One hundred years ago tomorrow, at 8:00AM on the morning of 14 October 1913, a terrible series of explosions struck the Universal Coal Pit in the village of Senghenydd.

In that explosion, Senghenydd lost nearly its entire male population, almost 440 men and boys, to the largest mining disaster in the history of the UK, one of the most terrible in the world.

The disaster was believed to have been caused by "firedamp": a spark ignites methane gas and explodes, that explosion sucks coal dust on the floor into the air and ignites that into a larger explosion. In Senghenydd, each blast caused more coal dust to rise in a series of self-igniting explosions, which spread through the underground works of the mine and were followed by "afterdamp," deadly poisonous gases which replaced the missing air and oxygen.

Following the disaster, investigations of the mine found many safety faults by the owners and managers, who were fined only 24 for the lives of hundreds of fathers, sons, brothers, uncles and nephews.

Tomorrow, thousands of people will line the streets of Senghenydd to mark the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

A week of events which started on October 12th will include tomorrow's unveiling of a bronze statue of a rescue worker aiding a miner, created by sculptor Les Johnson, and the opening of a walled garden.

The garden will include a slate tile for each of the Senghenydd victims which will give their name, age and address and a "path of memory" made of tiles for each mining disaster in Wales that resulted in the deaths of five or more people with the name of the colliery, date of disaster and the number of victims.

You can find out more about the memorial and the events planned here:

http://your.caerphilly.gov.uk/abervalleyheritage/events

Book of the Day, 14 October -

Surfing Through Minefields by Bel Roberts - A Review

From our interview with Bel Roberts :- " Surfing Through Minefields belongs to the hybrid genre reality fiction. I have set the story in a fictional contemporary comprehensive school in Monmouth and have researched the facts surrounding the Senghenydd Pit disaster of 1913 in such a way that the history of the event is seen from the prospective of a modern teenager and by the residents of an old peoples home who have actual mementos of the tragic event. The heroine, Lauren, is an English teenager sent to stay with her grandmother in Wales while her parents sort out their various problems." ... read more here

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