Were there any lessons to be learned? Well, the Coal Mines Act 1911 was the culmination of years of work by the Royal Commisson of 1906, and embodied the knowledge and experience, often bitter, of the miners, the mines Inspectorate and owners, over many years. It was a serious attempt to get standards for safety and conditions in an industry with a long history of danger, sudden death and disaster. Consequently, the provisions of the Act were quite positive in their protection of the workers from these inherent dangers.
But, they recognised also that these aims would not be achieved on a voluntary basis. For this reason the Act spelt out the penalties attending failure to comply with its many requirements.
Unfortunately these penalties were not a very effective deterrent. For an example let’s look at the Senghenydd Pit Disaster in Glamorgan, when on the 14 October 1913 no less than 439 lives were lost in a violent explosion. The coal dust had not been dealt with properly, a matter on about which the Chief Inspector of Mines took a most serious view at the inquiry, and on behalf of the Home Office, the Inspector prosecuted the owners and manager for breaches of the Coal Mines Act. On the coal dust charges, the manager was fined £5 or 14 days in goal. Altogether there were convictions on five charges, and the total fines were £24. The local newspaper headed its report, “Miners lives at One and a Penny Farthing each, ”(Five and a Half Pence)
It was obvious that the penalties inflicted for breaches of mining law, bore no relation to the gravity of the offences committed, nor were they on such a scale as to be an effective deterrent. How many more lives were lost under similar circumstances?
155 at the Minnie pit can be taken as one example.
Of all the stories told about the Minnie pit, before and at the time of the explosion, few can be so well authenticated and so sadly prophetic as told by Mr. Fred Burgess of Bignal End, when he was 90 years of age. He said he had ignored his father’s pleas to continue working with him; otherwise he would almost certainly have been a teenage fatality in the explosion.
At the age of 13 he started at Jammage pit on the screens, where he sorted the stone from the coal. Then at 16 he joined his father at the Minnie, loading for him in the Bullhurst seam. He tells of the numerous times that he and the men with whom he made his way to their place of work, someone would remark, “our clogs will be battering against the roof one of these days”, as they approached the Bullhurst.
So extensive was the accumulation of gas that their lamps, when raised to little more than shoulder height, would all but, be extinguished. Such was their concern that Burgess, Dick Pool, Arthur Roades and Arthur Morgan, made up their minds to give two weeks notice of their intention to leave employment at the Minnie. They worked their notice, which ended exactly one week before the explosion. Burgesses father was killed.
Another quirk of fate relates to Harry Lee. He started work at the Minnie on his 14th birthday, his two elder brothers, Josiah, age 16 and Eli, age 17, already worked there, but he was saved from certain death. After working with Josiah, he changed places with Eli, Harry going to the Rearers. On the day of the explosion, Harry managed to get out, but Josiah and Eli were in the Seven Feet seam and both were killed.
