Six Bells Colliery was a colliery located in Six Bells, Abertillery, Gwent, Wales. On 28 June 1960 it was the site of an underground explosion which killed 45 of the 48 miners working in that part of the mine. It is now the site of the artistically acclaimed Guardian memorial to those events, designed by Sebastian Boyesen; although the memorial primarily commemorates those who died at Six Bells, it is dedicated to all mining communities wherever they may be.
The colliery was originally opened as Arael Griffin on the site of an earlier balance shaft which had been sunk in 1863 by Thomas Phillips Price at Hafod Van. In 1892 John Lancaster and Co. began sinking two 352 yards (322 m) shafts on the opposite side of the Ebbw Fach River. On 9 February 1895 four men lost their lives during the shaft sinking, when the bowk (large barrel) in which they were riding capsized, and they fell to the shaft bottom. [1]
By 1896 it was owned by Partridge Jones and Co., when there were 173 men employed in the sinking, including 101 on the surface. Coal winding began at Six Bells in 1898, and was transported south to Newport on the Newport and Pontypool Railway, later part of the Great Western Railway.
Hafod Van slope was opened in 1909, and employed 122 men by 1910. It closed in 1914 due to a lack of manpower, when the colliery employed 2,857 men. [2] A New Hafod Van slope was opened in 1922, and was worked until 1928. By 1923, there were 859 men employed at No.4 pit, working the Big Vein and Three Quarter seams. At No.5 there were 1,529 men employed, working the Black and Meadow Vein seams.
Due to the economic downturn, Six Bells was mothballed in 1930 for several years because of lack of trade. John Paton took over the mine in 1936 until nationalisation in 1947, when there were 1,534 men employed.
The neighbouring Vivian Colliery closed in 1958 and for some years the Vivian's shaft was used as a downcast for Six Bells. By the beginning of 1960, the colliery was producing 338,000 tonnes of coal and employed 1,291 men. [3]
On 28 June 1960, at approximately 10:45, an explosion took place in the West District of the Old Coal Seam, caused by an ignition of firedamp. Coal-dust in the air ignited and the explosion spread almost throughout the district. Killing 45 out of the 48 men who worked in that district of the mine, the tragedy would have been even worse had it not been for maintenance work taking place on the O.10 face where otherwise 125 men would have been working.
Lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide gas were found to be present. This suggested that the men lost consciousness rapidly and that death occurred within minutes. A public enquiry into the disaster took place at No 2 Court of Newport Civic Centre, between 19 and 28 September 1960. The Inspector of Mines reported that the probable cause of the explosion was firedamp ignited by a spark from a stone falling onto a steel girder. [4]
As part of the National Coal Board's strategic move to super-pits in the 1970s, Six Bells was integrated with Marine Colliery at Cwm. All coal after that point was raised through Marine. The whole complex was closed by British Coal in 1988.
The former colliery site has been landscaped and renamed Parc Arael Griffin. It has its own visitor centre in Ty Ebbw Fach just outside the main entrance. With a restaurant, conference and a "valleys mining town experience" room, it is open most days. The Parc is also now a point on the Ebbw Fach trail. [5] In 2010 a 20-metre (66 ft) high statue called the Guardian was erected near the site of the old colliery to commemorate the 1960 disaster. [6] Designed by Sebastian Boyesen, it was fabricated from thousands of steel ribbons. The statue was unveiled by The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams on 28 June 2010 and has been described as "a Welsh answer to Antony Gormley's Angel of the North ". [7]
Abertillery is a town and a community of the Ebbw Fach valley in the historic county of Monmouthshire, Wales. Following local government reorganisation it became part of the Blaenau Gwent County Borough administrative area.
A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, the presence of methane gas, and coal dust. Most of the deaths these days occur in developing countries, and rural parts of developed countries where safety measures are not practiced as fully. A mining disaster is an incident where there are five or more fatalities.
Easington Colliery is a town in County Durham, England, known for a history of coal mining. It is situated to the north of Horden, a short distance to the east of Easington Village. The town suffered a significant mining accident on 29 May 1951, when an explosion in the mine resulted in the deaths of 83 men.
The Senghenydd colliery disaster, also known as the Senghenydd explosion, 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.
The Oaks explosion, which happened at a coal mine in West Riding of Yorkshire on 12 December 1866, remains the worst mining disaster in England. A series of explosions caused by firedamp ripped through the underground workings at the Oaks Colliery at Hoyle Mill near Stairfoot in Barnsley killing 361 miners and rescuers. It was the worst mining disaster in the United Kingdom until the 1913 Senghenydd explosion in Wales.
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The Elsecar Collieries were the coal mines sunk in and around Elsecar, a small village to the south of Barnsley in what is now South Yorkshire, but was traditionally in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Bedwas Navigation Colliery was a coal mine in the small Welsh village of Bedwas, two miles (3.2 km) north of Caerphilly. The colliery opened in 1913, and closed after the miners' strike of 1984-85.
The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded in the North Staffordshire Coalfield. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.
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Albion Colliery was a coal mine in South Wales Valleys, located in the village of Cilfynydd, one mile north of Pontypridd.
Gresford Colliery was a coal mine located a mile from the North Wales village of Gresford, near Wrexham.
Pentremawr Colliery was a coal mine, located in the Gwendraeth valley in Carmarthenshire, South Wales.
Cwmtillery is a ward of Abertillery. Located within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it is part of the administrative area of the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, Wales.
Cwm is a former coal mining village, community and electoral ward three miles (4.8 km) south of Ebbw Vale in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, United Kingdom. In the far north of the community lies Waunlwyd.
Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.
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The Guardian is a 20 m (66 ft) tall statue overlooking Parc Arael Griffin, the landscaped former Six Bells Colliery site, in the South Wales mining town of Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent. It was designed and created by artist Sebastien Boyesen.
Six Bells is an electoral ward and neighbourhood in Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent, Wales. It was originally a village that grew up around the local coal mines. The ward elects two county councillors to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.