A Swansea community is set to come together on Sunday, November 24, to honour and remember the victims of the Killan Colliery disaster a century ago.
November 27 will mark the 100-year anniversary of the Killan Colliery disaster, where five miners lost their lives when an inrush of water flooded the Killan Colliery in Dunvant.
On Sunday, November 24, at 3.30pm Dunvant’s Ebeneser Chapel is welcoming the community for a special service that will also feature the Dunvant Male Choir.
And as part of the commemorations Swansea Council’s Gower National Landscape (GNL) team has joined together with local councillors and community groups to refresh a local memorial to those who died in the disaster.
In 1996, Dunvant Community Council installed a memorial in Dunvant Car Park to commemorate those who lost their lives. However, over time the memorial had become rundown, with the text becoming illegible. But now the monument has been restored in time for the centenary .
Elliott King, Cabinet Member for Culture, Human Rights and Equalites, said: “The deep mining industry which once dominated communities all over South Wales is now part of our shared heritage and history.
“But the legacy lives on in the stories and the memories from those times. The new memorial set up just in time for the centenary of the Killan Colliery disaster makes sure that those who perished will never be forgotten.
“I’m very pleased that our Gower National Landscape team have been able to support the community to remember forever this important anniversary and the sacrifices their community made.”
The Gower National Landscape team organised the design, production and installation of the signs thanks to funding from the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Landscapes, Sustainable Places fund.
The memorial scheme forms part of the GNL’s wider ambition to improve directional and interpretation signage in Clyne Valley.
While the memorial’s structure remains the same as before, the new bilingual signage makes it easier for visitors to the car park to fully appreciate why it was created in the first place.
The men who lost their lives on 27 November, 1924 in the Killan Colliery disaster were:
Wilfred John (17)
Willie Goulding (22)
Charles Evans (30)
Archie Davis (28)
Phil Godbeer (32)
