Durham Mining Museum - Newspaper Articles (original) (raw)

27th January 1855, Page: 3, Column: 2

Adjourned Inquest At The Rhos

Verdict Of The Jury

This important inquest was resumed on Monday last, at one o'clock, before Bevis Thelwall, Esq. the coroner, and J. Dickenson, Esq., the government inspector of mines for North Wales. T. Edgworth, Esq. solicitor, appeared to watch the proceedings on the part of the managers. The names of the jury being called over, two not answering to their names nor sending any excuse for their non-appearance, were fined 20s. each.

Mr. Edward Evans was first examined, and said: I am underground bailiff to the Brynyrowen Colliery, Messrs.John Taylor and Son, and Messrs. Ferreday andFosset, being the proprietors. I now produce a plan of the works in question. On the Tuesday after the accident I examined the pit where it had taken place. We took a level of the water, and also of the road from the eye of the pit to the wicket where the water had broken in, and I find that from the eye to the end of the tunnel, a distance of 38 yards, there is a rise of 1 in 8. In the remaining distance of 85 yards, there is a rise of 7ft. 8½in., making a total rise from the eye of the wicket of 8ft. 8in. I also took a level from the eye of the present pit to the eye of the old working, (98 yards) and found that they were upon a level, leaving 9ft. of water in the old pit. The distance from the old workings to the wicket is about 24 yards, with a dip of 1 in 8.

By the Government Inspector: About 7 feet of water has run off from the old pit, as compared with an admeasurement made during the past summer. It is also obvious that the water is lower by 22 inches than it was last Friday, and I have no doubt but that the water has run into the main coal wicket, causing the death of the deceased. I have made many enquiries respecting the working of the coal through the road leading from the turnpike up to the old Brynyrowen pit, and I was always told that the coal had been worked under the road. I was unable to ascertain the_exact_ workings of the Brynyrowen pit, because the Aberderfyn pit was full of water. I could see the water in both pits. There were no plans kept of the old pits, with which the present proprietors had nothing at all to do. Mr. William Edwards, the royalty agent for Mr. Yorke, went down with me to the pits, (on the surface) to describe the workings, as well as he could, and he said that they were worked in the direction of the cottage, (on the side of the road). I did not ask him what his reasons were for saying so, nor did I ask him whether he had dialled it or not. He further told me that a narrow yard had been made from the Brynyrowen old workings to the Aberderfyn pit, thus forming a communication between them.

The Government Inspector; It seems very strange that you should have trusted more to the old plans than to your own dialling.

Mr. Evans: It was about 3 months ago when I last dialled with Edward Davies, the chartermaster. I dialled the whole pit on and below the surface, and he was with me in both instances. I measured 34 yards then from the workings to the boundary, and as we have got since that time 7 yards of coal there still remains 27 yards between our workings and the Aberderfyn boundary. (These figures were subsequently found not to be correct, as the plan laid on the table had to be altered, it being made some time ago). The plan now produced is not of my plotting, and it is not quite correct. On the 5th of this month the dip was 27 yards, and had such a narrow yard been driven as Edwardstold me of, it would have been about 19 yards from the face of the present wicket (where the men were drowned) making a difference of 8 yards as indicated in the plan. I cannot account for the water breaking in upon any other grounds than that there must be some other workings in the neighbourhood unknown to me, because it is most improbable that water could break through ground 19 yards thick. 10 yards would answer the purpose beyond all doubt. It never occurred to me to bore, although I got no positive information on the subject, because I considered we were working above the level of the Brynyrowen old workings, and that we were quite safe.

The Government Inspector: Did it never occur to you to take observations in the matter, especially asEdwards told you there were workings there ?

Mr. Evans: No, it did not; otherwise I should certainly have taken precautions, as I am very careful in such matters, having been in danger myself; and I can bring a character from my late employers to prove that such is the case.

The Government Inspector: Knowing that these old workings were so near, did it not occur to you to look out for those red or brown spots which it is well known are sure indications of the near presence of water in such places ?

Mr. Evans: No it did not; there were no indications at all of the kind in the works.

The Coroner: Had you never any conversation at all with any one on this matter ?

Mr. Evans: No, nothing of the kind.

The Coroner Knowing that dead workings were so near, did you use all proper precautions for the working of the colliery ? Mr. Evans: Yes, to the best of my knowledge, I did. I do not think that we should have got to the water by boring, as the water came under the wicket.

The Government Inspector here observed that the usual way of boring was to shoot out shafts on each side as well as in front, and if that had been done the water must have been penetrated. Mr. Evans: I have been in collieries for 33 years, engaged in mines; in fact, since I was 11 years of age, in Lancashire, Shropshire, Flintshire and Denbighshire — have always been in coal mines. I have been employed in the present colliery upwards of 12 months. I have superintended collieries before in Lancashire, and at Mostyn, Flintshire.

Richard Davies on being sworn said : I am a collier, working at the Aberderfyn Colliery. I was working there before, some 6 or 7 years ago, at the engine pit. We worked from there to the Brynyrowen land. The Brynyrowen pit was sunk some time after this byMr. Eddy, who, in fact, owned the Aberderfyn pit as well. I know nothing whatever of the Brynyrowen pit as I was not working in it.

Edward Ellis: I am a chartermaster at the Sawney pit, in partnership with Edward Davies. I do not recollect seeing Mr. Morris on the Tuesday before the accident. I do not recollect speaking to him at all. I am positive he never said anything to me about the water in the Sawney pit at any time, nor had any one else. I am engaged on the bank and Davies down below. Never said that the master would kill me if the water broke in and drowned the pit. On my oath I never did.

Wm. Edwards, on being sworn, said: I am machine-clerk or royalty agent at the Brynyrowen colliery, on the part of the landlord, Mr. Yorke: I recollect going withMr. Evans to the Brynyrowen old pit and showing as well as I could, the direction of the old workings. Mr. Eddy, the proprietor, worked the coal towards the cottage by the side of the road, in a slanting direction, in order to avoid the water which was known to exist in the Brynyrowen lands. The works was finally stopped by the water coming from the Aberderfyn Engine pit, with which a communication had been made. I cannot state whether 7 feet of water could force its way through 19 yards of ground, or not; I decline hazarding an opinion on the subject: I cannot exactly state what the breadth of the wicket was which they were working in the Old Brynyrowen pit, for although I was down the pit and saw it, I did not take particular notice of it in this respect. I judged of the direction in which they were working merely by my eye, as I could see the top of the pit from the bottom. The working was never dialled that I know of. The accounts which were kept of the coal would not tell the quantity that was gotten there, as other coal was mixed up with them.

Simon Jones, who was not sworn, contradicted this account of the coal being got in the direction of the cottage, and said that it was worked towards Pentrebychan, to the north; and as this account of it fully explains the late influx of water into the Brynyrowen pit which caused the accident, it is most probably the correct one.

Mr. Dickenson, the Government inspector, after being sworn, deposed thus : I am the Government Inspector of Coal Mines for Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales, and on the 10th inst. I made an inspection of this colliery in reference to the accident. I first went over the surface in order to examine the Brynyrowen Old Pit from the workings of which it would appear that the water had issued. I then went down the Brynyrowen Sawney Pit, to the brassey coal and along the cross-measure drift to the main coal, and I then examined the place where the water seemed to have broken in. It was still flowing but apparently not under pressure. The place was at the dip point at the face of the wicket where the coal had been holed out, and the coal having been undermined and blasted, holes having been drilled in for the reception of the shot. The floor appeared to have been lifted up by the force of the water to about 4 square feet, the bottom of which was like a slab, which, whilst the pressure of the water was against it would be raised up, and when I saw it had subsided to about an inch of its original place. Now with regard to the red spots said to have been seen on the coal by some of the witnesses, I must say that at the bottom of the seam, to about 6 inches above the pavement, such spots were very numerous, and I think an inference might have been drawn from them that old workings containing water were near, especially when it was very well known that water was standing in those old pits, as might be seen both in the Aberderfyn and the Brynyrowen. Ready means undoubtedly existed for ascertaining that this water was standing in the old workings above the level of the workings in the main coal, viz: by levelling across from the old pit to the Sawney, and thence to the face of the main coal work, the distance between the pit being only about 100 yards, which any competent surveyor would have accomplished in a few hours only. The evidence therefore of the Chartermasters who stated that they supposed they were working above the level of those old works can go for nothing, being no more than a mere expression of opinion; whereas had the level been properly taken it could have been at once ascertained beyond all doubt what the precise relations were. It was known to the masters of the work that no plan had been kept of the workings in the Brynyrowen Old Pit, and knowing that their main coal workings were in the immediate vicinity of them, it was in my opinion, incumbent upon them to have kept boring in advance, so that the old workings might have been bored when a sufficient pillar of coal existed between them and the front workings. I do not see how the managers can plead ignorance of the proper manner of conducting a mine in the neighbourhood of old workings ; the firm embraces the names of Messrs. Taylorand Sons, who I must say are not only well known throughout this country, but also throughout Europe as the ablest vien-mining agents, and the under ground bailiff has also had great experience in some of the deepest and most heavily watered coal mines in the country.

The Coroner then addressed the jury, and said, that the evidence was now complete, and it was their duty to give their verdict unbiased by fear or favour. There had been a slight contradiction in the evidence ofDavies and Morris, which could not be easily reconciled but it did not materially affect the case before them. He then briefly alluded to the leading article which appeared in the last Wrexham Advertiser, on the subject of coal pit accidents, which he said would have been more properly kept out till the termination of the Inquest, and he hoped that the jury would not be influenced by it, nor by anything else which they might have heard elsewhere. The jury then retired, and after about half an hour consultation, they returned into the room, the foreman giving (in writing) the following verdict.

The Verdict

That the deceased men were accidentally drowned in the Sawney Pit of of the Brynyrowen colliery ; but the jury cannot separate without expressing their deep regret that the proprietors of the said colliery did not take the necessary precautions of levelling and boring, particularly as it was well known that old workings were near which contained water, and there being no plan of such old workings to be obtained.