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Genwen Colliery, near Llanelli, 1907.
Sunk by Townsend to work the Swansea 5 feet seam, at 249 feet, in the 1760's, the Genwen mine formally known as the Llwynhendy Fire Engine Pit had a very chequered life being left idle for long periods some times for many years at a time.
It was General Warde who built the steam engine pumping house (which is a listed building today) in 1805. Later a couple of drifts were sunk from the colliery surface to work the Swansea 4 feet seam.
Later it past into the ownership of the Nevill's, who deepened the shafts to 318 feet in the 1860's. It was closed in 1866 and remained so for over 30 years being reopened in 1897, by David Harry.
Genwen had a reputation of being a very gassy pit with high levels of firedamp
and three explosions are recorded at the mine.
There were 69 men employed in 1900.
On March 5th 1907 an explosion occurred which killed 4 miners and 2 miners lost
their lives in the rescue attempt. They were:
Thomas Davies
Thomas Howells
Llewellyn Evans
David Phillips and
Edward Harry and Roderick Davies rescuers killed by the afterdamp.
Scenes at the mine are captured in the above picture.
At the inquest feelings became bitter when the owners accused the men who died of smoking pipes, which led to the blast. But the jury rejected the owners claims and a defective safety lamp was found to be the cause of the explosion. The safety standards at the mine were called into question which led to criminal charges being brought against the mine owners, who pleaded guilty to the charges and were fined.
The mine never reopened