Cambrian Colliery Disaster

BBC news clip of the 1965 Cambrian Colliery Disaster,The explosion occured in the Pentre Seam of the p.26district.Among the 31 Miners that lost their lives was Albert Colcombe my Mother in Laws Brother aged 44.A list of all that died can be found using the following link http://www.therhondda.co.uk/deaths/accounts/cambrian_colliery_17_05_1965.html
Two years after the disaster the mine was finally closed, and in 1992 Neil Kinnock opened a Memorial garden on the site of the old pit.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• clydach
• vale
• cambrian
• colliery
• cwm
• rhondda
• tonypandy

[GYR8Bellydance]

What price greed. Though the colliery manager and undermanagers' also lost thier lives in this tradegy, (and I feel for their families even now), their culpibility is this even was and has always been played down. It was because of their ruling that a firedoor be kept open to facilitate the expediency of a replacement piece of equipment, that allowed the build up of firedamp which led to the explosion. What pric indeed.

[aniseedtwist]

yes and then came Aberfan just 17 months later, warnings were plentiful there as well.Shameful indeed.

Thanks for the comment.

Gareth

[chudjackson]

thanks for putting this up,i'm sure the man stepping off the tram on 1:33 is my dad.Myrddin.

[aniseedtwist]

whats his surname,will ask my inlaws and see if they know

[cymru148]

Very interesting. Randomly came across this now. Do you mind me asking where you got it from, and is there any more? There seems to be plenty of old photos of the Rhondda, but it would be nice to get a video archive.

[aniseedtwist]

thanks cymru,search google for BBC eclips,quite a bit of old film on there

[bampie1]

@GYR8Bellydance

My father should have died in this explosion but a few days before a miner asked to swap shifts as he had a darts match. They swapped and he died, tragic, but even worse his family then blamed my father for his death. Something he never got over.

[steveltrwl]

An aunt on my wife's side of the family lost her husband in this disaster. The worst part of it however was that she found out by reading the Western Mail newspaper on her journey home from work in Cardiff. The front page carried the banner headline and the names were listed alphabetically. Her husbands surname was Arnold and his was the first name. Not a way to find out that your husband had died that day.

[chudjackson]

Pritchard. Looks a bit like him,not sure though.He was very lucky,he was waiting for the lift when the blast happened,he still went down to see if he could help.He has'nt been the same since that day my mam said. Never ever mentions it,nor do we.A tragedy,for the family members of the deceased and all those affected by the blast.

[aniseedtwist]

cheers mush,thanks for the comments