Ferndale Explosion: Valley Of Children Without Fathers

[mikey4444]

Not sure where to put this link. This happened 150 years go, one of many, many coal mine accidents :::::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41746625

[MallyJ]

Appalling tragedy....and just one of so many. Not the same type of incident but I can only remember my father crying once in my life and that was after Aberfan (he was from Tredegar). How many of all those lives have been saved over all those years if a bit more money had been spent on safety. Really very hard to think about it for me.

[mikey4444]

Yes, Mally....a simply dreadful accident. One of many, the worst being The Senghenydd colliery disaster ::::

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senghenydd_colliery_disaster

In that accident, the mine owners were more concerned about the loss of the pit ponies, then they were of the 439 men and boys that perished.

I visited that the graves of the children killed at Abervan a few years ago, when I was working in the area. I cried like a baby, walking down the 3 rows of graves, some with ceramic photos on, and some with 3 kids from the same family.

[horseshoes]

Not on this scale, but tragic just the same, I discovered that my great grandfather's brother died in the Ashton Under Lyne deep pit disaster. John Carr aged 45.

http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/lpfc-duk-hall/deep-pit-disaster.htm

[tonyav]

Two ancestors of mine lost in this disaster, mikey.
http://www.ccmhs.co.uk/photogallery/Pelsall%20Hall/Calamity.jpg