Cae Colliery Disaster 1858

Date: 3 Nov 1858 [unknown]
Location: Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom

Disasters |Wales Topics Teams| Mining Disasters | Wales Mining Disasters|Carmarthenshire Mining Disasters

Summary

• Date: 3 November 1858 at approximately 4 p.m.
• Location: Cae Colliery, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales
• Victims: 10 casualties
• Cause: In Rush of water on breaking into adjacent flooded workings.

Victims Name Age Those they left behind Sourced Bio Connected Category Daniel Francis 47 Wife four sons, two daughters Yes Yes No Yes John Thomas 22 Yes Yes No Yes John Lloyd 15 Yes Yes No Yes Daniel Samuel 14 Parents four brothers and two sisters Yes Yes No Yes Benjamin Samuel 12 Parents four brothers and two sisters Yes Yes No Yes Joseph Williams 15 Yes Yes No Yes William Trehearne 14 Parents two brothers and three sisters Yes Yes Yes Yes David John 16 Yes Yes No Yes Thomas Jenkins 16 Parents and six brothers Yes Yes No Yes William Harry 17

History of The Mine and Disaster

Cae Colliery which can be found at approximately 51.682509, -4.145743^[1] on a modern day map was founded and operated by Richard Janion Neville in 1829.

At the time of the Disaster in 1858, the mine was leased from Messrs Sims, Williams, Nevill and Co. by Daniel Francis, a victim of the disaster, John Francis, Daniel Davies, George Davies and Hector Rees.

Two of the victims of the accident were brothers, Daniel and Benjamin Samuel aged just 14 and 12 respectively. None of the newspaper reports of the time mention that they were brothers, but their final resting place can be found at Adulam Baptist Chapel, Felinfoel, Llanelli where they are buried together with their father Thomas and their brothers John Samuel and Thomas Samuel. John Samuel, who was almost blind, was also working in the mine that day but managed to escape the inrush with David Thomas and John Bowen. Unfortunately John Samuel also died a few months later in another mining accident at Bryngwyncoch colliery.

The disaster was reported in The Welshman newspaper at the time and a detailed report was published of the Inquest on the victims in the newspaper on the 3rd December 1858.

A disturbing aspect of the accident which is revealed in the inquest is that the owners of the mine had failed to ensure that the there were plans available that showed the position of the workings of the mine against the workings of a previous mine (the California mine). Also the owners were not utilising at technique called "boring" which probed the area they were working with small holes to check for water. It was due to not following this process that the workings broke through into the California mine and caused an inrush of water that quickly flooded the Cae workings and trapped the ten victims underground.

Although there were tremendous efforts following the the flooding to pump out the water by rescuers at the surface, which included borrowing larger pumps from other mine owners in the vicinity, it took until the 16th November to sufficiently drain the workings for rescuers to search for the ten trapped men. They were further hampered by the foul air present in the mine and had to wait approximately twelve hours for the foul air to vent itself and be replaced with fresh air.

From the report of the inquest, Daniel Francis was not only a part owner and a victim, but he was also the person on who all the other miners relied upon for his knowledge as to the closeness of the Cae workings to the California workings. He is described as being the the last person who worked in the "old" works (California) and hence his assumed knowledge as to the closeness of the two workings.

Following all the evidence provided at the inquest, the jury returned the following verdict.

• "We find a verdict of Accidental Death caused by the ignorance of Daniel Francis, one of the deceased, in not using precautionary means of boring and keeping plans of the workings" The verdict applied to all the ten victims.

At the end of the inquest, the Foreman announced that a subscription had been set up for the benefit of the wives and families of the victims. A donation of £20 had been made by Richard Janion Neville as well as other local gentlemen. The jury also agreed to donate their Crown Fee as did the Coroner and others involved in the proceedings entitled to Crown payments.

Mining at Cae Colliery ceased in 1894 at which time it was operated by Nevill Druce & Co,

Sticker template

{{Mining Disasters|text= died in the [[Space:Cae_Colliery_Disaster_1858|Cae Colliery]] disaster|date=3-November 1858}}

Category

[[Category:Cae Colliery Disaster, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, 1858]]

Research

William Harry is named in the newspaper reports of the disaster as being one of the victims. The GRO index of deaths for 1858 does not list a William Harry aged 17, but does list a William Henry aged 17. This may indicate that both sources may have misspelled the name so further evidence is required to identify William and his family. Researching the census data for 1851 and 1861 to locate a William Harry or Henry that is of the correct age and is present in 1851 and not 1861, identifies the following records ^[2] and ^[3]. There may be other possibilities so further evidence is required, preferably a burial record or the discovery of the the grave of William. Once this identification is made, then a profile for william using his correct LNAB can be created.

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.google.com/maps/place/51%C2%B040'57.0%22N+4%C2%B008'44.7%22W/@51.6825033,-4.1479387,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x9f5d46252ee5216f!8m2!3d51.6825!4d-4.14575
2. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGZQ-4F3 : 8 November 2019), William Harry in household of David Harry, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales; citing Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales, p. 48, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
3. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7HF-VKL : 13 August 2020), David Harry, Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

• Cae Death Roll

• The Welshman newspaper 19 November 1858 page 3 The Cae Colliery Accident (https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4350128/4350131/17/llanelly%20AND%20cae%20colliery)

• The Welshman newspaper 3 December 1858 page 4 The Late Inundation at Cae Colliery Ten Lives Lost. (https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4350146/4350150/28/llanelly%20AND%20cae%20colliery)

• The Welshman newspaper 13 May 1859 Llanelly Petty Sessions: Cae Colliery Accident (https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4350353/4350358/24/)