Lan Mine Gwaelod y Garth

 

This is just opposite Taffs Well and no doubt some of its workers came from the village.  Below is an extract from the BBC News website.

A memorial to 16 men and boys who died in Cardiff's only mining disaster has been unveiled after a campaign for them to be remembered.  Norma Procter became inspired by the story of workers at Llan Colliery in Gwaelod-y-Garth who were killed in an explosion on 6 December 1875.  She lives in the house of one of the victims and researched the disaster's effects on the men's families.

Around 300 men and boys worked at the Llan drift mine, which supplied coal to the neighbouring Pentyrch iron works and brick works on the outskirts of Cardiff.  On a snowy December morning 137 years ago, half of them were on shift when an explosion ripped through a coal seam 500ft (152m) down.

Villagers from surrounding areas congregated at the surface as word spread, along with two doctors from nearby Taffs Well.

The dead and injured were carried out of the mine on planks and taken to local houses where their wives and mothers tended to them.

Twelve men and boys died that day, including one aged 12 and an 11-year-old who had been playing hide and seek underground.  Another four died afterwards from the effects of the explosion.

The 72-year-old learnt that one of the victims of Llan once lived in her house with his wife and six children. 

"His name was Abraham Phillips and my grandson did research and discovered he was the overman [who inspected the state of the mine every morning] and he was killed at the colliery on 6 December," she said.

"By 1 January his wife and family had left the house - that's how hard life was in Victorian times.