Senghenydd colliery

disaster

Crowds await news at the Universal Colliery,

Senghenydd[1]

The Senghenydd colliery disaster, also

known as the Senghenydd explosion
(Welsh: Tanchwa Senghennydd), occurred
at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd,
near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14
October 1913. The explosion, which
killed 439 miners and a rescuer, is the
worst mining accident in the United
Kingdom. Universal Colliery, on the South
Wales Coalfield, extracted steam coal
which was much in demand. Some of the
region's coal seams contained high
quantities of firedamp, a highly explosive
gas consisting of methane and hydrogen.

In an earlier disaster in May 1901, three

underground explosions at the colliery
killed 81 miners. The inquest established
that the colliery had high levels of
airborne coal dust, which would have
exacerbated the explosion and carried it
further into the mine workings. The
cause of the 1913 explosion is unknown,
but the subsequent inquiry thought the
most likely cause was a spark from
underground signalling equipment that
could have ignited any firedamp present.
The miners in the east side of the
workings were evacuated, but the men in
the western section bore the brunt of the
explosion, fire and afterdamp—a
poisonous mixture of carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide and nitrogen left after
an explosion.

Fires in the workings hampered rescue

efforts, and it took several days before
they were under control. It took several
weeks for most of the bodies to be
recovered. The subsequent enquiry
pointed to errors made by the company
and its management leading to charges
of negligence against Edward Shaw, the
colliery manager, and the owners. Shaw
was fined £24 while the company was
fined £10; newspapers calculated the
cost of each miner lost was just 1 shilling
11⁄4d (about £13 in 2019).

In 1981 a memorial to the men who died

in the disaster was unveiled by the
National Coal Board, followed by a
second in 2006, to honour the dead of
both the 1901 and 1913 explosions. In
October 2013, on the centenary of the
tragedy, a Welsh national memorial to
those killed in all Wales's mining
disasters was unveiled at the former
pithead, depicting a rescue worker
coming to the aid of one of the survivors
of the explosion.

Background

Senghenydd, shown within Caerphilly borough

Welsh coal industry

The Welsh coal industry employed 1,500

workers in 1800;[2] as the industry
expanded, the workforce rose to 30,000
by 1864, and to 250,000 by 1913.[3][a] As
employment became available, many
people moved to the area of the South
Wales Coalfield; between 1851 and 1911
the population increased by 320,000.[4]
By 1913 the Welsh collieries were
extracting 56.8 million long tons of coal
(63.6 million short tons) a year, up from
8.5 million long tons (9.5 million short
tons) in 1854;[3] collieries in the region
mined a fifth of all coal produced in the
UK, and employed a fifth of its miners in
the mid-nineteenth century.[2] In 1913
Britain was responsible for 25 per cent of
world coal production and 55 per cent of
all world coal exports.[5]

The South Wales Coalfield produced the

sought-after anthracite, bituminous and
steam coals—the latter a grade between
the two comprising a hard coal without
the coking elements. Some of the
region's coal seams contained high
quantities of firedamp—a mixture of
methane and hydrogen—and were
therefore prone to explosions;[6][7]
firedamp rises into the higher points of
workings, including cavities or, as at
Senghenydd, when the seams were being
mined in an upward gradient.[8] An
additional danger of firedamp is
afterdamp, a poisonous mixture of gases
left after an explosion, primarily
constituted of carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide and nitrogen.[9] The carbon
monoxide combines with haemoglobin in
the bloodstream to form
carboxyhemoglobin, which prevents the
blood cells carrying oxygen, and can
therefore result in suffocation by lack of
oxygen known as anoxia. If survivors
from an explosion are not rescued
quickly, they face the possibility of being
killed by the gas.[10][11] The presence of
firedamp in South Wales's collieries
contributed to a higher-than-average
proportion of accidents: between 1880
and 1900 South Wales accounted for 18
per cent of Britain's miners, but 48 per
cent of all UK mining deaths occurred in
the region.[12][b] As coal output from
British collieries reached its peak in 1913
there was a correspondingly large
number of accidents around this time.[15]

Senghenydd and the Universal

Colliery

Senghenydd—Senghennydd in Welsh—is
situated at the northern end of the Aber
Valley, approximately four miles (6.4 km)
north-west of Caerphilly[16][17] and eleven
miles (18 km) north-west of Cardiff.[18]
When geological surveys for coal began
in 1890 it was a farming hamlet of
around 100 people.[19][20] Coal was
found, and sinking of the first mineshaft
for Universal Colliery—which was owned
and developed by William Lewis[c]—
began in 1891; the first coal was
extracted in 1896.[17][22] The colliery's two
shafts were both 1,950 feet (590 m)
deep, the downcast Lancaster and the
upcast York.[23][d] Development of the pit
coincided with the Boer War, and sectors
of the underground workings were
named after key places in the war, such
as Pretoria, or the lifting of the sieges at
Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley.[20]
Sir William Lewis in 1891

South Wales miners, including those at

Universal, were paid on a rate determined
by the Sliding Scale Committee, which
fixed wages on the price coal fetched at
market.[25][26][e] When the price of coal
slumped in the late 1890s, low wages led
to industrial unrest and, in 1898, a strike
that the men at Universal joined at the
end of April. The Monmouthshire and
South Wales Coal Owners' Association
refused to replace the scale, and the
strike ended on 1 September with some
small concessions granted by the
owners.[27] The colliery resumed
production and in 1899 was producing
3,000 long tons (3,400 short tons) of coal
a week.[28]

The industrial historians Helen and Baron

Duckham consider Universal Colliery to
have been "an unlucky mine".[29] At
approximately 5:00 am on 24 May 1901
three underground explosions occurred
as the night shift was exiting the pit.
Because the explosion damaged the pit
winding gear, it took time to clear the
debris from the pithead to allow rescuers
to begin work.[30] They descended at
11:00 am and rescued one man, an
ostler, found alongside the corpse of the
horse he was tending. There were no
other survivors and 81 men died.[22][31][32]
The funerals for the victims started four
days later, and the rescue and recovery
operations lasted for six weeks.[33]

The Mines Inspectorate began an

enquiry, chaired by the mining engineer
William Galloway. The report was
published on 15 July. It stated that the
mine was hot with high levels of coal
dust present. The method used to load
coal onto underground trucks created
quantities of dust, which had aggravated
a small explosion and created a chain
reaction of related explosions throughout
the workings.[34] An inquest held in
October concluded that various safety
precautions had not been followed, and
had the mine been sufficiently watered it
would have reduced the coal dust held in
the air.[35] The colliery had further
problems in October 1910 when a heavy
roof fall in the Mafeking return released
trapped firedamp, which caused the mine
to be temporarily evacuated.[36][37]
Le Petit Journal illustration of the Courrières mine
disaster.

In 1906 a major explosion at a colliery in

Courrières, northern France, caused the
deaths of more than 1,000 miners. The
subsequent report blamed the accidental
ignition of firedamp, exacerbated by coal
dust in the air. Concerned that a similar
disaster might happen in British
collieries, the Royal Commission was
formed, reporting back in 1907, 1909 and
1911. The reports led to the Coal Mines
Act 1911, which came into force in
December that year.[38][f] Among other
changes to the health and safety culture,
the act required that ventilation fans in all
collieries be capable of reversing the air
current underground; this measure was
to be implemented by 1 January 1913.

In 1913 the colliery was producing

1,800 long tons (2,000 short tons) of coal
a day,[29][40] and Senghenydd's population
had grown to just under 6,000.[20][g] No
work was undertaken at Senghenydd to
implement the requirement, and the
Mines Inspectorate gave the
management an extended deadline of
September 1913 to complete the work,
but this was missed.[41]

14 October 1913
The layout of the Senghenydd mines, showing the
location of the victims, and how they had died

At 3:00 am on 14 October 1913, the day

firemen descended the pit to conduct the
daily checks for gas; they had three
hours to complete their investigations.
The firemen for the Mafeking return had
to travel more than two miles from the
shaft bottom to the workface.[23][42] It left
insufficient time in which to make a
thorough check of the workings—which
involved placing a naked flame into
cavities to see if the flame lengthened—
the historian Michael Lieven states that
"the company considered any other form
of inspection to be too time-
consuming".[43] Between 5:10 and
6:00 am 950 men descended the shaft
for a shift that was due to last until
2:00 pm.[44][45]

Just after 8:00 am an explosion occurred

in the west side of the underground
workings. It is possible there were two
explosions as survivors stated a smaller
explosion preceded the main one;[46][47]
the official report referred only to one.[48]
The cause was probably a build-up of
firedamp that was ignited by an electric
spark from equipment such as electric
bell signalling gear. The initial explosion
ignited airborne coal dust, and a shock
wave ahead of the explosion raised yet
more coal dust, which also combusted.
Many victims who were not killed
immediately by the explosion and fire
died from the effects of afterdamp. The
explosive wave travelled up the
Lancaster shaft to the surface,
destroying the headframe; it killed the
winder—the man in charge—and badly
injured his deputy.[49][50]
A rescue team leaving the pit

Edward Shaw, the colliery manager, was

on the surface and the remaining shift
foremen were still underground and
unable to give assistance. He took
charge and descended the York shaft,
accompanied by overman D R Thomas.[h]
The descent was slow, and they had to
clear several girders and obstructions
before they reached the bottom.[52][53]
They found that the men from the east
side of the workings (approximately 450
workers) were unharmed, and their
evacuation was ordered.[54][55] Shaw and
Thomas moved to the western side,
where they found other men, alive but
injured, and arranged for them to travel to
the surface. Thomas later reported that
the view into the western workings "was
exactly like looking into a furnace".[56]

Shaw explored what he could of the

western workings, before he and some of
the survivors began tackling the fire. The
water pipes from the surface in the
Lancaster shaft were all fractured, and
hand-extinguishers were used. Shaw
returned to the surface at 9:30 am to
arrange for rescue and fire-fighting
teams from neighbouring collieries.[57][58]
From 11:00 am the specialist mines
rescue teams began arriving at the
colliery from the Rhymney and Rhondda
Valleys, as did Red Cross workers and
local ambulance services; a police
detachment was sent from Cardiff in a
special train. Members of the
Inspectorate of Mines were quickly on
the scene, and an inspector descended
to view the mine the same
morning.[59][60][61]

A thirteen-year-old girl awaits news with her baby

sister.[62]
Lieven recounts how the rescue parties
"in their desperation, ... were reckless
with their lives" in their attempts to find
survivors; many were injured in small
roof collapses, or suffered the effects of
carbon monoxide poisoning.[63] Their
endeavours saved lives throughout the
remainder of the day and into the night,
including a group of 18 men found at
around 1:00 am.[64][65] They were the last
survivors found. A total of 432 miners
had died that day—some bodies were not
found until later—and 7 others died later
in hospital or at home.[66] A journalist
from The Times wrote: "The numbers are
truly awful. We talk in awed terms of the
decimation of a regiment in a bloody
battle, but here a great community
engaged in the pursuit of a peaceful
vocation is threatened with the loss of at
least a quarter of its able bodied
manhood".[67] On the surface the
townsfolk waited for news; a reporter for
The Dundee Courier thought: "the scene
at Senghenydd last night was depressing
in the extreme. The streets were full of
silent throngs of people who moved
aimlessly about or stood stolidly at the
street corners."[68]

Rescue, fire-fighting and

recovery: 15 October to 30
November
Work continued throughout the night of
15 October and into the following day. It
focused on finding survivors and fighting
the fire that blocked the entry into some
workings of the western returns. The fire
caused the roof supports to become
unstable, and falls triggered outbursts of
methane. Several rescuers were injured
by the falls, one fatally. Before
descending the mine many of the
firefighters wrote what they thought
might be their last letters home, and
some made their wills. As the water pipe
in the shaft was out of operation, fire-
fighting continued with hand
extinguishers and work was only
possible in 20-minute shifts. Despite
wearing respirators, several rescuers
were overcome by the effects of
firedamp.[69][70] During the course of the
day, 56 bodies were raised to the surface
and, that evening, a new water supply,
connected by three-quarters of a mile
(1.2 km) of pipes to a nearby reservoir,
was installed in the Lancaster shaft.[71]

Bringing the bodies out

Reginald McKenna, the Home Secretary,

visited the colliery on 15 October
representing King George V, who was
attending the marriage of Prince Arthur
of Connaught and Princess Alexandra,
2nd Duchess of Fife.[72] The king sent a
£500 donation to a disaster relief fund;[i]
the royal couple displayed their wedding
presents at St James's Palace and
charged a shilling for entrance, raising
£1,200 for the fund.[74][75] The fund was
started by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff;
another collection, the Mansion House
Fund set up by the Lord Mayor of
London, raised more than £3,000 on its
first day.[76][j]

William Brace, the local MP speaking on

behalf of the South Wales Miners'
Federation, announced on 16 October
that the priority would be given to putting
out the fire and that no more search
parties would be looking for survivors.
Brace observed that the fire was blocking
the western workings and consuming the
oxygen in the air, making it unlikely that
anyone was left alive. Progress in
tackling the fire over the previous days
had been slow, and it had only been
extinguished in the first 30 yards of the
roadway—still two miles (3.2 km) from
the coal face.[77][78] Two coroner's
inquests were opened: one in
Senghenydd for the men who died in the
colliery, and one in Cardiff for those who
had died in hospital; both were adjourned
the same day.[71][k] The first funerals took
place the following day, Friday 17
October. An estimated 150,000 mourners
gathered for the 11 men buried on the
Saturday and 8 on the Sunday.[77]

The funeral of one of the miners, E Gilbert, a colour

sergeant in The Salvation Army

The firefighters built bashings, walls of

sandbags, turf and sand, approximately
18 feet (5.5 metres) deep and 17 feet
(5.2 metres) up to the tunnel's roof to
prevent smoke filling the rest of the
workings and allow men to explore areas
previously cut off. Within two days the
temperatures dropped and the volume of
smoke was reduced.[80][81] The fire was
contained, but miners still faced several
obstacles, including roof collapses and
large pockets of trapped firedamp. The
first collapse consisted of more than 100
tons of debris; another fall was more
than 300 feet (91.5 metres) long and 30
to 40 feet (10–12 metres) high.[82]
Clearing the falls and finding bodies was
slow, and it took until 8 November for the
first of the 4 working districts to be
explored and cleared of bodies.[83] The
explosion, fire and subsequent
decomposition made it difficult to
identify many victims; some had to be
identified by their personal effects, and
some bodies remained unidentified.[84]

By 17 November the Mafeking and

Pretoria districts had been fully explored,
with more than 200 bodies raised to the
surface in the preceding two days. On 20
November an official announcement
reported that 439 miners had died, of
whom 33 were still unaccounted for.[84]
Toward the end of the month, the men
voted to return to work, even though the
western workings were still out of action
and 11 bodies were still missing.[85]

A photographer, W Benton, took a series

of photographs as the disaster unfolded,
and later published them as a set of
postcards. Their publication is described
by the National Library of Wales as "an
excellent example of early photo-
journalism". The photographs came with
a caption, shown below:[86]
"The canary that was carried down the
mine to test the air"

"Salvation Army workers amongst the

poor waiting women"
 "The scene at the pithead hour by hour
all through the day"

"The Salvation Army pit man's funeral

passing through Sengehnydd"

Aftermath
Rescuers from Rhymney on their return home

The Senghenydd explosion remains the

worst mining disaster in Britain.[87] The
deaths of 440 men from a small
community had a devastating effect; 60
victims were younger than 20, of whom 8
were 14 years old; 542 children had lost
their fathers and 205 women were
widowed. The impact on individual
households was great: 12 homes lost
both a father and son, 10 homes lost two
sons each, while the death of one father
and son left an 18-year-old daughter to
raise her 6 siblings alone; another
woman lost her husband, 2 sons, a
brother and her lodger.[87][88]

The inquiry into the disaster opened on 2

January 1914 with Richard Redmayne,
the Chief Inspector of Mines, as the
commissioner; he was assisted by two
assessors, Evan Williams, the chairman
of the South Wales and Monmouthshire
Coal Owners Association, and Robert
Smillie, the president of the Miners'
Federation of Great Britain. The inquiry
ran for three days before being adjourned
to allow for the coroner's inquest to run
at Senghenydd. It reopened on 27
January and ran until 21 February. Over
the 13 days it heard evidence, 21,837
questions were put to 50
witnesses.[89][90] The coroner's inquest
chaired by David Rees lasted for 5 days
from 5 January 1914. A total of 9,000
questions were put to 50 witnesses, and
the jury returned verdicts of accidental
death.[91]

The inquiry report failed to identify a

definite cause, but it was considered that
the most likely cause was a spark from
the signalling gear.[92] It would have
ignited the firedamp, exacerbated and
fuelled by coal dust in the air.[93][94] The
report was critical of many aspects of
the management's practices, and
considered it had breached the mining
regulations in respect of measuring and
maintaining the air quality in the
workings, and in the removal of coal dust
from the tracks and walkways.[95] The
report pointed out that because the
management had not implemented the
changes needed to the ventilation fans
as demanded by the Coal Mines Act
1911, the fans were unable to reverse the
direction of the airflow, which would have
blown the smoke out through the
Lancaster shaft; Redmayne and his
colleagues held differing opinions on the
advisability of reversing or stopping the
airflow.[96][97] The historian John H
Brown, in his examination of the disaster,
states that had the airflow been reversed,
firedamp or afterdamp could have been
extracted from some sectors into the
blaze, causing another explosion.[57]

Further criticism was directed toward the

emergency procedures. The lack of
respirators at the mine was deemed to
have cost lives.[98] The lack of an
adequate water supply for fire fighting
was criticised, and Redmayne wrote: "I
should have thought, in view of the fact
that the colliery was such a gassy one,
and it had already been devastated by an
explosion, that the management would
have made arrangements for a supply of
water adequate to meet an emergency of
the kind that actually occurred."[99]

Shaw's actions were described by Lieven

as those that "gained him a degree of
respect from the local mining community
which remained over the years; they
probably also cost the lives of scores of
miners."[52] The Duckhams describe
Shaw's inaction in fixing the ventilation
fan before the explosion, as well as his
delay in sending for assistance from
rescue teams until he exited the mine an
hour and a half after the explosion.[100]
The official report considered there had
been a "disquieting laxity in the
management of the mine",[101] although
Shaw was described by the Duckhams as
"undoubtedly a highly capable
manager".[50] The report led to Shaw
being charged with 17 breaches of the
Mines Act 1911, and four charges were
made against the company. Shaw was
found guilty of failing to keep adequate
environmental records and failing to
replace a broken lamp locker; he was
fined £24.[102] The company was
convicted of failing to provide a
ventilation system that could reverse the
airflow and was fined £10 with
£5 5 shillings costs.[91][l] One newspaper,
the Merthyr Pioneer, calculated "Miners'
Lives at 1/11⁄4 each" (1 shilling 11⁄4d or
£13 in 2019).[103][104][m]
After it reopened the colliery never
reached the same levels of employment
as before the explosion. William Lewis
died in August 1914; Shaw continued as
manager of the mine until November
1928, when it closed.[91][39]

Local memorials

The 2006 The Welsh

Senghenydd mining National
disaster memorial Coal
Mining
Memorial,
2013, by
Les
 Johnson

A stage play based on the disaster, by the

journalist and broadcaster Margaret
Coles, was first performed at the
Sherman Cymru, Cardiff in 1991.[107] The
disaster at Senghenydd has provided the
backdrop to two printed works of
historical fiction: Alexander Cordell's This
Sweet and Bitter Earth (1977)[108] and
Cwmwl dros y Cwm (2013) by Gareth F
Williams.[109]

In 1981 a memorial to those lost in the

disaster was unveiled by the National
Coal Board. Based outside Nant-y-parc
Primary School, which is built on the site
of the former colliery, the monument is a
20 feet (6 m) high replica of the colliery's
winding gear.[110] A second monument
was unveiled in 2006 to the dead from
both the 1901 and 1913 explosions.[111]

On 14 October 2013, the centenary of the

disaster, a Welsh national memorial to all
mining disasters was unveiled at the
former pithead. Funded by the Aber
Valley Heritage Group and their patron
Roy Noble, with matched funding from
the Welsh Government, a bronze statue
by Les Johnson depicting a rescue
worker coming to the aid of one of the
survivors of the explosion, was unveiled
by Carwyn Jones, the First Minister of
Wales.[112] Jones said: "Mining is central
to the story of Wales. It has shaped our
history and communities and its social
and physical legacy is still with us to this
day. ... It is only right that we have a
permanent memorial."[113]

See also
Glossary of coal mining terminology
History of coal mining
List of disasters in Great Britain and
Ireland by death toll

Notes and references

Notes

a. John Benson, in his 1989 history

 British Coalminers in the Nineteenth
Century, put the rise over the same
period as 133,000.[2]
b. There had been major accidents
across the Welsh coalfield for more
than half a century, including the
following incidents, each of which
resulted in the loss of more than 100
lives:
1856 Cymmer, 114 dead
1860 Risca, 142 dead
1867 Ferndale, 178 dead
1878 Abercarn, 268 dead
1880 Risca, 120 dead
1880 Penygraig, 101 dead
1890 Llannerch, 176 dead
 1892 Parc Slip, 112 dead
1894 Albion, Cilfynydd, 290 dead
1905 Wattstown, 119 dead[13][14][6]
c. The ownership, along with that of
other collieries, was through the
Lewis Merthyr Consolidated
Collieries Ltd.[21]
d. The downcast shaft provided fresh
air in the workings and the upcast
shaft carried stale air out of the
mine.[24]
e. In 1875 miners' wages for those that
worked at collieries controlled by the
Monmouthshire and South Wales
Coal Owners' Association were
pegged to the output of coal and its
 selling price. The rate was
determined by the Sliding Scale
Committee, chaired by Lewis. The
base line wage was taken from
selling price of coal in 1875, and
fluctuations in the price of coal on
the open market determined
subsequent wages.[25][26]
f. The same year Lewis was created
1st Baron Merthyr of Senghenydd;
the following year he was created a
KCVO.[39]
g. The 1911 census recorded the
population as 5,895.[20]
h. The overman was the underground
foreman responsible for the
 infrastructure in the workings: pit
props, tramways, roads, etc.[51]
i. £500 in 1913 equates to
approximately £44,000 in 2016,
according to calculations based on
Consumer Price Index measure of
inflation.[73]
j. £1,200 in 1913 equates to
approximately £105,500 in 2016 and
£3,000 in 1913 equates to
approximately £264,000, according
to calculations based on Consumer
Price Index measure of inflation.[73]
k. There are several grounds upon
which an inquest can be adjourned,
including the possibility of a public
 enquiry or if criminal proceedings are
pending. An adjourned inquest does
not have to be resumed, and the
decision is at the discretion of the
coroner.[79]
l. £24 in 1914 equates to
approximately £2,000 in 2016; £10 in
1914 equates to £860, and £5 in
1914 equates to approximately £430,
according to calculations based on
Consumer Price Index measure of
inflation.[73]
m. The Merthyr Pioneer was a socialist
newspaper whose Welsh editor was
the radical Thomas Evan Nicholas.
The paper was founded by Keir
 Hardie, who visited the colliery after
the explosion, and had gone down
the pit with one of the rescue
crews.[105][106]

References

1. "The Burning Pit Disaster: Rescue

Scenes at the Universal Colliery". The
Illustrated London News. 18 October
1913. p. 4.
2. Benson 1989, p. 17.
3. Duckham & Duckham 1973, p. 158.
4. Davies 2007, p. 389.
5. Bulmer 2015, p. 150.
6. Duckham & Duckham 1973, p. 159.
7. Schernikau 2010, p. 23.
 8. Redmayne, Williams & Smillie 1914,
pp. 14–16 and map 7.
9. Gresley 1883, p. 2.
10. Lieven 1994, p. 61.
11. Jain, Cui & Domen 2015, p. 60.
12. Davies 2007, pp. 458–459.
13. Llywelyn 2013, pp. 13–14.
14. Benson 1989, p. 42.
15. Benson 1989, p. 6.
16. Lieven 1994, p. 3.
17. Benson, John (1 November 1993).
"Charity's Pitfall: the Senghenydd
Disaster". History Today. 43 (3): 5.
ISSN 0018-2753 .
18. O'Neill, Dan (14 October 2013).
"Senghenydd centenary: Dan O'Neill
on the nation's worst mining disaster
and the terrible cost of coal" .
WalesOnline. Archived from the
original on 22 March 2016.
Retrieved 22 March 2016.
19. Lieven 1994, pp. xi, 8.
20. Llywelyn 2013, p. 10.
21. Brown 2009, p. 15.
22. Redmayne, Williams & Smillie 1914,
p. 4.
23. Duckham & Duckham 1973, p. 161.
24. Gresley 1883, pp. 84, 268.
25. Lieven 1994, pp. 36–37.
26. Thompson 1993, pp. 323–324.
27. "Settled at Last". South Wales Echo.
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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Senghenydd colliery
disaster.

Aber Valley Heritage Group

 BBC Radio 4, Making History, 7
October 2003: The Senghenydd
Colliery Disaster, 1913 (audio file)
1962 interview with William Vizard, ex-
miner who survived the disaster

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