Miners lives at 1s 1¼d each

Question

Brilliant Work by Jutta Beer(Armstrong-17381) listing all the victims of the worst colliery disaster in the history of the United Kingdom.
The title above was the headline from a locl newspaper when the Colliery Manager and Owners were fined a total of £24.

Answer 1

Well done Jutta.  That's a great tribute to the miners that lost their lives.  It will take forever to make profiles for all those victims.

I am surprised that the Colliery Manager and Owners were fined at all. I have worked on quite a few English mining disasters and the enquiries always seem to blame the miners for what happened, even when there was no enforcement of any rules to ensure their safety.

Answer 2

Thank you Steve. It's important to remember these men and boys. They worked in dreadful & dangerous conditions and this explosion happened just 12 years after a deadly explosion in the same mine.

Joan, I'm hoping all the Wales Team will pile in and help create those profiles!

Comments

My great-great-grandfather had siblings, and cousins, who were involved in mining in Australia (as was his father), at least two of whom were killed in mining accidents (although I don't think those incidents qualified as "disasters"), and I've just created a profile for a young Scottish immigrant to Australia who died when the drive he was in collapsed on him and two others, burying them alive.  The news reports don't say if the other men had wives and children, but all three had mothers, and fathers, who were left to grieve.  I haven't (yet) found the results of the Coroner's inquest to know if anyone was held accountable - but probably not.  It was the 1860s, after all.

If I get a chance I will take a look and see if I can help with your shilling penny-farthing miners.  Even one profile would be one profile someone else won't need to create.

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Thank you Melanie!

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I know the area well  because I was brought up further up the Rhymney Valley. This disaster has never been forgotten because it left such a mark on the community. If you look at the names there are fathers and sons and what I think are brothers.

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Yes, many families lost more than one member and the wife of one miner who died, also died a week later leaving their teenage daughter to bring up 8 little ones.

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I've added a profile for John Henry Benjamin (Benjamin-3946), but so far it's extremely basic.   Once I save my current edits, anyone - everyone - feel free to jump in and improve it any way it can be.  (There doesn't appear - at first glance, anyway - to be a category for where the census says he was born (Mardy, Glamorgan).)

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Thank you! I've added the profile link to the page & the category for Mardy - alt spelling Maerdy.

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Thanks, Jutta.  I wasn't thinking alternate spellings for place names.  I just went with what was on the sources I found.
Is it a good thing to also use alternate spellings if known?  (I'm an English-speaking Australian, remember, so am more used to dealing with émigrés, than others.)

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We use Vision of Britain for our place name categorisation. Many names are anglicised in official records. Steve Bartlett has done sterling work getting all the place names categorised for Wales so if you ever struggle to find one check VoB and if we've missed one let us know!

Answer 3

Great Job on all the time and effort working the Colliery Disaster Juta. Your efforts are appreciated by all. Thank You.

Comments

Thanks Marty

Answer 4

Thank you for this important work, Jutta.

I'm hoping to get back to creating profiles for my Michigan miners soon. Most were immigrants. There were numerous fatal  accidents, but none of the magnitude of a peripheral mining-related disaster, the Italian Hall tragedy of 1913.

Answer 5

Senghenydd, where the colliery was, can be pronounced as St Kenneth said quickly!

Answer 6

Jutta, thank you for your wonderful efforts listing the victims of the Colliery Disasster.  Your work helps to preserve the memories of those poor souls who lost their lives.  Thank you.