£10k raised to honour colliery disaster victims

A FUNDRAISING effort has raised over £10,000 for a permanent memorial to the miners who lost their lives in the Gwendraeth Valley's Cynheidre Colliery disaster 55 years ago.

- IAN LEWIS Reporter

The pithead gear at Graig Merthyr Colliery in Pontarddulais

The campaign was launched last summer and now, almost 12 months on, there is a final push for any last-minute donations.

The memorial will be placed on land owned by the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway (LMMR) - which sits on part of the original colliery site, approximately five miles north of Llanelli.

On April 6, 1971, disaster struck when six miners were killed and 69 others suffered from asphyxiation at the colliery. This was caused by a sudden large explosion of methane gas and fine coal dust from the Big Vein seam.

The six miners were Douglas Lyndon Davies, William Luther Davies, Henryk Itzi, Albert George Miller, Henry Garfield Roberts and Ieuan Gareth Watkins.

The disaster is recognised as one of the worst of its kind in the history of the South Wales Coalfield.