Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Brass miner's safety lamp with 'Hepplewhite Gray' and 'Ashworth's Patent' and 'Stanley Derby' stamped on middle flat section above glass centre. This gas detecting lamp was used at Universal Colliery, Senghenydd in the early 20th century. It was owned by Bowen Jones, one of the victims of the 1913 explosion in which 439 miners were killed (the worst mining disaster in British history). His workmate, Bill Wedlock survived the disaster and his family kept the lamp until 1993.

The Hepplewhite Gray lamp was usually used by mine officials rather than workmen (although their use is not mentioned as being the practice at the Universal Colliery in 1913) and it is possible that Mr Bowen Jones was one of them although his name doesn't appear as one of the fourteen 'firemen' down the pit at the time of the explosion.