The Bedford Colliery disaster occurred on Friday 13 August 1886 when an explosion of firedamp caused the death of 38 miners at Bedford No.2 Pit, at Bedford, Leigh in what then was Lancashire. The colliery, sunk in 1884 and known to be a "fiery pit", was owned by John Speakman. [1] [2]
On the day of the disaster 159 men and boys were underground working a shift that started at 6.00 a.m. and would have ended mid afternoon. The disaster took place at about 10.45a.m. in the Crombouke mine (seam) at a depth of about 530 yards and 700 yards from the pit-eye (shaft bottom). The miners in other areas of the pit were wound to the surface. One man working at the seat of the explosion, John Woolley a "dataller", (day wage man) survived and, though burned, managed to get to the bottom of the shaft. When the alarm was raised, the pit manager W. Horrobin, underlooker James Calland and the mine owner's son, Harry Speakman led a rescue party to investigate but were impeded by the presence of afterdamp. According to Calland the afterdamp was "very strong and makes the men very dizzy. When they have this feeling they have to come up quickly to the fresh air". The Mines Inspector, Joseph Dickinson of Pendleton was contacted by telegraph. [1] [2]
The explosion occurred before the formation of mines rescue teams but assistance arrived from nearby collieries and an exploring party of men from Bickershaw Colliery, Astley and Tyldesley Collieries and the Wigan Coal and Iron Company went underground but considered there would be no survivors. The underground fires were eventually extinguished and bodies brought to the surface. [1]
News of the explosion travelled quickly, by 11 a.m. a crowd of women had arrived at the pit and in the evening a crowd estimated to be between eight and ten thousand had gathered at the pit head. The burned and mutilated bodies were wrapped in tarpaulins and taken to the wheelwrights shop and the joiners shop was used as a mortuary. The youngest victim was 15 years old and the oldest 65. The average age of those who died was 32 [3] and 48 children were left fatherless. Some families lost more than one member. [1] [2]
The colliery subscribed to the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Permanent Relief Society whose officials attended at the colliery. A committee of local dignitaries was formed to raise monies for the "Relief of Widows, orphans and others placed in distress by the explosion" and an appeal advertised in The Times newspaper.
The coroner's inquest was not heard until 23 September 1886 so that John Woolley, who had survived the explosion, could give evidence. The coalface where the explosion occurred was being worked on the retreating principle. Headings had been driven into the coal and a working face established between them. As the coal was worked back along the headings, waste material accumulated in the goaf or gob behind it. Pit props were progressively removed and the roof was allowed to subside into the goaf a short distance behind the working face. Woolley was removing pit props when the fracturing roof released firedamp. The flame in Woolley's Davy lamp turned blue indicating explosive gas. Instead of reporting it, work continued. A few minutes later the flame in the lamp of a nearby miner "fired". Established procedure was "lowering his lamp to the floor [firedamp is lighter than air] and taking it steadily into the fresh air, avoiding jerks". Instead the miner shook it and attempted to blow it out at which point the flame passed through the gauze and caused the explosion. [1]
The verdict of the coroner's jury was accidental death caused by an explosion of firedamp. The coroner commented that the fireman should spend more time examining the workings before the men went down the pit and that greater care should be taken examining the lamps. It was regretted that the gas was not reported by the prop-takers. [1]
Subsequently, the colliery owners bought 150 Masault lamps and 50 improved Clanny lamps which had bonnets fitted. [1] The effect of the bonnet was to protect the gauze from draughts and reduce the risk of the flame passing through.
The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It consists of a wick lamp with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen. It was created for use in coal mines, to reduce the danger of explosions due to the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.
Firedamp is flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata, and when they are penetrated, the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a "bag of foulness".
The Blantyre mining disaster, which happened on the morning of 22 October 1877, in Blantyre, Scotland, was Scotland's worst ever mining accident. Pits No. 2 and No. 3 of William Dixon's Blantyre Colliery were the site of an explosion which killed 207 miners, the youngest being a boy of 11. It was known that firedamp was present in the pit and it is likely that this was ignited by a naked flame. The accident left 92 widows and 250 fatherless children.
Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by firedamp, which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust. It consists of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. Hydrogen sulfide, another highly toxic gas, may also be present. However, it is the high content of carbon monoxide which kills by depriving victims of oxygen by combining preferentially with haemoglobin in the blood.
Trimdon Grange is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated ten miles to the west of Hartlepool, and a short distance to the north of Trimdon.
Easington Colliery is a town in County Durham, England, known for a history of coal mining. It is situated to the north of Horden, and a short distance to the east of Easington Village. The town suffered a significant mining accident on 29 May 1951, when an explosion in the mine resulted in the deaths of 83 men.
A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp that provides illumination in coal mines and is designed to operate in air that may contain coal dust or gases, both of which are potentially flammable or explosive. Until the development of effective electric lamps in the early 1900s, miners used flame lamps to provide illumination. Open flame lamps could ignite flammable gases which collected in mines, causing explosions; safety lamps were developed to enclose the flame and prevent it from igniting the surrounding atmosphere. Flame safety lamps have been replaced in mining with sealed explosion-proof electric lights.
The Senghenydd colliery disaster, also known as the Senghenydd explosion, occurred at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, on 14 October 1913. The explosion, which killed 439 miners and a rescuer, is the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom. Universal Colliery, on the South Wales Coalfield, extracted steam coal, which was much in demand. Some of the region's coal seams contained high quantities of firedamp, a highly explosive gas consisting of methane and hydrogen.
The Oaks Colliery explosion was a British mining disaster which occurred on 12 December 1866, killing 361 miners and rescuers at the Oaks Colliery at Hoyle Mill near Stairfoot in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire. The disaster centred upon a series of explosions caused by firedamp, which ripped through the underground workings. It is the worst mining accident in England and the second worst mining disaster in the United Kingdom, after the Senghenydd colliery disaster in Wales.
The Felling Colliery in Britain, suffered four disasters in the 19th century, in 1812, 1813, 1821 and 1847. By far the worst of the four was the 1812 disaster which claimed 92 lives on 25 May 1812. The loss of life in the 1812 disaster was one of the motivators for the development of the miners' safety lamp.
Mine rescue or mines rescue is the specialised job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured in underground mines because of mining accidents, roof falls or floods and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp.
Clifton Hall Colliery was one of two coal mines in Clifton on the Manchester Coalfield, historically in Lancashire which was incorporated into the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England in 1974. Clifton Hall was notorious for an explosion in 1885 which killed around 178 men and boys.
The West Stanley colliery was a coal mine near Stanley. The mine opened in 1832 and was closed in 1936. Over the years several seams were worked through four shafts: Kettledrum pit, Lamp pit, Mary pit and New pit. In 1882 an underground explosion killed 13 men and in 1909 another explosion killed 168 men.
Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.
This is a partial glossary of coal mining terminology commonly used in the coalfields of the United Kingdom. Some words were in use throughout the coalfields, some are historic and some are local to the different British coalfields.
The Peckfield pit disaster was a mining accident at the Peckfield Colliery in Micklefield, West Yorkshire, England, which occurred on Thursday 30 April 1896, killing 63 men and boys out of 105 who were in the pit, plus 19 out of 23 pit ponies.
The Lundhill Colliery explosion was a coal mining accident which took place on 19 February 1857 in Wombwell, Yorkshire, UK in which 189 men and boys aged between 10 and 59 died. It is one of the biggest industrial disasters in the country's history and it was caused by a firedamp explosion. It was the first disaster to appear on the front page of the London Illustrated Times.
The Maypole Colliery disaster was a mining accident on 18 August 1908, when an underground explosion occurred at the Maypole Colliery, in Abram, near Wigan, then in the historic county of Lancashire, in North West England. The final death toll was 76.
The Cymmer Colliery explosion occurred in the early morning of 15 July 1856 at the Old Pit mine of the Cymmer Colliery near Porth, Wales, operated by George Insole & Son. The underground gas explosion resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country" in which 114 men and boys were killed. Thirty-five widows, ninety-two children, and other dependent relatives were left with no immediate means of support.