A Haunted Coal Mine, Glamorgan

 Jersey Evening Post, 15th July 1902

The men employed at the Glyncorry Colliery, Glamorgan, to the number of 300, this morning refused to go down the mine. Some said they considered the working in danger of being flooded by water from an abandoned mine adjoining. Others said they have seen the figure of a woman waving a lighted lamp in the mine and have heard screams. The men assert they have heard cries for help and sounds of falls, and seen flashes of light. There is a general belief among the men that the mine is haunted. It is feared that it will be difficult to get them to resume work.

Superstitions at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd

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.

"Strikes caused by ghosts"

Quite recently the whole of the miners belonging to the Glyncorrwg Colliery, near Port Talbot, Glamorganshire, went out on strike through fear of a ghost. Deep down in the nethermost workings, they assert, a white-clothed female figure appears at frequent but irregular intervals, waves her arms thrice above her head, mutters certain words in an unknown tongue, and then vanishes.

This, of course, is no new thing. Miners are proverbially superstitious, and it is only natural that they should decline to go down into a mine that they believe to be haunted; but it is rather hard lines for the mine-owners especially as these ghost-induced strikes often prove exceedingly expensive.

Thus, in 1873, several hundred Warwickshire colliers ceased work, owing to the alleged appearance, in a disused drift, of a "luminous boy." This strike lasted for the better part of a year, and cost £30,000; and after all the so-called "luminous boy" turned out to be nothing more supernatural than a collection of decaying fungi.

Bell-ringing apparitions have haunted the Cornish tin-mines from time immemorial. The miners assert that the bells are rung by kindly-disposed ghosts, themselves miners when in the flesh, as a warning of impending calamity; and no amount of persuasion will induce them to venture below ground at such times.

One of these curious strikes lasted five months; and another which threatened to continue indefinitely, was only brought to a close by the plucky action of one of the proprietors, who, in order to reassure his men, descended himself into the particular working which was supposed to be haunted, and stayed there quite alone for three days and nights.

Very tragic was the termination of the spook-bred strike which, in 1887, occurred iat Mons Colliery, in Belgium. Late in April the men came out because, so they averred, a strange shaggy man, who vanished when approached, had been heard in the workings foretelling disaster and muttering imprecations against those who disregarded his warnings. for several days the mine lay idle, but on the morning of the 5th of MArch the manager had so far succeeded in allaying the fears of the men that a goodly proportion of them returned to work. Two or three hours later a terrific explosion occurred, causing the death of eighty-seven of them.

Northants Evening Telegraph, 16th August 1902.

Glyncorrwg, Nr. Port Talbot, Glamorganshire

So firmly convinced are the men employed at the Glyncorrwg Mine, near Port Talbot, Glamorganshire, that the workings are haunted, that on Monday between two hundred and three hundred of them refused to descend. They declare that during the latter part of last week they heard sounds and saw visions which they regard as portents of evil. They solemnly assert that a mysterious figure waving a lighted lamp was seen, and that screams, apparently from a woman, were heard in various parts of the mine. Welsh miners are singularly superstitious, and some difficulty is expected.

Grantham Journal, 19th July 1902.


 The miners of the Glyncorrwg Colliery, near Port Talbot, who refused to resume work on Monday morning because they thought that the mine was haunted, were seen yesterday by their agent, Mr. John Williams. The plans of an adjoining abandoned colliery, from which danger by flooding is feared, were scanned, and the whole situation was fully discussed. The men unanimously declined to return to work.

St James's Gazette, 17th July 1902.