gas were present which suggested the men lost consciousness rapidly and death occurred within minutes”.
Families, friends and the whole Valleys community were left in shock as the extent of the major mining disaster was slowly revealed throughout the day. Revealing the terrible cost of coal.
Mining at Six Bells continued after the disaster. before eventually closing in 1988. by which time it had merged with nearby Marine Colliery in Cwm.
On the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2010, a giant steel sculpture of a miner standing over 20 m tall, named "Guardian of the Valleys" was unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Designed by Llangrannog based sculptor Sebastien Boyesen, this beautiful moving memorial is made from thousands of steel ribbons. Around the plinth are inscribed the names of all the men who died in the disaster. in tribute to those who lost their lives. It is regarded as a Welsh answer to Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North. It also serves as a sober reminder of human losses in the entire South Wales Coalfield.
Names of the Victims
Ivor James Baiton aged 48, cutterman.
Daniel James Bancroft aged 46, collier on panzer.
Robert Charles Brown aged 35, roof control officer.
Frank Cooper aged 44, supplies man.
Joseph Corbett aged 50, haulier.
Thomas George Crandon aged 46, repairer.
Walter Thomas Davies aged 34, borer.
Royden James Edwards aged 27, repairer.
Percy Gordon Elsey aged 52, repairer.
Albert John Evans aged 34, packer.
Leonard Keith Frampton aged 29, collier.
Albert Gardner aged 59, assistant cutterman.
George Goldspink aged 37, repairer.
Clive Alan Griffiths aged 18, prop checker.
Vernon Alexander Griffiths aged 33, deputy.
Earnest Victor Harding aged 51, deputy.
Idris Jones aged 57, packer.
John Percival Jones aged 56, repairer.
Joseph John King aged 56, packer.
Dennis Edmund Lane, aged 19, wireman.
George Henry Luffman aged 55, general worker.
Telford Cecil Mapp aged 42, general worker.
Herbert Amos Mayberry aged 55, dumper.
William John Morden aged 52, engine driver.
Sidney Moore aged 54, repairer.
Colin Malcolm Donald Morgan aged 26, repairer.
Colin Reginald Morgan aged 22, assistant repairer.
Ray Martin Morgan aged 44, repairer.
Islwyn Morris aged 44, deputy.
Anthony Verdun Partridge aged 20, assistant borer.
William Henry Partridge age 45, borer.
Trevor Paul aged 25, assistant repairer.
Wilfred Alfred Charles Phipps aged 60, cutterman.
Albert George Pinkett aged 45, collier.
Frederick Rees aged 37, fitter.
Mansel Reynolds aged 21, measurer.
William Glyn Reynolds aged 21, assistant repairer.
Wilfred Hughes Thomas aged 57, repairer.
Arthur Waters aged 37, general worker.
Phillip John Watkins aged 53, engine driver.
Wilfred Weston aged 47, water infuser on panzer.
Frederick White aged 58, under-manager.
William Burdon Whittingham aged 55, assistant repairer.
Richard John Williams aged 51, general worker.
John Woosnam aged 24, fitter.
Sic Bells Colliery Memorial, Abertillery, South Wales
Sic Bells Colliery Memorial, Abertillery, South Wales
So very sad!
ReplyDeletevery much so
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