A Welsh Coal Mines web page

My thanks to Doug Hurley for emailing me this and other poems of the late Aneurin Owen. 

 SHAFT OF TERROR 

A summers morn beneath cloudless sky, Reluctant miners wait 
For ride to depth of mine so sly 
Where fate had set it's bait. 

One cage goes down while one ascends 
At speed, then 'wuff' they pass, 
In bowels of the earth one ends 
While one sights sun and grass. 

The cage descends, the sunshine lost 
Black of night prevailed. 
No miner dreamed the tragic cost 
Descent to mine entailed. 

With midway passed, the speed retard, 
Prepare for gentle stop, 
But the carriage hit the bottom hard 
To floor of cage men drop. 

Luck smiled on some though others not. 
Broken legs sustain 
Slightly injured walked from spot 
But victims did remain. 

The carriage entered, martyr led, 
Afflicted to remove. 
Terrific screaming overhead 
No rescue yet did prove. 

The other cage, it hurtled down 
A thousand feet or more 
Confines of shaft, a stonework gown 
And thus contains the roar. 

Moments of horror 
Some souls would dement 
A lifetime, an era, 
In seconds were spent. 

The trapped men passed by falling cage 
Stout beams it smashes through 
The mens removal seemed an age 
A shaft of terror true. 

Written by Aneurin Owen of Clydach Vale about the Cambrian Carriage accident at No 3 pit on July 14th, 1920.