Coal Mine Disastors Morpha Colliery Pit 1890 Names provided by Peter Neath Images provided by Dai Bevan Thanks Folks

The following is an extract from "and they work os to death" Volume 1,
published by the Gwent Family History Society. (Any errors are mine)

Quote

Morfa Colliery, March 10 1890 – 87 Dead

The Morfa Pit at Port Talbot was well known to be a very gassy mine, its
owners were Messrs Vivian & Co and the shafts were 400 yards deep. In
1863, 30 had been killed there in a blast and in 1870, 38. It produced
about 400 tons of coal per day from the two seams worked there, in the
9” and the “Cribber”. Om a Tuesday morning, a little after midnight
there came a violent explosion in the latter of these districts that was
to take 87 lives. They were those of:

William BARRAS

Griff BEVAN, 32 of Taibach

Daniel BROWNSHILL, 40 of Constant

John BUCKLEY

Daniel BUCKLEY

William Henry CLATWORTHY, 18 of Morfa

William CORMICK, 48 of Constant

T. DANIEL

John DAVID, 40, of Brick Row

Thomas DAVID, 46 of Bridge Row

Ebenezer DAVIES, 36 of Miners Row

Meredith DAVIES, of Constant

D. DAVIES, 33 of Gwarrycaeau

T. DAVIES, 20 of Stone Row

Evan ELEY, 40 of White Row

Edward ELIIS, 48 of Chapel Row

Ted FLOYD, 32 of Constant

William FRANCIS, 34 of Taibach

Sam GRIFFITHS, 50 of Stone Row

John GRIFFITHS, 42 of Gwarrycaeau

Dan GRIFFITHS, 42 of Stone Row

Bethuel HAYCOCK, 19 of Bridge Row

Evan HEDLEY, 40 of Kenfig Hill

Joseph HICKS, 20 of Aberavon

T. HOPKINS, 51 of Brick Row

D. HOPKINS, 52 of Incline Row

John HOPTON

Sam HOWELL, 46 of Pantymach

William JAMES (No1), 40 of Stone Row

William JAMES (No2), of Constant

Fred William JENKINS, 16 of brick Row

Daniel JOHN, of Margam Terrace

William JONES, 40 of Constant

J. JONES, of Bridge Row

John JONES, of Taibach

William J JONES of Taibach

David JONES (MANNEY), 52 of Aberavon

T. KEMP

Pat KENNEDY

David KING, 38 of miners Row

William LEWIS, 46 of Goitre

John LEWIS, 38 of West End

Thomas LEWIS, 40 of Goitre

Ben LEWIS, 28 of Stone Row

Sim LEWIS, of Taibach

Richard LEWIS, 40 of Taibach

William LEWIS, 36 of Brick Row

Thomas LEYSHON, 30

T. LEYSHON, 48 of Stone Row

John LEYSHON, 40 of Taibach

William LEYSHON, 50 of Constant

Noah MANDRY, 50 of Cwmbrombil

Thomas MANDRY

David MATHEWS, 30 of White Row

T. MILES, 48 of Penycae

Evan MORGAN, 21 of Brick Row

Evan MORGAN, of Taibach

John MORRIS, 44 of Stone Row

John MORRIS (Gaffer Haulier), 47 Morfa

John NICHOLAS, 62, of Salt Lake

John NICHOLAS, 20 of Taibach

T. OATES, 20 of Brick Row

Henry PARKER,

John PEPPIN, 39 of Brick Row

Alfred PHILLIPS, 40 of Brick Row

D. PRICE, 36 of Tany-Groes

Kohn READY, 50 of Aberavon

Lewis REES, 42 of Brick Row

David REES, of Groeswen

David RICHARDS, 36 of Stone Row

William SCOTT, 31 of Gibson Terrace

William TAYLOR

Evan THOMAS, 34 of Cwmbrombil

Joseph THOMAS, 50 of Penycae

William THOMAS, 32 of Margam

James TIPPET, 16 of Taibach

William VANSTONE, 32 of Penycae

Richard WALTERS, 49 of Taibach

Isaac WALTERS, 16 of White Row

David WILD

David WILLIAMS, 46 of Stone Row

T. H. WILLIAMS, 36 of Brick Row

Isaac WILLAMS, 50 of Constant

Henny WILLAIMS, 70 of Aberavon

James WILLIAMS, 16 of Taibach

David WILLAIMS, 18 of Stone Row

T. YORATH, 38 of Taibach

Two rescue parties went down and got themselves into serious
difficulties so thick and all pervasive was the choke-damp. About 250
men were below ground at the time of the blast and those who made their
escape did so only after lengthy and painful struggles. One group of six
had only 2 undamaged lamps, one of this number was referred to as Rees
OATES, a young boy, and as they fell in sensible they had to be
abandoned, so weak were they all.

Daniel BROWNSHILL, of Constant went down as one of the rescue party, and
William BARASS was the mine manager.

Giving evidence at the inquest was Thomas GILBERT, of Vivian Row,
Sandfield. He had been called to identify a body he recognised as his
son-in-law, Joseph WEEKS aged 26. I take this victim to be the one names
in the list as Joseph HICKS despite the age disparity. One of the
exploration party was Isaac EVANS. Locked safety lamps were in mandatory
use at the mine and he examined every lamp found near a body. All of
them had been locked except for one that had been in use by John MORRIS,
the gaffer haulier. That one had been unlocked.

End quote

--
Cheers

Peter
Neath