The Welsh colliery disaster, for the firends of the victims of which the whole working class population of this country have felt the deepest sympathy, has been the means of reviving some very curious superstitions amongst the mining population, which were once general. It will be well known that the doings of certain birds under certain conditions have been held to be unfailing signs of calamity. Hence it used to be held that a robin on the doorstep was a certain sign of death in the house. So also our forefathers used to say that the settling of rooks in the street was a sure sign of a death amongst the people living in it. Amongst miners superstitions of this character are even now much regarded. So it happens that the folk in the neighbourhood of the Senghenydd disaster believe that Providence had given the poor victims of the explosion a prophetic warning by means of birds of the frightful disaster which overtook them. For several days a dove is said to have been seen hovering over the frame of the pit, and refused to go away from the mouth of the pit at night. Again, it is stated that a flock of crows flew about the pit a few days before the disaster, and that on the night before the explosion actually took place they were seen to settle in the streets of a neighbouring village, beat their wings in flight against the windows, and otherwise signal by unusual conduct in the fraternity of rooks the impending calamity. It will be observed that this latter superstition is similar to that believed in by our own Warwickshire grandparents with regard to rooks. [...]
Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser. 29th June, 1901.
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