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Risca Colliery Disasters
The Risca colliery disasters were a series of catastrophic mine explosions near the Welsh town of Risca (then in the county of Monmouthshire) in the nineteenth century. The most serious of these were in 1860 when more than 140 died in the Black Vein colliery and in 1880 when 120 died at the New Risca colliery. Although these were not amongst the most serious mine disasters in the Welsh coalfield, they were some of earliest large-scale pit disasters in the nineteenth century and along with the Abercarn colliery disaster of 1878 represented a total loss of life between 1842 and 1880 of more than 580 lives. The main disasters in Risca attracted nationwide press coverage and resulted in official inquiries to determine the causes of the accidents. Background The Black Vein Colliery was opened in the early 1840s by John Russell of the Risca Iron and Coal Company, employing more than 350. By 1842 the Black Vein colliery was already gaining a reputation as being accident prone with 3 co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in 2021 of 3,107,500 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (), its highest summit. The country lies within the Temperateness, north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. The capital and largest city is Cardiff. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales was formed as a Kingdom of Wales, kingdom under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1055. Wales is regarded as one of the Celtic nations. The Conquest of Wales by Edward I, conquest of Wales by Edward I of England was completed by 1283, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Risca
Risca ( cy, Rhisga) is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough and the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in south-east Wales. Risca has a railway station, opened on the Ebbw Valley Railway in February 2008, after a gap of 46 years. It is split into two communities; Risca East and Risca West. It has a population of 11,700. The town is now part of the Cardiff Capital Region which has a combined population of 1,543,293. Cardiff the capital of Wales can be reached in under 28 minutes from the nearby railway station of Risca and Pontymister station which reopened in 2008 after a gap of nearly 60 years. The town lies at the south-eastern edge of the South Wales Coalfield and the town has been shaped by mining, together with other heavy industries, for many centuries. Risca is home to Ty-Sign, which is a large housing estate built in the early 1960s as a satellite village for the then new Llanwern steelworks. Risca has a rural aspect and is surrounded to the east and west by sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with other towns and large villages being: Caldicot, Chepstow, Monmouth, Magor and Usk. It borders Torfaen, Newport and Blaenau Gwent to the west; Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the east; and Powys to the north. Historic county The historic county of Monmouthshire was formed from the Welsh Marches by the Laws in Wales Act 1535 bordering Gloucestershire to the east, Herefordshire to the northeast, Brecknockshire to the north, and Glamorgan to the west. The Laws in Wales Act 1542 enumerated the counties of Wales and omitted Monmouthshire, implying that the county was no longer to be treated as part of Wales. However, for all purposes Wales had become part of the Kingdom of England, and the difference had little practical effect. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abercarn Colliery Disaster
The Abercarn colliery disaster was a catastrophic explosion within the Prince of Wales Colliery in the Welsh village of Abercarn (then in the county of Monmouthshire), on 11 September 1878, killing 268 men and boys (though an exact number of casualties remains unknown). The cause was assumed to have been the ignition of firedamp by a safety lamp. The disaster is the third worst for loss of life to occur within the South Wales Coalfield. Explosion Shortly after midday on 11 September 1878, with 325 men and boys working underground, a large explosion ripped through the Prince of Wales Colliery. The colliery’s steam whistle blew, signalling that an emergency was underway, drawing colliers and the families of those trapped to the pit head. The explosion caused significant damage to the mine’s roadways and to the bottom of the main shaft. Several fires ignited the coal seams and supporting timber structures, filling the mine with smoke. Rescue attempts A rescue team entered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Russell (collier)
John Russell (c.1788 – 1 March 1873)Although some sources give his date of birth as 1796, in Worcestershire, census records from 1851, 1861 and 1871 all give his place of birth as Broseley, Shropshire, in about 1788. was a British coal and iron master, who had extensive industrial interests especially in the South Wales valleys in the mid-nineteenth century. He was High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1855. Biography Russell was born in1796 at Broseley, Shropshire, but moved to Worcestershire early in his life. In 1817, at St John the Baptist, Claines, he married Mary Downes (1796–1878), daughter of Bejimin Downes of Alton Court, Herefordshire. Her family were said to look down on Russell's relatively humble origins; he vowed "that his wife would always have a carriage and pair".Peter Verity, ''John Russell'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh Journals
The National Library of Wales ( cy, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru), Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales and is one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies. It is the biggest library in Wales, holding over 6.5 million books and periodicals, and the largest collections of archives, portraits, maps and photographic images in Wales. The Library is also home to the national collection of Welsh manuscripts, the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, and the most comprehensive collection of paintings and topographical prints in Wales. As the primary research library and archive in Wales and one of the largest research libraries in the United Kingdom, the National Library is a member of Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). At the very core of the National Library of Wales is the mission to collect and preserve materials related to Wales and Welsh life and those which can be utilised by the people of Wales fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firedamp
Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a "bag of foulness". Name Damp is the collective name given to all gases (other than air) found in coal mines in Great Britain and North America. As well as firedamp, other damps include ''blackdamp'' (nonbreathable mixture of carbon dioxide, water vapour and other gases); whitedamp (carbon monoxide and other gases produced by combustion); poisonous, explosive ''stinkdamp'' (hydrogen sulfide), with its characteristic rotten-egg odour; and the insidiously lethal ''afterdamp'' (carbon monoxide and other gases) which are produced following explosions of firedamp or coal dust. Etymology Often hyphenated as fire-damp, this term for a flammabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Welshman (newspaper)
The Welshman (established in 1832) was a weekly 'radical' English language Welsh newspaper, reporting local and national news and information. It was published in Carmarthen and distributed in the Cardiganshire area and through much of South Wales. From 1840 to 1942 it was known as ''The Welshman and general advertiser for the Principality of Wales'', reverting to its original name in 1942. In the late 1940s the paper was bought by the owners of the ''Carmarthen Journal The ''Carmarthen Journal'' is a newspaper founded in 1810 in Wales and now based in Carmarthen, the county town of Carmarthenshire, Wales. The building housing the ''Carmarthen Journal'' asserts that the ''Carmarthen Journal'' is the oldest newsp ...'' . The Welshman ceased publication in 1984. There are 2,032 issues of the paper (from 1835 to 1910) free online at the National Library of Wales. References Newspapers published in Wales Newspapers established in 1835 Publications disestablished in 198 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monmouthshire Merlin
The ''Monmouthshire Beacon'' is a weekly tabloid newspaper covering the areas of Monmouthshire, south Herefordshire and western Gloucestershire. It has been in continuous publication since 1837. Since 1980 the newspaper has been part of the Tindle Newspaper Group of local newspapers owned by Farnham Castle Newspapers and chaired by Sir Ray Tindle (1926-2022).Monmouthshire Beacon British Newspapers Online, accessed 20 January 2012 The newspaper's editorial office is at Cornwall House, Monnow Street, Monmouth. The ''Beacon'' is published every Wednesday. Its sister paper, the '' |
Crosskeys
Crosskeys ( cy, Pont-y-cymer) is a village, community and an electoral ward in Caerphilly county borough in Wales. Etymology The village was originally named Pont-y-cymer and this remains the official Welsh name for the village. The name means ''bridge at the confluence of rivers'', and suggests the area was known as a place to bridge the confluence of the Ebbw and the Sirhowy rivers, long before its urban development in the nineteenth century. The English name is taken from the Cross Keys Inn (now known as the Cross Keys Hotel), The English name appears as ''Crosskeys'' on Ordnance Survey maps, and the railway station also uses this spelling. However, many local organisations use the two word spelling, as does Cross Keys RFC. History Crosskeys is a South Wales Valleys community, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, once part of the coal mining community of the South Wales coalfield and originally developed as part of Risca from the 1830s to serve the local ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wattsville
Wattsville is a small village in the Sirhowy Valley, eight miles north west of Newport, built in the 20th century for accommodation for mine workers. Amenities Modern Wattsville consists of two villages, Wattsville and Brynawel. It consists of one main street (Islwyn road) with another hugging the valley below. Wattsville is the base for the Sirhowy valley country park, starting at the tourist centre in Full Moon Cottage (the site of an 19th century village of Full moon, a site for hillwalking and mountain biking on the old railway trackbed. History Further up the valley at Cwmfelinfach is the old site of Nine Mile Point Colliery. This was the site of the first ever 'sit in' of miners. At Wattsville the New Risca Mine, opened 1878 and was 855 feet deep. It was located on the eastern edge of Wattsville and was the first colliery in South Wales to have electric lighting at the pithead and underground in 1892. The bassist and lyricist of Manic Street Preachers Nicky Wire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Mining Disasters In Wales
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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