Landshipping. Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. 14th February, 1844. The colliery was the property of Colonel Owen. The colliery had been worked for many years and the workings were carried under the River Dunleddy but for sometime this area had not been worked for three years. When these workings were reopened the water broke in when about fifty men, women and boys were at work.

There was a violent rush of water into the workings and they ran for their lives but about forty lives were lost. Immediately after the accident it was found that the ground underneath the mud on the river bed, a little above low water mark and directly above the level, had given way and eyewitness stated that the water rushed down into the workings with great force. A contemporary writer observed- “It is possible, that, on the minds of many who read the account, an impression may be left, that as the calamity was occasioned by the sudden bursting of a mass of water, which, rushing at once through all the levels, penetrated directly to the exterior shaft. It may be supposed that a permanent communication would thus be opened between the pit and the river, in which case the probability of the bodies of the unfortunate men being sooner or later found, might be reasonably inferred. But this must go on the supposition that the level of the water now in the pit is the same as that of the river in all circumstances, in which case the aperture, through which the water rushed, must lie considerably lower than any part of the river’s bed left dry by the ebbing of the waters. The case, however, is known to be very different. At the time the alarm was given, the attention of some bystanders was directed to the appearance of the river at such short a distance from the quay as could easily be known with general accuracy. In this place the waters were seen eddying and rolling in the most violent agitation, a certain proof that the part where the ground have given way, lay directly underneath. This spot, with a considerable space outside it, was left bare by the retiring river but not the most distant sign was exhibited form any such occurrence having taken place! The only conclusion is that an immense body of mud, earth and stones was forced into the opening, completely choking up the passage through which the flood had previously entered and which, it is supposed, may n time become reconsolidated as event to allow of the working of the pits, if the water now lying between it and the shaft were drained, but of this being done, no one entertains a thought. It is, therefore, almost certain that the unhappy sufferers, so suddenly overtaken by this overwhelming destruction, will be no more seen until till the earth and sea shall yield up their dead. Some men have descended the shaft and employed grapnels for a considerable time, but with no effect. There is something peculiarly touching in the perfect absence of every outward sign which indicate the calamitous event. With the exception of the machinery remaining idle and the appearance of the sullen water far down the pit, everything is the same in its external character, nothing whatever to tell the passenger that within a few yards of him forty individuals have found a grave.”

Those who died were:-

• Bedford, unmarried.
• Two boys named Butler.
• John Cole, 16.
• John Cole, 25, left a mother and sisters who were dependent on him.
• Thomas Cole, 14
• Two boys named Daves.
• Davies, a boy.
• Day, a boy.
• Thomas Gray, who left a wife and six children.
• Benjamin Hart, left a wife and three children.
• Benjamin Harts’ son.
• John Hitchings, unmarried.
• Hitchings, a boy
• William Hughes, 15
• James Jenkins, 14.Benjamin Jones, 25, left a wife.
• Two boys named John.
• Jones, a boy.
• Thomas Llewellyn, 45, who had a sister dependent on him.
• William Llewellyn, 30, who left a wife and child.
• William Llewellyn, 58,  who left a wife and grown up children.
• William Llewellyn’s son John, 12.
• Llewellyn, a boy
• Isaac Owens, 23.
• Joseph Picton, 40, and three sons James, 15, Mark, 13, Joseph, 11, he also left a wife and three children.
• Thomas, a boy.
• Two orphans of the late Jane Wilkins.

An account of the accident was related to Mr. Dunn and he was told that only four feet of rock and sixty feet of sand were between the workings and the bottom of the river. A subscription fund was set up for the dependants of the victims and £400 was raised in a very short time.

The Landshipping disaster has been documented in several books, including a book about the history of Welsh mining disasters and the 'appalling’ conditions of 19th century coal-mining industry.

Working in mining was compared to be as risky as going to war. The Black Mystery - the first comprehensive study into mining across Pembrokeshire and south/west Wales, written by Ronald Rees. reports on the Valentine's Day disaster in 1844 when (he states) 33 miners were drowned as the river flooded the coal seam they were working in under the eastern Cleddau at Landshipping's Garden Pit.

The disaster was all but forgotten until a memorial was erected in honour of those who lost their lives - some believed to have been young boys and women. Pembrokeshire was never urbanised to the extent of the south Wales valleys and most of its coal mining heritage has been forgotten as tourism has taken over as the main industry. However, much of the county's wealth and infrastructure was due to coal mining and export.

Interviewed by the Western Mail, the author said: "According to impartial observers, there was no other land occupation that had so many ways of causing injury and death, making it equivalent to "sending raw unarmed troops into battle against a well-equipped enemy"

"Conditions were terrible but a paradox is that even though working conditions were awful and dangerous, miners were reluctant to leave the mines," said Mr Rees, a retired lecturer whose books include ‘King Copper’, a history of the copper industry in the Swansea area, and ‘Heroic Science’, an account of the achievements of a group of renowned scientists at the Royal Institution of South Wales during the 19th century.

"They speak of the mine as a close-knit community, the development of a brotherhood formed out of the danger of the work.

"Growing up in Skewen I knew a lot of miners but I never met one who wouldn't go back underground. In West Wales, the mines were generally small, not inspected and not well-managed so death and accident rates were high.