Valle de Clydach

Las minas de carbón de Clydach Vale se convertirían más tarde en sinónimo del activismo obrero en la cuenca carbonífera del sur de Gales . Inaugurada en 1872, la mina número 1 de Clydach Vale fue excavada originalmente por Osbourne Riches y Samuel Thomas y, en 1894, fue conectada con el ferrocarril de Taff Vale . Tras la muerte de Thomas en 1879, sus hijos se convirtieron en socios gestores y, en 1895, fundaron Cambrian Collieries Ltd. Las minas de Cambrian Collieries fueron foco de disputas entre sindicatos activos como la Federación de Mineros del Sur de Gales y el Cambrian Combine, una red empresarial de compañías mineras creada para regular los precios y los salarios en el sur de Gales. Un duro enfrentamiento entre ellos desembocó en los disturbios de Tonypandy en 1910 .

On 10 March 1905, an explosion occurred at the Cambrian Colliery No.1. The explosion was heard for miles around the valleys and resulted in the loss of 33 lives and serious injury to 14 others. The accident happened between the day and night shifts, otherwise the death toll would have been far higher.^[2][3]

On 25 November 1941, seven men were killed and 53 were injured when a trolley transporting miners down a sharply sloping shaft ran out of control.^[4] The incident happened at the 'Gorky' drift mine, with ninety men and boys taking the spake, an open-sided trolley fitted with cross planks for seating and a central overhead handrail as a holding point, down to the workings 525 yards below. The surface engineman suffered a temporary blackout and the manual brake was disengaged, causing the spake to quickly build up speed. Most of the injuries and fatalities were to miners who leapt from the spake and were thrown back under the trolley due to the narrowness of the drift shaft.^[4]

On 17 May 1965, a third major accident occurred at the Cambrian Colliery. An explosion caused by firedamp, after poor ventilation allowed a build-up of flammable gas, killed 31 miners. The ignition point was later identified as an electric arc on an open switch-panel which was being worked on. This was the last major mining disaster in South Wales history.^[2]

At about 4.00 p.m. on Friday 11 March 1910, the lives of one adult and five children were lost when pent-up water from an abandoned coal mine burst through into the village.

The mountainside seemed to give way, 'as though from a volcanic eruption' and a torrent of water together with huge amounts of earth, boulders and other debris swept down the hillside. Directly in the path of this torrent lay Adams Terrace and, according to contemporary newspaper reports, the first house it encountered 'was in a moment completely wrecked like a pack of cards' and its occupants Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Williams and her ten-week-old baby girl perished.^[2]

A three-week-old baby boy also died. The newspaper went on to state that, 'Altogether eleven houses and a shoemaker's shop were wrecked, one being completely washed away'.

El torrente, que descendía con fuerza hacia el fondo del valle, inundó la escuela Clydach Vale y atrapó a cientos de niños. El suceso coincidió con el regreso a casa de muchos mineros al finalizar su turno, y un esfuerzo de rescate inmediato por parte de ellos y del personal de la escuela salvó a todos menos a tres de los más de 950 niños. ^{[ 2 ] [ 5 ]} En particular, el director Robert Ralph Williams demostró una valentía extraordinaria al luchar contra la inundación y salvar a muchos niños, por lo que posteriormente recibió la Medalla Albert . ^{[ 6 ] [ 7 ]}

Se colocó una placa de bronce en la escuela en reconocimiento a la disciplina y el heroísmo del personal que organizó el rescate. Como preparación para el centenario del desastre en 2010, se instaló otra placa en la escuela, con los nombres de los fallecidos, junto con un montaje de fotografías que mostraban las consecuencias de la inundación.