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Home » Health, Welfare and Charity » Death and disaster » Explosions

Displaying results 1 to 4 out of 4

Page 1

  • A contemporary engraving depicting the result of a disastrous explosion in 1869 at Bryn-mawr in South Wales. A young boy called Evan Evans had gone into a warehouse to fetch some gunpowder for a customer of Messrs Watkins' grocery business. He unwisely took a lighted candle with him, and was killed, along with several others, when the powder was ignited by the flame.
Gunpowder explosion at Bryn-Mawr, 1869
  • This ballad was written by Abel Jones 'Bardd Crwst' (1829-1901) and tells the story of the accident which took place near Cwm-y-glo, Caernarfonshire, on 30 June 1869. Two wagons of Nitro-glycerine oil which were on their way to the nearby slate quarries exploded, killing five and injuring several others. The names of the victims, which included two young boys, as well as the names of the injured men are listed on page 1.
Welsh ballad re. the explosion which killed 5 people at Cwm-y-glo, 30 June 1869, page 1
  • This ballad by Dewi Peris Jones, entitled 'Y Cusan Olaf' [The Last Kiss], tells the sad tale of a slate quarryman who was killed at the quarry shortly after kissing his daughter for the last time. Only a few hours before his tragic accident, his only daughter, 7-year-old Mary Jones, had visited the quarry, to deliver her father's lunch. Little did he know, as he greeted his young daughter and kissed her, that this would be the last time that they would meet. The story is all the more sad when it is revealed that Mary's mother had died when she was only three months old.
Welsh ballad - 'Y Cusan Olaf' (The Last Kiss] by Dewi Peris Jones, page 1
Newspaper report on the Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, 15th October 1913 [image 1 of 3]